Fear. Adrenaline. A scratch of a shoe against pavement. A flip off the wall. Another deep breath. Another skill mastered.
Parkour was founded in the late 80s and early 90s outside of Paris, France. Parkour is an acrobatic sport made up of running, jumping and climbing while navigating through obstacles quickly. Traceurs are the people that participate in parkour. It is now present in the United States, where students, even here at the high school, can participate in the sport by joining classes in Boston or towns nearby and meeting in groups of their own.
Junior and traceur Nate Lawson said that parkour is free-form. It is centered around individual training, but also allows for collaboration and friendly competition.
“We do a lot of small little games for warming up, like walking around the entire perimeter of a fence of a playground or see who can climb under three benches the fastest,” Lawson said. “We find challenges for ourselves, or challenges for each other.”
According to Director of Parkour Generations Boston Blake Evitt, parkour allows for personal growth beyond just physical strength and stamina.
“We do teach people cool movements and flips and tricks,” Evitt said. “I think the thing that we really teach is how to be better human beings and how to make a difference in the world and how to be strong, whether that’s physical or mental or kind of emotional or spiritual.”
Sophomore and former traceur Roland Plante said a lot about parkour is trusting in yourself as well, not just in your peers.
“There’s times when you were higher than the ceiling, and you’re just above concrete, but you trust yourself, and you know that you’re okay to jump across,” Plante said.
According to Evitt, parkour helps to take away the societal rules that limit teenagers’ and adults’ ideas and beliefs by giving them more opportunities to grow and have fun.
“I think a lot of times there’s pressure from parents or teachers or administrators or just society in general to do something just because that’s what we’re supposed to do,” Evitt said. “A lot of what we do is question why the rules are the way they are and also to try to make the world a more playful, active and fun place.”
Plante said that parkour opens the door to possibilities for skills and that he learned many new techniques through parkour.
“It’s very similar to gymnastics, but it’s more free form, like “laches,” which translates to ‘let go’ in French,” Plante said. “It’s swinging from one bar to another.”
Plante said the coaches have a big impact on trusting and understanding your limits.
“They try to help you figure out the furthest you could go is and they obviously teach you the stuff, but they also teach you about yourself,” Plante said. “They teach you how to push yourself.”
Lawson said he has still tried to keep in touch with his coaches.
“They’ve described it a lot like a wave,” Lawson said. “You need to catch the wave when it’s coming for motivation, or else you won’t get yourself to do a jump, and just don’t get in your head. They really encourage me to coach myself and really think, ‘oh, what can I do to make that motion more efficient?’”
Lawson said he formed strong relationships through parkour with his coaches and peers.
“The people that are really committed to parkour always have the similar mindset of confidence; getting themselves to push to the extremes,” Lawson said. “So, those are people that are really nice to spend time with.”
Plante said parkour principles can compare to other high school sports, such as running.
“For running, another thing that you learn through doing it for a few years is that, if you know how much time you have left to do something, it’s a lot harder to do,” Plante said. “If you know you’re halfway through with something difficult, it’s a lot harder to finish it than if you just go.”
Motivation, Lawson said, comes from his love for the sport.
“It’s really just so much fun, it’s more fun than anything else that I do,” Lawson said. “I could wake up feeling tired and just sit home and play video games all day, or I can keep working towards these goals that I know I have, and fulfilling these goals are more fulfilling to myself than anything else.”
