Parkour practitioners give a whole new meaning to the saying, "It's the journey, not the destination that matters."
From balancing across edges, climbing poles and jumping over stairways, parkour presents practitioners with atypical ways of getting from point A to point B in city settings.
For these urban monkeys, walking around the perimeter of a wall makes less sense than vaulting over it. Instead of seeing obstacles as deterrents, parkour presents tools and training to increase one's ability to move over, under, around or through any type of obstacle.
Beyond the physical challenges, parkour philosophy translates into day-to-day thinking too.
"It's about developing yourself by encountering obstacles and working through them in different ways," said Rafe Kelley, lead instructor at Parkour Visions in Fremont. "Beyond that it helps you develop a mindset to progress past obstacles of your everyday life, to surpass yourself."
Though parkour doesn't quite have the level of popularity that the practice does in France where it originated, the community is growing. Washington Parkour, a public forum to connect traceurs (parkour practitioners), started about five years ago with fewer than 10 people.
The community now has about 1,600 members and parkour's popularity in the Northwest led to the opening of Parkour Visions Gym, at 4216 6th Ave. N.W., last October. The gym now has 70 monthly members and the nonprofit organization has gained a stronger presence in the community by participating in cleanup and rebuilding efforts in public places.
"It's awesome. I can move so much faster than I used to," said Liz Crain, during her third class at the gym. "It's demanding, very physical. There's a lot of technique involved, and it's very empowering."
As part of the Wilderness Awareness School, Crain said parkour has helped her navigate the outdoors in ways she never did before. But parkour's not just for adventurous adults. As Kelley said, most kids want to climb and don't hesitate to try new ways to get around barriers, so parkour almost comes naturally to children.
"I think it's really fun because you get to jump around stuff," said 9-year-old Chloe Kearin, who lives in Queen Anne and has been taking parkour classes for few months. "It's pretty active and there's a lot of things you can do. And, I like climbing."
But parkour takes training, especially to reach levels commonly seen on YouTube with traceurs doing back flips off of bridges or leaping from rooftop to rooftop.
"We want people to understand it's a discipline of developing yourself; it's not reckless behavior," Kelley said. "It takes hard training. The goal is always to progress and stay safe."
With the principle of overcoming obstacles swiftly and efficiently just by using one's body, Parkour moves range from climbing, jumping to vaulting and rolling. But the principals of how to land safely and jump with good form are a couple of the key fundamentals. But most of it is mental.
It's about using the body as a tool to overcome obstacles, and learning how to manipulate the body to adapt to the surroundings.
"You're constantly learning things about your body," Kelley said. "You become extremely sensitive to how you move, what your body's capable of and, what you're afraid of."
Kelley emphasizes parkour can be practiced by anyone, and with time, traceurs gain better balance and grow stronger, faster, and more agile and coordinated. But before the vaults, leaps and climbs, parkour starts with opening the mind.[[In-content Ad]]
