Parkour - Urban Freestylers
i had the opportunity to catch this UK-based Parkour group filming an ad for Nokia yesterday and this afternoon. for those who don't know, Parkour is an extreme sport with roots in Europe where the emphasis is on "freedom". another term coined to describe Parkour is "urban freestyling".we decided to do some PR for this group and pitched to the straits times life!, men's health and shape magazine to go down to the shoot location and talk to the EZ, leader/choreographer of this group. EZ is a really cool guy, pretty seasoned pioneer of this sports form and through the interviews, i found out that he is a really pragmatic dude.
EZ used to be a professional boxer before he got married and decided to move into something less dangerous. and this guy is all about safety and common sense and practice. a lot of people have this idea of Parkour groups jumping from building to building (proper term: gap jump), leaping across impossible obstacles and twisting/dancing through urban landscapes. but EZ insisted that the Parkour group developed together as a team and did so through constant practice and more practice. before they even consider doing a jump, they can spend up to a week prior just attempting jumps from basic level to intermediate to difficult level jumps.
he showed an analogy to the men's health journo by giving an example of training to jump from one stair railing to another. the Parkour person would start first by doing standing jumps and slowly move up stair by stair until he/she reaches the actual jump. by then the person would know instinctively, through practice, how and when to jump. really logical.
as a final point, Parkour is not limited to men only and as seen from the photos below are also for women. both genders go through the same type of foundation training as well as the same premise - practice, practice and more practice. photos below are slightly blur and not that well taken cos the girl doing the jumps was too quick.
posted by inspirethereal @ 10:31 PM
0 straight, not straightened:
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