Local freerunner to host eight-week parkour camp (with video)

Live Blog Ironman Chattanooga 2014
 

IF YOU GO• What: OurParkour parkour camp for students• When: 3 p.m. Thursdays, Oct. 2 to Nov. 20• Where: St. Peter's Episcopal School, 848 Ashland Terrace• Eligibility: St. Peter's students in third through fifth grade• Admission: $60A BIT OF BACKGROUNDAccording to Parkour Generations, one of its first organized groups of practitioners, parkour was created in France in the 1980s. Then known as Art du Deplacement -- "The Art of Movement" in English -- the discipline focuses on training in attributes required for effficient movement, including speed, spatial awareness, balance, strength, precision and endurance. It is most commonly practiced in urban settings, in which practitioners learn to navigate around, over or through common obstacles such as concrete barriers, gaps between buildings and railings in the most fluid way possible. Throughout, they attempt to maintain their momentum, executing techniques in a smooth, continuous flow.MORE ON PARKOURLearn more about parkour and opportunities to practice it locally through the Chattanooga Parkour Freerunning Facebook page at Facebook.com/chattanoogaparkourWATCH ITView a video showing Ethan Young and other parkour practitioners demonstrating their skills in downtown Chattanooga at Youtube.com/watch?v=_CXq5rOlkyQ#t=30.

photo Ethan Young jumps platforms on a parkour course at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
photo Ethan Young vaults over a box on a parkour course at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
photo Ethan Young backflips off a box on a parkour course at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.

Even while sitting seemingly at ease, his legs splayed to either side of a park bench, being at rest is an unnatural look for Ethan Young.

After six years studying the athletic discipline of parkour -- also known as freerunning -- the lithe, 29-year-old Chattanoogan is only truly in his element while engaged in a kind of extreme ballet, leaping gaps between buildings, bounding over walls and balancing atop railings in one continuous stream of movement.

Like many who have studied parkour, which focuses on efficient navigation of urban environments, Young says he no longer sees himself or the world around him the way most people do. Even when he's not in motion, he says, his mental gears are still turning.

"When you get into parkour, you start to realize that you're no longer limited to the traditional means of transportation or getting from point A to point B," he says. "Instead of just walking on a sidewalk, if there's a rail next to it, you hop up and balance across.

"Once you've acquired that base language of movement, you're able to see the world differently and start exploring."

To those whose only exposure to the sport is through the breakneck chase sequence from opening of the James Bond film "Casino Royale" or YouTube videos filled with leaps and flips between -- or off -- buildings, parkour may seem like so much urban daredevilism. If practiced properly, however, Young argues that it's not only a safe activity but one that has numerous physical and mental benefits.

Starting Thursday, Oct. 2, Young hopes to help a new generation of practitioners reap the benefits of freerunning through a prototype parkour camp for students at St. Peter's Episcopal School. The eight-week camp, which will continue through Nov. 20, is the brainchild of Young and Sam Parfitt, St. Peter's 24-year-old, British-born athletic director.

Since joining St. Peter's staff in 2013, Parfitt has expanded the athletic program to include many nontraditional, international sports, such as cricket and lacrosse. He even offered a nonmagical interpretation of the wizarding sport of quidditch from the "Harry Potter" novels.

While living in London, one of the hotbeds for parkour in Europe, Parfitt noticed how it was built on a foundation of skills such as balance and coordination that were beneficial to many athletic disciplines. Last year, he looked up local parkour practitioners -- also known as traceurs -- found Young, and the two began formulating a plan to create a parkour program for children.

During the camp, Parfitt will focus on coaching students in grades third through fifth in fitness fundamentals such as proper breathing and sportsmanship, while Young teaches parkour-specific movements such as rolling and precision jumping between objects.

Young -- who received A.D.A.P.T. (Art du Deplacement and Parkour Teaching) certification to teach parkour in September 2010 -- says mastering the discipline is a matter of continuous repetition of techniques, mental fortitude and learning to accurately gauge one's physical ability.

Even if the students don't become lifelong traceurs, Parfitt says, studying parkour will make them better athletes, period.

"You have to learn determination and self-discipline and focus and how to push yourself," Parfitt says. "I think it gives you ... the ability to learn about your body and learn to be healthy and to move smoothly.

"It's fun because it's noncompetitive, but it gives you all the skills to be competitive because you have to learn to motivate yourself and do things you're not necessarily comfortable with."

The St. Peter's camp will serve as a testing ground for Parfitt and Young's program, which they say they hope eventually to expand, first to other private schools where insurance issues are less of a roadblock than at public schools, but their ultimate goal is to take parkour to public schools and community centers.

St. Peter's Head of School Meredith Ruffner says she initially was skeptical to the idea due to her unfamiliarity with the term. She grew to embrace it, however, after Young and Parfitt brought her research, discussed parkour's merits and showed her that it could be practiced safely in a controlled setting.

As a relatively unknown sport, parkour's mystique adds to its appeal, Ruffner says, and the fact that it's not well-established also should lessen its intimidation factor.

"We have a lot of good athletes here [at St. Peter's], but they've grown up on the soccer field or the basketball court," she says. "This is something that's new to them, so everyone is starting at the same level. Everyone is starting new and is working to improve."

During the camp, Young and Parfitt will set up courses or "sequences" on St. Peter's athletic field to test students' skills by replicating obstacles that parkour practitioners face in the urban landscape. There will be vault boxes of various heights for practicing precision jumping, agility ladders to build up coordination and interconnected piping to vault over and swing under. Some of the gear is being provided by Tenacity Adventure Fitness, a gym in Tracy City, Tenn., where Young has been coaching bimonthly parkour classes since July.

photo Ethan Young vaults over a rail on a parkour course at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.

Unlike more traditional sports, the camp's participants will need to purchase no additional equipment, but Young suggests wearing a set of flat-bottomed shoes with minimal padding and grippy soles. Because of the low-cost of entry, Young and Parfitt says they see parkour as an ideal sport to introduce to areas where families can't afford to pay for expensive accoutrements such as helmets, padding or rackets.

And, because of its core principles of self-improvement, parkour is fundamentally noncompetitive. There are no goals to score, no races to win. Parkour practitioners are taught to work within and eventually expand their own physical limits, perfecting their own skills rather than comparing them to others.

"It's about knowing what you're capable of doing based on the experience you have," Young says. "You're never just throwing yourself out there, hoping you can make it."

Helping students learn more about themselves and building their confidence are two of Young and Parfitt's key ambitions for the camp. By the time they finish, Parfitt says, the students may not be doing backflips off parking garages and clearing fountains in a single bound, but they'll hopefully have gained insights into themselves and their place in the world.

"I want them to see the beauty and potential in every moment," he says. "I want them to realize that you can affect the world positively with what you're doing with your body and how you're thinking about your movement.

"If I can get the kids to feel that for even one moment, that's going to be worth it."

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.

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