Jumping obstacles, doing flips, and the feeling of flying are all the things you experience while you parkour. Some of the students are doing all of these crazy things on a daily basis. They practice this art almost anywhere they can, but they usually go to parks and gymnastic Joe’s.
“All I feel when I flip is emptiness. You think before and after. But during it, you feel nothing. You just feel your body going around, kind of a weightlessness,” said senior Justo Herrera
Parkour uses various types of skills like vaulting, running, rolling, climbing, and jumping. Many of the students mix free running into parkour. Even though parkour is often mixed up with free running, they are two different things. Parkour involves more jumping across obstacles and clearing gaps. Free running is more spinning and flipping.
“ The few seconds I’m in the air, I feel like I’m flying. I have no boundaries,” said senior Walker Collins.
Parkour is often criticized because of people trespassing and using obstacles that are not created for parkour. Police officials are worried that these parkour participants are going to get seriously injured, even though no serious injuries have been reported relating to parkour. States have made efforts to make parks just for people to practice parkour safely and so they don’t bother anyone or trespass anywhere.
For senior Kevin Pianalto the one time he was injured was while he was making a video for T.V. Productions at the end of his junior year. He landed and slipped on water resulting in a busted chin. He was knocked unconscious, so he didn’t know that he bleeding. He woke up shortly and the nurse had a paper towel on his chin, and he had to get eight stitches.
Despite this injury, Pianalto wasn’t discouraged. He keeps parkouring and although he’s already mastered a three-step wall flip, he would like to accomplish a palm flip off the wall. Collins would rather learn a swing through cork (a cork screw with another cork screw) while Herrera would like to learn a 540 on the ground.
“It just pumps me up and gives me an adrenaline rush when I Parkour,” said Pianalto.
