By: Wenxin Yang

I’m one of the youngest Traceurs you’ll ever find at the University of Michigan parkour meet-ups. I’m also one of the ones who’s trained the longest. After 2 years, I’ll show you some insight into the world of Parkour through a child’s vision.

We are a technological generation. Most of the time, our words are put into some device and transferred to someone else to read, instead of spoken aloud. We are driven by inspiring articles and flashy videos from Youtube, Veoh, Metacafe, etc. Parkour is no exception. I can say that most of the kids today started practicing Parkour from what they saw on a video. Why? I believe it's because if we were to just tell a friend of Parkour, they’d think we were crazy. Only after watching a video would they be tempted, driven, to try it out. I started during the beginning of winter. Without anything to do, I searched for a new hobby. I’ve always wanted to learn how to do a backflip to show off and went to Youtube and looked up a tutorial. Instead, I saw a video called "Russian Climbing". I was amazed by the video to a degree I have never been amazed before. I looked through the tags and saw “Parkour.” I went on Wikipedia and read what Parkour was. That was the dawn of a new beginning.

It looks so easy in the videos doesn't it? Everything looks easy at first. I ran to the park nearest me and tried the first jump that I saw (nothing big). Easy. The second one, not so easy. So close, but so far. I just couldn’t get my feet to pump out strength or even move. When I actually got the guts to jump, I could only get one foot on point B. There was a lot more to Parkour than I thought. Some kids are immune to fear and getting hurt and go for it, but to me, that’s just dumb. I would never hurt my leg for a one-foot drop.

The winter was long and harsh. I pushed myself outside to train. I didn’t know what caused me to go outside in 3 layers just to punish myself more. Parkour has a mindset unlike any other that affects everyone who trains.

Mom always said when I loved something, I read everything I can about it before trying, and Parkour for me was no different... except for the warm-up part. I never warmed up. After 1 and a half-years later, guess what that gave me? Not tendonitis, not a messed up ankle, but tennis elbow. It put me out of commission for 3 months. In those 3 months, I did hard conditioning. Hard. After 3 months, I was so strong, except for my left arm. It hung there like a dead branch. Warm-ups! You've got to do them! Childhood does not equal invincibility. I have had several incidents where I over-trained and had pains in my back and shins. I gave myself a break. I knew it wasn’t worth training in pain forever over one day of training till I drop.

We are gutsy. Especially in the years of adolescence. We try or are peer pressured to do the stupidest things. We go straight for the backflip 360 without even learning a proper drop if we want to. This is one of the greatest dangers of learning Parkour at an early age. We try things without any thought of how it might effect our future. Without learning the basics, we could be walking around with a cane at 25. If you don’t train and drill, but instead go out and try stunts without thought to technique or how your body will handle the impact, I don't feel that you can really call yourself a traceur.

After a many weeks of training, after gallons of sweat drained, after numbers of walls busted through, everyone gets stronger. Kids start out pretty resilient, and after training, we get stronger. Strength combined with fresh joints gives us an advantage over older practitioners with movements like precisions, vaults, and our small size can make underbars easier for us. However, since we are also shorter; large wallruns and far precisions are harder for us. We’ll grow up, and be back with a vengeance. I know I have. I’m a fairly tall kid. I’ve gotten a lot taller since I was 12. Over the years I’ve achieved previously impossible heights. Ten “foot” precision? No problem. That wall run? Got it. It’s the greatest feeling when you achieve something you have doubted you could do before.

Getting stronger for us isn’t easy. We have a hard time being self-motivated. Most of us quit after a while 'cause the going got tough (but for the kids who are reading this so far, this excludes you, you’re doing fine.). If you want to improve, cut off excess stuttering steps, you have to drill, drill, and drill. Repeat, repeat, and repeat. Only then, can you get better.

Our minds are fresh and we pick up on new moves really fast. We can’t always compare to other, older traceurs that have been training the same amount of time on the factors of speed, strength and flow (unless you’ve done martial arts and gymnastics, that’s a different story). After maybe 6 months, older practitioners will probably kong harder, jump farther, and maybe even balance better than a young traceur. I’ve been training for 2 years, and I watch the samplers of older 2 year traceurs. Their kong to precisions are massive, and their jumps can be like 10 feet wide, but mine are only maybe 3/4 of their distance. I know I’ve been conditioning as hard as I can, so why aren’t I an equal to them? It could be the fact that my muscles are still developing or some other biological reason. Our flow is another problem. I just can’t get that down. I know I’m only halfway there, But at least we can carry out our moves fearlessly. I guess I've just got to scrap some more money together to go to the gym to Kong and jump farther.

Some perks of being a kid is that we have endless energy. I’ve always said we suck it off from our parents. We are fearless and want to try everything. Fearlessness is a great aid in parkour, but can have its negatives. Without fear, that gap which has eluded you for so long is suddenly achievable if it’s within your physical limits. If it is out of your limits, then you are putting yourself in danger. Use common sense, be smart, and do not let your training career be short.

The great thing about parkour is the community. What other sport in the world can you just gather and have a great time? None! Skateboarding, no. Basketball? Your skills are going to be tested before you are going to be accepted, or not. When I first went to a jam, I had no one with me, I knew no one, but I felt belonged even though I was only half the age of almost everyone else there. It’s pure magic how strangers can just meet and train. I knew everyone was going through the same amount of pain I was from the warm-up (thanks, Travis!) and we were all trying to be better, stronger, faster, higher.

We are the future of parkour. We don’t know the consequences of training in parkour. We can only hope and train safe, be responsible and have fun. When I’m older, I’ll probably read this again and say to myself, “Phhf..10 “foot” precision? Way too easy.”

Display 2 of 2 comments