There is an article today on the BBC website about a sport that is emerging in the UK called Parkour.  The “field of play” is the urban landscape, and it is a mix of running, climbing, and gymnastic movement.  I checked out a couple of the links in the article and found that the culture arount Parkour is very similar to climbing, and the various aspects of training are very similar.

Back when I was a full time climber, I had a healthy appreciation for movement.  Everywhere we went we were practicing our art.  Whether we were at the gym, buildering around Kingston or out on the rock, we were obsessed with movement. 

My brother Eric and I, trained and trained and trained, and the more we trained the more we came to the realization that if you were strong enough you just had to figure out the moves and you could get through almost any problem.  Parkour seams to be similar in this respect.  Practice, mental training, and physical conditioning were the keys to success. 

I miss this type of movement.  Sailing has some of these moves; rolling the boat through tacks and gybes, moving weight to react to the wind, and occasionally monkeying around in the rig have the same sort of feeling.  But it lacks the dynamic movement and body tension of climbing and Parkour.

There is something very zen about it.  When you first start these sports you think too much, put too much effort into things.  When you slow down your brain, visualize how it is going to work, and then allow yourself to totally concentrate on what you are doing, you find the groove.  Sometimes you do a move and go “holy crap, did I just pull that off!?!”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 5:39 am and is filed under General Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.