Leaping from wall to wall and flipping over high fences in an urban area might sound difficult, but it’s beginning to attract athletes in the Ottawa community.
Parkour, or the “art of movement,” is a new sport being offered to teens through the Somerset West Community Health Centre twice a week until December.
The object of the sport is to get from one location to another in an urban area, using the quickest and most direct way by overcoming obstacles, such as walls.
“You never want to go back,” says Alexis Beaudry, a Parkour instructor at the health centre.
“If there’s an obstacle, you want to go over it; you want to learn to use your body more efficiently.”
Beaudry says that, instead of running up 20 flights of stairs, an athlete would climb or jump over a wall to get to their destination.
“You use the environment to your advantage, use your imagination, and apply your movements to it,” Beaudry says.
The sport was founded in France by David Belle, a stuntman, actor, and expert on physical education, and has since taken off in European countries.
Beaudry says Parkour is an action-packed sport that’s starting to emerge in commercials, and even films like the most recent James Bond movie.
There’s a small Parkour community across Canada, says Beaudry, but the sport has yet to receive much publicity since it’s new to the health centre. Only 10 people take part every week.
The group usually practices Parkour across the city, starting at the health centre, moving to Place Du Portage, and around the National Arts Centre.
Beaudry says he’s not sure how many kilometres the group runs, because in addition to leaping over walls and other obstacles, they also exercise on the spot in some locations.
Patrick Beriault started the program at the health centre to promote more physical activity in the Ottawa community.
After visiting France recently, he saw local teenagers from low-income families practicing Parkour around Paris.
“They didn’t have to pay any money and got physical activity,” says Beriault.
He says upon his return to Ottawa, he found that there were groups in Orleans who practiced Parkour and thought the sport would make a great addition to the Ottawa sports community.
Beaudry, who studies police foundations at school, says his fitness testing is easier now that he practices Parkour on a regular basis.
Not only does the sport promote fitness, but it also raises their self-confidence, Beaudry says.
“It boosts your confidence so high because you understand your body better, and you see things you can do that you didn’t expect you could do,” says Beaudry. “You trust yourself better.”
Parkour is also good for improving social skills, he says, because it’s a non-competitive sport where there are no teams and participants help each other out.
Caroll-Ann Villeneuve also started Parkour after it was introduced at the health centre.
Villeneuve says she’s always been interested in sports, and feels more confident now that she started practicing Parkour.
She says she likes how the sport incorporates the entire body, as opposed to just running.
“It’s a lot more physical,” she says.
Parkour is offered to 14 to 19 year-olds at the Somerset West Community Health Centre on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.