Said to have been inspired by the movements of the indigenous people of Africa a century ago and having evolved into today’s human-rubber-ball acrobatics in the last decade, this discipline became quite popular when 007 action sequences and Nike commercials showed people running through streets, jumping and bouncing off walls, balconies and any other surface they encountered and landing as if nothing HAD happened after three-storey falls. Today’s version of the practice involves a set of moves that have been described as skateboarding without the skateboard, combined with a martial art–like philosophy of self-improvement. Canadian pioneering traceur (that’s the proper label for a parkour athlete) Dan Iaboni sees parkour as “feeling alive again,” a way of reclaiming our surroundings and being the opposite of sedentary.
The beauty of this sport lies in the fact that you can practice it anywhere, no special gear is required and there are no set style or rules. It does help to get some guidance from an experienced practitioner, but, overall, you can learn at your own pace and practice by yourself. You may want to start with some lighter “free running,” a related practice that is similar to parkour but lighter on the philosophy and somewhat easier to execute; consider it pick-up basketball to parkour’s full-court five-on-five.
Learning how to fall and land are both essential to parkour and a good way of not pulverizing your joints. To be a traceur, you’ll also need to stay fit and limber, so it helps to keep up your cardio work. On the spiritual side, keep in mind: “ya makási,” which in the Lingala language of the Congo means “strong body, strong spirit, strong person.”
Torontonians interested in the sport are lucky, since we’re said to have the largest traceur community outside of Europe. PKTO (www.pkto.ca), a Toronto and southern Ontario community, and Parkour North America (www.parkournorthamerica.com) both have websites offering how-to guides, videos and message boards. But in the end, the best way to get started is to get together with members of the community (local meets are also listed on the sites) and get in touch, literally, with the city around you.