Word: parkour
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...Parkour got its start in Paris two decades ago when a soldier's son and another teen began devising moves to quickly get from one point to another to rescue someone or escape in an emergency. The sport, sometimes called free running, has been seeping into American consciousness in recent years via upwards of 25,000 YouTube clips as well as more mainstream forms of entertainment. Tony Heinz, 19, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, says he told his parents last year that he had started practicing parkour, but they didn't really get what...
What would possess seemingly sane people to treat concrete walls like trampolines? To leap over handicap-access ramps like Donkey Kong? The answer is parkour, a jaw-dropping hybrid of gymnastics and cross-country running that is equal parts Spider-Man whimsy and hard-core stamina. The word is derived from the French term for obstacle course, and like it or not, U.S. college campuses are becoming hot spots for this exhilarating new breed of steeplechase--horse-free and adaptable to any setting. Google parkour, campus and map, and you'll find, among some 58,000 results, an annotated parkour...
Most college campuses, with their airy courtyards and often zigguratish architecture, are well suited for testing the bounds of sneaker-clad samurai and, at least in a few cases, their school's insurance coverage. Grisly parkour injuries--from broken face bones to a bruised liver--have been reported to United Educators Insurance, a major insurer of colleges, but so far, schools' liability exposure has been minimal. The question usually comes down to, Did officials know that students were jumping from high places? If so, did they try to restrict access to those areas? In October, Christopher Fu, a junior...
...handful of members who regularly show up for twice-weekly practices with the club he registered at his school last fall. Ryan Ford, 19, a business major at the University of Colorado at Boulder, set up a similar club in November. In three years as a traceur, as parkour people call themselves, Ford has had one notable injury: separating his shoulder last summer after his foot clipped a rail and sent him headlong toward concrete. But instead of face planting, he managed to keep rolling over. "I like to think parkour actually saved me from more serious injuries," he says...
...Parkour may be the ultimate sport for Ford and other devotees. "You need every athletic skill there is--endurance, strength, flexibility, balance, everything," he says. And there's no equipment required. "That's the thing about parkour," Ford says. "It opens your eyes up, and you're able to find something to do wherever you are." This semester the sophomore is doing an independent study with a biomechanics professor to assess the impact of various landing techniques and is teaching parkour classes at a local gym. Participants must sign a liability waiver that is "valid forever" and includes such boldfaced...