Philippine Parkour and FreeRunning

Posted by Ian Galliguez in To Do | 11 comments

If there’s one thing that I can’t do to save my life, it’s dancing. I seem to have been born with thirteen left feet that have been divided into two groups. It’s pretty similar to watching an elephant dance the ballet in a China shop. It’s that pathetic. So, if one cannot dance, one cannot even think of having enough hand and eye coordination to do Parkour. So, I’m left to just writing about it and watching them from a safe distance.

Photo from parkour.ph

Parkour or PK for short is half dancing, half acrobatic and all muscular discipline. It’s the art of moving and conquering obstacles in your way by using a series of jumps, tumbles, rolls and other body movement. It’s a pretty intense discipline and it requires rigorous training.

Parkour can be done on any kind of environment but it is more preferable to do it in an urban setting as it provides a lot of obstacles that the PK practitioner can utilize. It’s almost like watching some sort of dance – half violent and half enthralling.

There’s no need for any special equipment but it helps that you use comfortable trainers/sneakers and if you’re doing it for the first time (although it’s not really recommended), some gloves.

Here in the Philippines, there’s a group that trains and welcomes PK enthusiasts. The Philippine Parkour and FreeRunning Association welcomes those who would like to understand and learn PK. They conduct regular jam sessions (what they call their training sessions) and gladly teaches those who are first timers. Visit their website here.

Don’t worry about looking like a total klutz. Nobody gets it right the first time and you’re all allowed room to make mistakes. To find out how they conduct their training sessions, watch the video below.