The rings, the balance beam, the bars, and the pummel horse are a few of the pieces of equipment at the disposal of a gymnast. Traceurs, those who practice parkour, have a much less finite list of equipment.
Parkour, originating in France, is the sport of overcoming obstacles as efficiently as possible, involving moves bearing close resemblance to gymnastic stunts.
Collier Trager, junior, took up parkour last summer, and said the world around you is the “gym” of parkour.
“Parkour is an art of motion with the things surrounding the person,” Trager said.
Trager said he found that his prior gymnastics skills were helpful as he began to practice parkour. Trager said the gym is certainly not the only place to practice parkour.
“I go to playgrounds,” Trager said. “Pretty much anything works. Even grass, trees, on top of buildings.”
In fact, parkour professionals do advance to the level of traversing buildings and walls, but Trager said the gym is a good place to develop skills before attempting stunts in these environments.
“There are ways you can do it without getting hurt,” Trager said. “It’s dangerous if you don’t have any skills. You just have to know your limits.”
Trager practices parkour at open gyms at XCEL Gymnastics in Chesterfield, where he also works.
Trager discovered parkour on YouTube, and said he frequently picks up moves from watching professionals’ videos. Though the sport is growing, Trager said parkour takes a backseat to gymnastics in popularity.
“[Parkour] is growing,” Trager said. “But gymnastics is obviously dominant. It’s more safe.”
Trager said the basic moves of parkour – the flips and vaults – aren’t terribly difficult on their own with a decent gymnastics background.
“When you can do combos like a flip and then a vault, it gets more difficult,” Trager said.
Parkour for Trager is “more of a hobby,” Trager said. But the sport has a commercial face as well.
Trager said he would compare parkour to skating, with a lot of the emphasis placed on clothing and the image of the sport.
“Skating is all clothes,” Trager said. “Parkour can be like that.”
Trager said he plans to continue parkour, and there is a lot of room to improve on his parkour skills.
“I’m always working on stuff,” Trager said. “I can’t even compare myself to professionals.”
Levi Meeuwenberg is a professional in parkour, and has fashioned the sport into a career in Los Angeles. Like Trager, Meeuwenberg discovered parkour through watching videos on YouTube.
“Basically some of my buddies showed me some of the videos of the professionals in France,” Meeuwenberg said.
That was in 2003. Since then, Meeuwenberg has been casted for a number of commercials and performances for big-name companies like AT&T, Toshiba, Ford and Comcast. He also appeared in the NBC show “Chuck,” and in “The Forgotten” on ABC.
Kiefer McComesky, junior, has been practicing parkour for two years, and said he was inspired by the video game “Assassin’s Creed.” He had no prior experience with gymnastics prior to taking up parkour.
“It’s an art form, really,” McComesky said. “Overcoming obstacles by becoming one with each obstacle.”
McComesky said parkour is a growing sport in practice and in the media, but a lot of people “just do it to look cool.”
“That’s not real parkour,” McComesky said.