Early on a Sunday morning at the Anna Nagar Tower Park, it’s not uncommon to see people work out together. Some walk (or stroll), a few run, and others practise yoga. But in the amphitheatre, there’s something different going on.
Chennai Parkour has organised its first-ever women’s parkour jam, bringing together women from across all their classes.
While their number is small — 18 to 20 of them out of perhaps 100 practitioners in the city — they’re an enthusiastic lot.
As the event isn’t a full-fledged training session, they vault, land and practise bar and wall techniques as well as simple jumps, just for the fun of it.
Siddharth Ravishankar, president of Chennai Parkour, says that there are many misconceptions surrounding the sport, especially when it concerns women. “It’s not just about jumping from one building to another. A lot of practice goes into it. To reach a point where they can jump across buildings, they practise thousands of jumps, starting from as small as a single stair,” he says.
It’s largely considered a male bastion, but women are making their presence felt, he adds, and this is something they would like to encourage. It does draw attention when a group of women starts jumping over railings, crawling up jungle gyms and shimmying up trees in a public park. Many stop and stare, intrigued by what’s going on.
The women themselves are unabashed: one of them jumps repeatedly over a bench, perfecting her technique.
When she missteps and tumbles down, she picks herself up, dusts off the sand, laughs, and starts again.
“It takes a lot of patience. There are no instant results in parkour, and it can take three to four years of dedicated classes to become good at it. But the advantage is that each person can advance at their own pace,” explains Siddharth.
It’s also more of a fitness regimen than just a sport, as most of their classes focus on strength training.
“About 60 to 80 per cent of each session focusses on building strength using body weight exercises. It’s very different from the kind of training you could do in a gym while lifting weights. Here, it’s about getting in tune with your body,” he says.
For details on classes in the city, call 99626 96859, 98846 88074 or 90251 15444.
