I n the midst of a darkened Nageshwara Rao Park, a boy casually vaults over a cement post, no sweat. Another hangs from a set of monkey bars, while two girls flip themselves over steel railings. The rest of the visitors wind their way around the track, unperturbed. This a sight they’ve grown used to; the many twists, turns and forms of a sport called parkour.
Originally developed as a military training regimen and then emerging as an athletic discipline in its own right, the essence of parkour is simple, say Vignesh Raghavan and Vishal Kumar, core members at Chennai Parkour.
You try and get from point A to point B by overcoming a few hurdles in the most efficient manner possible, explain Vignesh and Vishal. It can be climbing over a wall, learning to roll or jump over a railing. The beauty lies in its creativity, they add.
Interest in parkour began to burgeon when enthusiasts began posting YouTube videos showing almost impossibly-fit people scaling buildings, vaulting over walls and jumping across terraces.
“Chennai Parkour started off as a bunch of boys who gathered in the park to watch parkour videos,” says Dr. Siddharth Ravishankar, a 28-year-old ophthalmologist and the association’s president, adding, “It began with us wanting to learn it, and then teaching the sport.”
From a group of 10 people who met in city parks back in 2009, today, Chennai Parkour has about 80 members and students.
Parkour Circle, the other city club, has 40 members. There are an estimated 10 or 11 teams in India in total, the latest of which is a small team just launched in Puducherry.
Overall, the number of people doing parkour in the country is a little over a thousand.
It may seem like a small number, but the fact is that thriving parkour communities exist in at least seven Indian states, estimates Delson Joy D’Souza of Chaos Faktory in Bangalore, which began in 2014 with 25 people.
Saying that it is difficult to estimate how many practitioners there are in the country, as there is no central association, and the parkour clubs in various cities are informal, he says that it has, however, quietly risen in pockets.
“We’ve been teaching it for more than two years, and it’s risen in nearly every urban space — Mumbai, Kolkata, parts of Assam.”
Parkour is commonly perceived as a daredevil sport ruled by a demographic of reckless, adrenaline-hunting youth. Baskar M. of Parkour Circle, however, asserts that it’s anything but that.
“There is no baseline for who can participate,” he says, adding, “There are the usual kids looking for excitement, but it also draws a lot of women. We have middle-aged people coming to us to learn as well... it’s bascially a sport for anyone looking to push his/her limits.”
Dr. Siddharth says, “We’re working hard to rid the sport of the stereotype that it is dangerous; we are not about seeking an adrenaline rush; we aim to become disciplined practitioners of this art.”
Parkour classes across Chennai train children as young as five years old, right up to adults in their 60s. A specialised routine is created for every student. Some people have a fear of heights, lack balance or speed, says the Chennai Parkour team.
They add: So, every group is given different attention and priorities. For the kids, it’s just about having fun, climbing and jumping around. For the older groups, it’s about fitness and staying agile; they’re not going to be attempting any of the big jumps or rolls.
Students of parkour in Chennai are a diverse gathering. They have one thing in common: they have all been drawn to the sport because of its uniqueness and emphasis on fitness delivered via a flexible regimen. “It’s a lot of fun,” explains Aditi Anna Kuriakose, who’s been training for a few months, “There’s no one way to learn a move. For example, when we learn how to crawl, we play a game of lock and key. Except, we crawl instead of running.”
Moving past what they term the monotony of a gym routine, many, like wedding designer Meera Ravishankar, credit parkour with giving them the chance to get in shape on their own terms, using their body weight to work on strength, flexibility and endurance.
“I wanted to work out in a space where I was breathing fresh air,” she says, adding, “You shape your body in the best way because you’re focussing on all parts,” she says.
A normal parkour workout is a gruelling two hours on average, and can be exhausting, says Venkat, one of Chennai Parkour’s older members.
“The first few days are the most physically demanding and that is when first-timers usually choose to quit. But, if you stay long enough, you will see yourself achieve extraordinary things you didn’t think you were capable of. After committed training, I have better balance and agility; I can even crawl on railings.”
With safety being paramount, they train extensively on basic moves for the first few months before the high jumps and horizontal leaps begin.
What they learn in classes builds strength and endurance, but it’s not just useful for an eye-catching photo-op or trending YouTube video. These moves can also turn out to be lifesavers.
“One of the first things we teach our students is how to roll when they fall, so they land softly,” says Vishal. “It came in handy when I had a bike accident; what we’d learnt helped me roll out of the fall without getting hurt.”
Slowly gaining momentum in Chennai, and across the country, parkour clubs have been drawing an increasing number of people over the past year, partly because of the buzz on social media and because of the anti-gym trend.
In addition to that, the sense of community keeps enthusiasts hooked, and draws in more people.
Meet-ups within the community and collaborations between different teams are taking place increasingly often. Parkour Circle is, in fact, set to host a performance parkour event in January, in collaboration with U.K. parkour team Urban Playground, as part of its ReImagine India project, ‘Indian Steam’.
With a growing following, Delson anticipates more of these gatherings next year. “It really is that kid inside you that draws you to the sport,” he says, adding, “People want to get fit, but they also want to have fun. They are finally looking beyond parkour as just a bunch of stunts and seeing it for what it really is: an art of movement.”
Learn Parkour
Parkour Circle: 9884897546
Chennai Parkour: 9962696859
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PARKOUR FACTS
Parkour became popular in the 1980s in France, though the approach goes back even further.
David Belle is considered the founder. After his stint in the army, he and a group of friends, who called themselves Yamakasi, began to practise parkour.
A person who practises parkour is called a traceur, which means tracing or tracing a path.
It is rumoured that Tiger Shroff’s parkour scene in Heropanti is the longest feature of the art form, in Bollywood.
Other actors who are good at parkour are Akshay Kumar, Vidyut Jammwal and Arunoday Singh.
