James Bond was seen doing it in Casino Royale , Scarlett Johansson pulled it off with grace in Iron Man 2 , it was also used in the stunt scenes of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time . The rolling, vaulting, swinging, jumping and wall scaling part of a usual parkour routine is a lot more demanding and difficult when performed live by a group of agile men under the summer sun.
Parkour also means the art of movement. The aim is to move forward and overcome obstacles with fluidity, speed and dexterity. This non-competitive physical discipline of French origin can be practised in areas which provide a lot of obstacles. Though parkour is a celebrated sport in the west, it is yet to gain prominence in the country.
Inspired by Hollywood movies and video games, 21-year-old Arjun Reddy, googled videos on parkour and was immediately hooked on to it. With a small group of friends, he formed the Parkour Hyderabad group in 2007 and the group has been growing and active since then.
“To understand the core concepts of parkour, I started watching videos on Youtube and started practicing it on my own,” says Arjun Reddy. It was through pages on Orkut and Facebook that they started attracting more people.
“After watching a documentary on BBC and Casino Royale , I found out more on parkour. I learnt few moves from a couple of videos and started practicing at home. I realised that I was not doing it the right way, that is when I came across Parkour Hyderabad on Facebook and joined Arjun to get proper direction,” explains Aleem Quadir who is also a part of the bicycle and adventure club of the city.
An extreme physically demanding sport, most of the traceurs (parkour practitioners) need to have an athletic body and high energy. Apart from basic training, the traceurs need to devote sometime daily for physical exercises. “Due to parkour my reflexes have become very fast and I am more alert. I was the captain of the basketball team in my college that also helped me build my physical stamina,” says Vishnu Sagar, one of the first members of the group.
While Intermediate student and gymnast Keith Xavier adds, “While walking if I come across two stones, its not just ordinary stones for me but obstacles, I am constantly thinking how to overcome them in the best possible manner.”
A series of initial warm up exercises is followed by vaulting, rolling, jumping and wall scaling so that the body is in sync with the mind and the obstacles can be overcome with maximum efficiency and speed. “We jam once in a month because coordination among the members and availability of space is a problem,” says Arjun. Even though most of the jamming session takes place in Golconda Fort, he says the place is not safe for practice as the sport can lead to injuries.
“We need to jam more often to get the moves and coordination right and all of us can't keep going to Golconda Fort for practice. We tried practicing at the Necklace Road but the police did not allow us. We even asked permission to practice at the L.B. Stadium which is an ideal place for us. But so far there has been no positive response,” explains actor Chaitanya Krishna who is also part of the group.
Apart from infrastructure, the group also need some professional guidance. “If we can get some coaching from an expert apart from a proper place, it will make a lot of difference in promoting the sport,” says Arjun. He adds that none of the moves should be practiced without the right kind of guidance.
More information about the group's activities is available on the Facebook page of Parkour Hyderabad or email parkourhyderabad@gmail.com.
