Parkour is the art of trying to get from point A to point B as fast and efficiently as possible using your body to get over any obstacles, said Austin Schopper, senior secondary education major and avid parkour participant.

However, parkour also has a life philosophy that trainers follow. Schopper said that trainer is the correct term for a person who does parkour because that acknowledges that there is both a physical and a philosophical aspect.

“When you limit parkour to just physical than you ignore the philosophy side of it,” he said. “You use whatever you have at hand to try to overcome obstacles in your personal life. I have a lot of problems with math. I just have to take every resource that the college gives me to overcome that obstacle.”

Other trainers said that while parkour is extremely physical, there is a lot more than just jumping off of things.

“If you just run at a wall, you’re going to run into a wall,” said Nathan Brown, senior English education major. “You have to think about every body movement that you put into it. You are constantly thinking of what you are doing.”

According to Schopper, parkour started in the 1980s in Paris when a group of teenagers got bored.

“The founder’s father worked in the military and part of their training was to do parkour,” Schopper said. “After his father taught him, (the group) took it further and started applying it to everyday activities.”

Scopper said that parkour means “obstacle course” in French.

“To me it’s a like a martial art,” he said. “It’s kind of a personal thing but it’s like any other exercise or sport you might be involved in. I use it to try to better myself physically.”

Although there is a large physical component, Schopper said that anyone can participate.

“Nobody starts being a professional,” he said. “I’ve worked with people that were not physically fit at all and I’ve worked with people that are in the best shape that I’ve ever seen. It’s really for anybody. You just have to know where you are at and where you are comfortable starting with. There is no minimum level that you have to be at.”

And parkour can be done almost anywhere.

“If you are willing to get creative with it there is really nothing that is off limits,” Schopper said. “You get people that will say that they can’t come up with anything to do but you just have to get creative.”

Sometimes their training can draw a crowd.

“A lot of people gather when we fall,” Brown said. “When we do it on campus, the people that live on campus will watch for a little while. If we are doing something extremely dangerous they will watch for a little longer. If they are interested they are interested. If they are not they are not.”

Both Schopper and Brown have different reasons for their interest in parkour.

“I do it because I like to see how far I can push myself and where my limits lie,” Schopper said. “To me it’s almost religious. I feel like you are given this body and if you don’t use it then you are spitting in God’s face.”

The skills that Schopper has gained from parkour are unique.

“The hardest move that I can do it a double kong,” he said. “A double kong is a vault where you have to push yourself off with your hands twice.”

Brown has also gained some interesting skills from parkour.

“I can wall run,” he said. “I can probably go up to 10 feet in length. I’ve gotten to the point where I just coast. It’s not something you can just do.”

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