Archive for the 'Fun and Games' Category

Like many others, I’ve been watching the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. It’s always amazing to see what feats humans are capable of when they are so focused on what they want to be good at.

The concentration, determination, muscular control, co-ordination, strength, and agility – sometimes supplemented by daring and audacity – make this a remarkable spectacle.

Of course there’s big money involved all the way, despite the reputation of the olympics as being for amateurs. The equipment, the coaching, the travel, the clothing, the accommodation, the facilities – it all adds up.

Not everyone has the opportunities that are available to these athletes, but that needn’t stop them from achieving outstandingly in their own niche.

One such niche is urban gymnastics, where daredevil teenagers choreograph death-defying manoeuvres in the setting of what appears to be an urban ghetto. With incomplete or decaying buildings as their props they scale walls, chimney gaps, leap onto tiny ledges, catapult themselves from one rooftop to the next, then jump to the ground in a multi-drop cascade of precision landings onto awkward walls.

It’s every bit as compelling to watch as the Olympic moguls. One can only admire the daring of these athletes, marvel at the hard work it must have taken to perfect their routines, reflect on how fortunate they are to remain injury-free (indeed, to remain alive!) and gasp at how they can tackle moves that you and I would assume are beyond human ability.

This kind of urban gymnastics, where one moves across obstacles almost as if they didn’t exist, is known as Parkour, and it’s not just sport – it’s an artform.

Watch this video and tell me you weren’t spellbound…

Want to see some more Parkour? It this was on television, it would no doubt include the catchphrase “don’t try this at home, folks!”.