Activity

Parkour is the practice of moving logically and creatively to get from a starting point, to an end point as quickly as possible. It includes movements such as: jumping, running, flipping, swinging, climbing, and rolling. It develops one’s ability to overcome physical and mental obstacles. This "sport" was developed from military training methods. For this reason, it is an extremely dangerous sport that should not be practiced without professional supervision.

Parkour is a form of outdoor sport. It is a popular outdoor sport in countries with hot climates. It is not as popular a sport in other countries, such as Canada, because of bad weather and long winters. In my opinion, it is very difficult to make it popular in these countries because this sport depends on moving very quickly from a certain point to another, so that it can not be played indoors as it would be played outdoors. If we want to play this sport in these countries we must make some changes to it like making some shows about parkour movements in public places by putting some obstacles and playing in front of the audience. This may help them to popularize it, and make people wait for the summer to see parkour’s players and their challenges.

My siblings and I used to do gymnastics, a more popular sport in most countries, since we were little kids. My son admired our gymnastics routines. He was interested in his uncle who was an Olympic champion. But unfortunately, my son never had the chance to join a gymnastics learning center since there were not any close to where we used to live in. At the age of 15, he met two friends at his school in Abu Dhabi with the same passion. My son is a parkour trainer. He got into parkour three years ago when he met a professional parkour athlete, he told my son that he can easily do parkour basics and can become a good athlete. He convinced my son to train with him. They spent long times training at the beach every other day in Abu Dhabi.They heard about a similar sport through the internet called "Parkour". They started watching YouTube tutorials and they tried to meet up with more people who are interested in this sport in order to improve and popularize this sport. A year later, my son and his friends would gather with a good number of people who later helped in creating a team called "UAE Parkour". Then companies began to sponsor them to perform shows.

When we came to Canada, My son couldn't complete training everyday because of the long cold winters. At this time, he is assisting at a gymnastics club doing community hours. And he has met a few people who do parkour too and they are planning to exercise together during the summer time. Now, after he became good at this sport, he feels that this sport makes him braver and stronger, and it gave him the ability to help others if they were in an emergency situations because he is light, fast, and flexible. He decided not to train parkour outdoors anymore because of the bad weather but he still performs in public shows, and last week he participated in his school talent show. I am very proud of my son and how Parkour has helped him develop into a fine young man through the physical and mental strategies he has developed through the sport of "Parkour".