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Home / Whanganui Chronicle / Sport

No hurdle too high for this group...

By Jared Smith, jared.smith@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
Whanganui Chronicle·
10 May, 2013 04:28 PM3 mins to read

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HAVE you ever looked at a wall, or stairs structure, and grumbled at the time it will take to climb or go around it?

The practitioners of parkour train themselves not to have that problem life is about getting from A to B via the quickest possible route and involves the leaping reflexes of an urban jungle cat, with the hand speed of a spider monkey.

Fight Fit gym trainer Adriaan Schipper has been running a parkour training group for nearly a year in Wanganui and is planning a big "jam" on their anniversary weekend of July 26-29, where some of the best from around the country will be pushing themselves up and over town landmarks.

"There will be free runners, maybe some 'trickers' as they're from Palmerston North," Schipper said. "We just troll around."

Wanganui is the perfect urban setting because everything is so close.

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Starting from Majestic Square all the structures they will use are five minutes' walk, whereas in Auckland there would be a lot of driving needed.

"We can spend a whole day training," Schipper enthused.

The likes of Terrace House, the steps leading up to War Memorial Hall, the old entrance to Cooks Gardens all are perfect for the skills of running, vaulting, crawling and climbing while using precise speed, strength and timing.

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"It's efficient movement over obstacles," explained Schipper.

Parkour is fitness and movement designed for every day situations that require "reach and escape".

Learning to quickly leap full-body over high structures or throw themselves upwards to grab hand-holds, Schipper said parkour trainees had to develop their bodies, with confidence being the key factor.

"You can't do it unless you're willing to give it a go. After a few years, that's when you get to the big stuff."

For those of us a little more couch bound, "big stuff" is the death-defying leaps and flips from one tall structure to another the type which thrilled film audiences during the famous chase scene of the James Bond movie Casino Royale in 2006.

Frenchman Sebastien Foucan, who performed those stunts, is regarded as the head ambassador of parkour, although Schipper is quick to emphasise the difference between the "flips and stuff" side of the discipline and what he teaches the free running, youthful movement training popularised by Foucan's compatriot David Belle.

Schipper runs his classes on Friday nights at Fight Fit, alternating between skills and conditioning sessions. His next crash course for beginners starts on June 1.

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