Heart pumping, adrenaline flowing, you step towards the edge of the building – looking down, you can see that everyone is watching your every move.

You bend your knees, about to take a leap that could possibly end your life. You finally take that jump and the feeling of freedom rushes through you. But before you land smack on the floor, you make a fancy flip and softly land on the floor.

Parkour is what this sport is called, and it has a few other names. There are many videos posted on Youtube.com with tags such as “Urban Ninja,” “Parkour,” and “Free Running.”

Parkour is still a somewhat underground sport, but it is slowly catching on. It is a completely physical, yet mental sport that requires both upper body strength to pull yourself up and lower body strength to run quickly and jump with explosive power, as well as mental prowess.

Parkour is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment, from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls, and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas.

Male parkour practitioners are recognized as traceurs and female as traceuses.

Many new practitioners do not know the main philosophy of the creation of the sport.

The philosophies of the sport is freedom, it can be practiced anywhere anytime by anyone. It can be used to relate to real life, to overcome obstacles and fears.

Out of the thirty people I have asked, only two people knew what parkour or free running was (One of the two was teacher, Driver’s Ed teacher Larry Merillion).

One of the big misconceptions of the sport is that free running and parkour are the same, but it isn’t anymore. It once used to be the same, but have differed in its philosophy. Free running has changed into an art that regarded true and complete freedom of movement as more important than efficiency.