IF YOU GO• What: OurParkour parkour camp for students• When: 3 p.m. Thursdays, Oct. 2 to Nov. 20• Where: St. Peter’s Episcopal School, 848 Ashland Terrace• Eligibility: St. Peter’s students in third through fifth grade• Admission: $60A BIT OF BACKGROUNDAccording to Parkour Generations, one of its first organized groups of practitioners, parkour was created in France in the 1980s. Then known as Art du Deplacement — “The Art of Movement” in English — the discipline focuses on training in attributes required for effficient movement, including speed, spatial awareness, balance, strength, precision and endurance. It is most commonly practiced in urban settings, in which practitioners learn to navigate around, over or through common obstacles such as concrete barriers, gaps between buildings and railings in the most fluid way possible. Throughout, they attempt to maintain their momentum, executing techniques in a smooth, continuous flow.MORE ON PARKOURLearn more about parkour and opportunities to practice it locally through the Chattanooga Parkour Freerunning Facebook page at Facebook.com/chattanoogaparkourWATCH ITView a video showing Ethan Young and other parkour practitioners demonstrating their skills in downtown Chattanooga at Youtube.com/watch?v=_CXq5rOlkyQ#t=30.
Ethan Young jumps platforms on a parkour course at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.
Ethan Young vaults over a box on a parkour course at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.
Ethan Young backflips off a box on a parkour course at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.Even while sitting seemingly at ease, his legs splayed to either side of a park bench, being at rest is an unnatural look for Ethan Young.
After six years studying the athletic discipline of parkour — also known as freerunning — the lithe, 29-year-old Chattanoogan is only truly in his element while engaged in a kind of extreme ballet, leaping gaps between buildings, bounding over walls and balancing atop railings in one continuous stream of movement.
Like many who have studied parkour, which focuses on efficient navigation of urban environments, Young says he no longer sees himself or the world around him the way most people do. Even when he’s not in motion, he says, his mental gears are still turning.
“When you get into parkour, you start to realize that you’re no longer limited to the traditional means of transportation or getting from point A to point B,” he says. “Instead of just walking on a sidewalk, if there’s a rail next to it, you hop up and balance across.