Mom, I Want to Take Parkour.

She has been asking for parkour lessons. What does my little kiddo need parkour lessons for? She is parkour (actually closer to free running but I will get to that). A constant mover and thinker who has never moved through space in a straight line, I proceed to tune her out as goes on about how she can't move forward in life without lessons.

I reminisce back to her flipping through the handrails at SkyTrain stations, somersaulting over rails at bus stops (with all the onlookers who getting a kick out of watching her). I visualize the long hang kip's (I had to look that up) on the bars at parks, the double pirouette she mastered this year and the triple she did at school. I go back to the bouldering camp she participated in when she was eight, the rock face she climbed on the last day in Squamish and the transferring of those skills to other surfaces in our day to day life. I recall her three years in gymnastics and how we have been active and outdoors everyday of her life. I cringe at the blisters and bandaging she accumulated on her hands through childhood as she learned to flip herself over and over on the monkey bars. I bring back the image of her climbing the concrete storefront while waiting for pizza with G-Mac... (G-Mac would never stop talking about how she admired me allowing my kiddo to climb. "So many parents pick at their kids and don't let them go that far. I was so impressed by how you let her just climb -- and seeing this little thing move around and the things she could do!") From youth to teen, I have enjoyed watching her move past boredom and complaining on walks to attacking every surface we go past. This week I got to witness her do a corkscrew through the air... Where in the heck did she learn that?

So... What is parkour, really? Essentially, parkour is efficiently getting through a space; free running is creatively getting through a space. The latter is more in alignment of what she does and what I need to nurture in this human. She is fully engaged in life, filled with curiosity and has little  desire to stay still. From where she is learning to corkscrew through the air I do not know, but my role is to simply keep putting her in environments where she can challenge herself and feed the seed. Here is one of my new favorite places to play:

 ...And here is a vid by Ronnie Street Stunts which answered my question, "other than a hot trend, what is parkour anyway?"

Parkour VS Free Running VS Tricking by Ronnie Street Stunts