What is Parkour and Why Should Kids Do It?

Have you ever seen a bench or a picnic table around town and just wanted to jump on it? Perhaps your kids suddenly made a sprint and swung around a light pole. Those instincts are perfect for parkour. Kids love to jump around, and parkour teaches them how to do it safely and correctly. Instructors also show each student how to explore and control their potential with a smart, disciplined approach.

Parkour has a unique way of changing people's lives. The goal of parkour (also called l'Art du Deplacement) is to help that change be positive, progressive, lasting, and fun. It is one of the most fluid forms of exercise a person can get.

Parkour combines street-smarts and body-smarts. People who train parkour (a traceur or traceuse) learn to interact with the world around them by creatively jumping, climbing, crawling, and even rolling. It's a physical art form of natural movement that is completely unscripted.

Having a hard time imagining just what parkour is? This video will give you a great sense of it:

Although parkour got its start with a few friends in France, it has developed into its own global movement. You may have seen parkour in movies such as Casino Royale and The Bourne Ultimatum.

While it's sometimes known as an urban "sport", it is not really a sport, nor is it confined to urban environments. Parkour can be as unique as each person engaging with it - using your body's momentum, strength and redistribution of weight to propel you up, over or forward. The method features obstacle-course-like actions that challenge you mentally and physically.