You've probably seen a person practicing parkour on social media without knowing it - people running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, leaping from wall to wall, and much more. That's Parkour!
But what actually is Parkour?
Parkour is a training discipline where one traverses obstacles by using movements such as
"running, vaulting, jumping, climbing, rolling, and other movements in order to travel from one point to another in the quickest and most efficient way possible without the use of equipment."*
Parkour's roots can be traced back to France in the 1980s. It is said that David Belle, known as the 'Father of Parkour', was inspired by his father who thought of combining military training, martial arts, and other movements. He then formed a group called Yamakasi, known for being the first Parkour practitioners. Although some say parkour's history is older than that.
Parkour then became well-known through pop cultures such as movies, video games and Internet videos. In 2016, it was officially recognized as a sport in the United Kingdom in 2016. The term ‘Parkour’ was first introduced by David Belle in 1998, according to Parkour UK. Parkour is also known as free-running and art du deplacement.
In Qatar, it's not yet that popular but more and more people are starting to be interested. This is why we reached out to Yousef AlMughrabi, a parkour athlete currently living in Doha to give us the low-down about his parkour journey and what the parkour scene like is in the country.
Yousef: I started training parkour 10 years ago when I was 15-years old. Parkour first captured my interest when I saw a movie called B13 which has a lot of parkour scenes. I then started looking for tutorials on YouTube and decided this is something I would enjoy learning.
Yousef: The Parkour scene in Qatar isn’t the best, but it’s slowly improving. There is no dedicated facility which I know of. In the last couple of years, I’ve been receiving more and more messages from people here who’d like to train with me. This suggests to me that the interest is there. I hope one day I can help open a training facility here so that people can try out the sport and see just how fun it can be.
Watch our video here!
Yousef: I do Parkour wherever I can. Parks, my neighborhood, it doesn’t matter. I’d even use a seemingly unremarkable feature like a staircase or a low ledge to practice.
Yousef: Yes. They are Double Kong, Precision Jump, and Cat Leap.
Yousef: Experience is important because it helps you recognize your limits. Inexperience may cause you to throw caution to the wind and end up hurting yourself. Training smart gives you longevity in the sport.
Yousef: I have no mentors in the sport but I do look up to a few people, namely STORROR®.
Yousef: I do coach privately. People usually get in touch with me through Instagram messaging.
Yousef: My advice is to play smart. Don’t be reckless. Avoid injuries best you can. Don’t be discouraged by slow progress, practice makes perfect. You don’t need anything special to get started. You can do Parkour no matter how old you are. You don’t need to do backflips and cartwheels, the point is to challenge yourself not anybody else.
Please train from a professional and never do parkour unsupervised.
Yousef: I see a bright future for Parkour in Qatar with plenty of training facilities for people to train in safely with the supervision of knowledgeable coaches.
Read more about the definition of Parkour here.
References: *Brittanica; Parkour UK
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Have you heard of Yousef AlMughrabi? What do you think of parkour and freerunning? Do you know of someone who’s got an exceptional talent or is making a difference in our Qatar community? Drop us a line in the comments below and you could see them highlighted in Qommunity Voices!
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