Submitted by Austin Yin

Bio: Austin Yin, 14, is a traceur with the Highland Parkour Toronto group, who began seriously practising parkour just a few months ago. His goal is to someday be able to defy gravity, "backflips off the CN Tower, perhaps?"

My story: In my eyes, the use of parkour would be, "To get from point A to point B, as efficiently as possible." This is especially useful in the urban environment, where streets dictate which path you must take. But why run around a fence, when you can jump over it?

A friend and I had found some parkour videos on the internet a couple of years ago. We didn't actually pursue parkour until quite recently, when we realized that we were probably old enough, and strong enough, to try it. Since then, we try to get in a practice whenever we can, three or four times a week, although, there's rarely a rail I see that I don't practice on.

The reason I created my group, Highland Parkour Toronto, was because of the lack of any other in the immediate area. Parkour doesn't seem to be that popular in the suburbs of Toronto, and I'd like to see it expand beyond my circle of friends. Yet, I still think that parkour should remain somewhat low-key. This is because people get hurt without proper instruction, or if they go into it too quickly.

Besides, if everyone could scale a wall, it wouldn't be so impressive anymore, would it?



Often times, adults will look at you with awe and at the same time think: "These stupid kids are going to kill themselves." Younger kids are rather skeptical; probably thinking "That's not hard." But the last person who tried to imitate us, overriding our warning, did a face plant into the concrete.

The biggest challenge to parkour, more then the physical aspect, is the mental one. You have to really believe that you can actually execute this impossible move, or else be at more risk of hurting yourself. Going into a move with hesitation will likely result in pain. So if you're just beginning, start with the simple stuff, and save the back flips for later.

Parkour should be taken light-heartedly and without competition, because there is no "best." Satisfaction comes from the sense of self-accomplishment you feel after doing something new.

Meet you at point B.

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