bild

--FILE--Young Chinese men practice Parkour at an extreme sports center in Wuhan city, central Chinas Hubei province, 28 March 2009.....A new form of urban exercise is gaining popularity in China. Parkour, or Pao Ku in Chinese, sees participants jump, vault, and climb over obstacles in a fluid manner. Today, youngsters are usually exhausted from work and they do not have an outlet to ease their pressure. That is one of the reasons they learn Parkour, said Parkour practitioner Peng Jian, also founder and coach of Shanghai PaoKu Union. Parkour originates in France as a form of military training, but now the discipline has gone beyond that. Today, practising Parkour involves skills and techniques. For example, instead of simply climbing a wall, a Parkour practicer can perform the cat grasp or spin to leap over two walls. And instead of just walking a tight path, he can do the cat-crawl. These movements require some form of flexibility and physical strength. Everyone can jump as long as they are not afraid of dying. But it is hard to do it skillfully and look cool. It is a sense of art. There is no such thing as an easy or hard to execute action in Parkour, said Peng. The literal translation for Parkour means stylish running but it is more than just that. It is an art form for overcoming obstacles that are in the path by adapting ones movements to suit the environment. (KEYSTONE/AP Imaginechina/Li xiang wh)