Here’s what Chennai’s parkour community is up to 

When you think of parkour, scenes of people scaling rooftops and leaping through walls might come to mind. But that is not all parkour is about, it is a way of life, says the parkour community in Chennai.

At a park in Indira Nagar, members of the Parkour Circle begin their regular Sunday morning practice by tackling various obstacles. “Parkour is all about being comfortable and efficient in your environment. It engages and develops all the senses in the body,” says Prabu M, who has been running the Parkour Circle, mostly outdoors. For him, the introduction to Parkour began with a video clip from a French film ‘District B13’ on Orkut in 2004.

“This community has grown but also waned, as parkour started to take a hyper-masculine image. But now, with conscious efforts to collaborate with other art forms like theatre and dance, it is more inclusive and bigger than before,” says Mr. Prabu, who also works with children with intellectual disabilities, helping them learn parkour.

Meanwhile, at the indoor parkour sessions in Ekkattuthangal, early on a weekday morning, a young crowd gathered at Chennai Parkour practising Kong vault. “People often think parkour is dangerous and only for the young, but what they don’t see is the foundation of building strength, flexibility and mobility for the first six months,” says Vignesh Raghavan, professional parkour practitioner and senior coach at Chennai Parkour. “Only then, we introduce the more intense techniques. When done right, parkour is safe and for people of all ages,” adds him.

Seeing the crowd in their 20s and 30s who have largely been making use of the parkour facilities in Chennai, it is the children now joining the queue. Radhika Kannan, whose 8-year-old daughter Mahika says parkour is a lot of fun, and attends Chennai Parkour classes. “My daughter was always jumping around the house, and we thought that parkour was something she would enjoy, and a dedicated parkour training centre was safer. Even though she was hesitant to try all the moves at first, she started enjoying the classes a lot, especially as more children have been joining in. The facilities are safe and the coaches take good care of the students,” she says. “What I have noticed is that, along with her physical strength, her confidence has improved tremendously. Now, she is happy to do any adventure activity, without fear holding her back,” she adds.

Ashwath, a 36-year-old management accountant and parkour practitioner for 15 years with the Parkour Circle, started this only to flex among his peers, but it has become his whole lifestyle today. He says the community in the city is livelier currently, because more people are seeking a break from their monotonous routine. “Here, you don’t compete against each other, it is about working on yourself, and parkour indeed makes me mentally strong, not just physically,” says Mr. Ashwath.

Stereotypes still persist

When it comes to outdoor parkour, the presence of practitioners in public parks often felt like an unwelcome guest, mistaking it for reckless play. Moreover, Mr. Prabu points out a cultural stigma when it comes to women training outdoors. “When you search for parkour online, what shows up are intense stunts, but we teach parkour as a more grounded practise. It is a constant challenge we are trying to break,” he says .

“There are a lot of women who wish to join, but they are often held back by families who see parkour as something too risky, and they are nudged towards conventional gyms,” adds Mr. Raghavan. As this senior coach was training the members, he says parkour is never about rooftop jumps, which only a few adrenaline-seekers chase but always about using both your environment and your body to move efficiently!