Parkour boys scaling dizzy new heights in West Kent

SOME passers-by may think the boys leaping around the children's playground and vaulting over wheelie bins are messing about and putting each other's safety seriously at risk.

But then they wouldn't know that the group is in training for one of the country's fastest growing urban sports – Parkour.

Parkour – or free-running as it is sometimes called in the UK – was born in the late 1980s in the concrete jungles of Paris.

Traceurs, the name given to people who practise the sport, can be seen in town centres across the country taking part in the craze which may shortly take over from BMXing and skateboarding.

The scene has grown and grown during the past 30 years with youngsters across Europe training hard with a view to taking part in events such as the World Championships in London earlier this month.

It has featured in television advertisements, music videos and blockbuster films such as the 2006 James Bond movie Casino Royale.

And it has now filtered into West Kent – where a group of 14-year-old boys from Skinners' School, in Tunbridge Wells, have started their very own Parkour crew and are looking to take it to the next level.

Skinner's School pupils Tom Guinane, William Halligan and Ben Cosentino got into Parkour two years ago with SPK's final member Luke Edwards after Tom saw some "amazing videos" on the internet.

Tom said: "I saw some videos and thought they were really cool so I showed them to the others and we went from there."

Their first tentative steps saw them trying smaller moves such as jumping over benches and skipping up walls.

As their confidence and strength grew so did the type of tricks they were doing.

They graduated to vaulting wheelie bins and synchronising the more advanced moves which they video recorded.

The foursome remained undeterred when Ben went through an injury-prone phase of dislocating his knee, pulling his back and twisting both ankles.

And now they are looking to take it to the next level, searching for a dedicated space to practise and a teacher to show them how to do it.

Parkour is a tough sport and certainly not for the faint-hearted. It requires physical endurance, critical thinking and a lot of training.

A typical session sees the group performing complicated stretches before they even leave the house.

They then practise balancing, doing basic vaults and strengthening their upper arms – using what's on offer in the immediate area in the best possible way – one example being the "best tree in the world" during their school lunch breaks to practise monkey grabs and swinging from its branches.

Ben, who lives in Kemsing, said: "Parkour is all about moving from one place to another, from A to B, in as quick a time as possible.

"Free running is similar but has a lot more flips in, where people are basically showing off more. We do a combination of both, but with more Parkour.

"Quite a few people around our school and town do it but I think we're the group that do it the most."

The four traceurs meet almost every day to hone their moves in spots across Tunbridge Wells, such as the High Rocks and on the Common.

Tom said: "We go out in Tunbridge Wells and up into London to practise, but there's nowhere really in Sevenoaks.

"What we'd love is a kind of skate park to practise in, especially for Parkour, just like they are building in Berlin."

Parkour is currently flourishing in the UK with various websites and message boards dedicated to the intricacies of the discipline.

Thousands of youngsters can be seen working hard to combine their brute strength with a graceful efficiency of movement – to emulate the heroes of the sport which for the boys includes Latvian star Oleg Vorslav.

When asked about their futures with the sport, all the boys said they would love a teacher to show them the moves.

William, of Hadlow, Tonbridge, said: "We wanted someone to teach us at school but no-one would volunteer.

"We'd really like someone to come and show us how to do the more complicated moves.

"Parkour is definitely an up and coming sport and we want to be a big part of it."

Do you take part in Parkour? Send us your photos and video clips to twreport ers@courier.co.uk

See videos of the boys in action at www.thisiskent.co.uk/tunbridgewells