Olive Escapes Into World Of Parkour
by Greg Lederer
New Craze Intriques Cheshire Teens
Herald Staff
Words like escape and reach have been
used to describe parkour,
a French discipline where individuals
seek to move thtough and around obstacles
at a fast and direct pace. It offers a level of
freedom for those seeking to break through
the constraints of their environment.
Cheshire teenager Alex Olive enjoys this
freedom and has spread the word about
parkour to local friends and people over
the Internet.
“You get freedom out of it because
you learn to not be confined by your sur-
roundings,” said Olive, who is heading into
his junior year at Cheshire High School
this fall. “You learn what you can and can’t
do early in the learning process.”
Participants, known as traceurs, focus
on constant motion and use skills such as
jumping and running to pass under, around,
and through objects. Olive heard about it
two years ago from his older brother and
has since spent time researching the disci-
pline, which was founded by Frenchman
David Belle.
“My brother went online and found the
main website dedicated to parkour. He
learned all the moves and took me to the
playground at McNamara (Park) to show
me how to do it, said Olive. “I’ve tried to
get other people involved in it ever since.”
Dan Kohan, another student at CHS,
is one of the people who Olive has intro-
duced to parkour and the pair have trained
together, over the last six months at differ-
ent playgrounds in town.
“It’s good to start with the easier things
because you can move up to more diffi-
cult moves,” said Kohan. “Bartlem Park is
a good place to practice this and you are
comfortable
that you won’t get hurt.”
Moving uninterrupted at fast speeds,
safety is one of the most important features
of parkour and traceurs often stress learn-
ing how to roll as a basic move.
“The roll limits impact on a drop so that
you can move immediately into the next
one. It’s important that you learn how to
land correctly without falling,” said Olive.
“I think McNamara was a good place to
learn because it’s small and you can use
the jungle gym to practice balancing and
precision jumps.” Courtesy photo of Alex Olive
Parkour involves a wide variety of Alex Olive demonstrates a strength move done in parkour move.
moves with variations in each allowing
trick moves for participants with Belle say- through a growing forum at the New Eng-
for creativity. Olive and Kohan often use
ing that they aren’t efficient motions and land Parkour website
playground sites because the equipment
not parkour. With that exception, the boys (www.neparkour.com). This summer he
and railings offer opportunities for differ-
said there are endless moves to try out and was invited to participate
ent kinds of vaults.
keep participants busy with the discipline. in a documentary piece for the New Eng-
“It takes a mental game to learn the
“There are really no rules,” said Kohan. land Sports Network website in Boston,
moves and see how far you can push your-
“There is always something new to try Mass.
self,” Olive said. “Basically, it’s easier than
out.” “I met up with a couple people from the
you think because everyone jumps around
The climbing aspect has made urban ar- website and demonstrated
anyway as a kid.”
eas a popular training site for parkour and different kinds of runs for them,” said
The boys often focus on various leaping
Olive has taken the opportunity to experi- Olive. “We worked at this place called the
moves like the demi tour (a one-handed
ence Baby Pool in Boston, which was a lot of
side jump over an object), saut de detente
this at exhibition events in New England. fun because it allowed us to try a lot of dif-
(a two-handed jump to push off), and dash
Participants come together to try out their ferent moves.”
vaults to clear obstacles without touching
moves on walls and buildings at an indoor According to Olive, the discipline is
them.
complex. gaining support on multiple websites in the
There was a discussion over flips and
Olive often talks with fellow traceurs New England