My sons Darius and Javen are obsessed with freerunning, or parkour as it is known. So when they came to visit me during Spring Break, I searched on the web for parkour in Austin and ran into Matthew Lee Willis through my surfing.
More on Matthew in a second, but what is parkour? And why are my sons and so many others obsessed with this rapidly growing movement?
If you aren’t familiar, it may be tough to explain. Parkour is like gymnastics without a gym, skateboarding without a skateboard, and rock climbing without gear, all rolled into one.
Visually, it is reminiscent of those fantastical moves that Jackie Chan does in the movies – where he bounces off walls and slides standing up down a rail [Read more…]