Ada Lee Hoi-yee
At one tranquil night at an old public housing estate, a group of young people vaulted over a slab of stone within three seconds, and then they vaulted over the barrier back again, so much like ninjas. When someone could not finish the vault, Govad Wong Hofung taught him again with patience.
“Parkour is not about competing with others. We support each other in the group and we grow together,” said the 23-year-old parkour tutor and also a core member of the Hong Kong Parkour Association (HKPA) .
Parkour is a new sport brought to Hong Kong about two years ago. HKPA and HK Traceur, with 50 active members totally, are two major groups in Hong Kong at present. They both organise introductory training workshops for people interested in the sport.
The sport is about jumping over obstacles in the shortest distance with the shortest time. Benches, stairs, lower rooftops, fences and all kinds of tangible fixed objects in parks or public areas are important components of the sport. Players climb, vault, roll and balance themselves when doing parkour.
These actions require high physical strengths in their muscles. Fitness training is a major part, and naturally the hardest part, of their practice. Players train together and muster each other’s vigour up when they do sit-ups, push-ups and chin-ups.
“I find myself doing fitness exercises happiest when practising the sport. We are so exhausted when lifting our body up, but when we see that one of our teammates is about to give up, we prod each other into pushing our boundaries,” said Mr Wong.
“We sweat together, shout together, overcome difficulties together; and we grow together.”
Two famous motto of parkour- “be strong to be useful” and “to be and to last” -are philosophy for many traceurs (parkour players) of their lives.
With “be strong, to be useful” tattooed on his left arm, Mr Wong said, “we are trained to be very strong in parkour; with this toughness, we can help others.”
He added that the sport can help young people build self-confidence as they have to overcome physical and mental barriers. He also quoted an example in a foreign country that prisoners who had learnt parkour during their jail terms played the sport along the way when they travelled from one city to another, but none of them escaped even without any handcuffs. “I hope I can help people with parkour,” Mr Wong, also a youth centre worker, said.
“Parkour is a sport about endurance rather then force,” Mr Chow Ka-kin, another core member of HKPA, said, stressing the motto “to be and to last” can lead traceurs to continue playing the sport despite facing gruelling obstacles.
The sport also brings players different perspectives to the vagaries in life.
“Parkour players live parkour philosophy in their real life,” said Mr Wong. “When others see fences on the road, they would just walk pass them, but we see we can leap over it, swivel on it and do balancing movements on it.”
Mr Tim Yeung, a 23-year-old university student who has learnt the sport at HKPA for four months, said, “I feel so unbridled when playing parkour as I can see the world from new angles.”
Originated in France, parkour was spread to the world through the movie Yamakasi (2001), featuring the French parkour group Yamakasi, and the documentary Jump London (2003) .
Mr Wong said there is an unwritten rule in parkour that traceurs around the world should find local traceurs to jump round town and share stories when they are travelling.
HKTraceurs’ chairman Mr Joe Chan Chi-wing, a 27-year-old stuntman, learnt parkour from a South African Yamakasi member when that member visited Hong Kong.
Parkour has another name in French “Part du deplacemnt”, which means the art of displacement. Some players treat the sport as an art.
“I hope to find the art of movement by my own body. I started to focus on whether a movement looks good,” Mr Dicky Chan Kai-tak said, kept reminding starters in the HKTraceurs workshop to shape up their movements.
“The aesthetics of the movement is important in the sport,” he added.
As the sport requires players to have a high level of physical strength, Dr Cindy Sit, Associate Professor in Exercise and Health at the University of Hong Kong, worried about the sport’s safety
“It could be dangerous if youngsters are not well-trained and lack high levels of physical skills and stamina,” she said, adding that she considered parkour as a kind of physical activity rather than a sport.
Both groups agreed that they play the sport safely.
Mr Joe Chan said he is aware of the potential danger and is doing whatever possible to avoid injuries. Starters of HKTraceurs must train indoors before they can perform parkour outdoors.
The group has a weekly indoor training workshop in a sports centre in Tsuen Wan. Mats are a must for the workshop. HKTraceurs workshop requires starters to have good confidence in pulling off the move indoors before they can attempt to do it outside.
“Parkour is about efficiency, and efficiency includes safety,” Mr Chow said.
Mr Wong kept telling starters in the HKPA workshop to stop when they felt too exhausted or their muscles painful. “Otherwise, you will hurt yourselves,” he said.
Both groups said no major injuries had been encountered so far, but Mr Chow said minor ones such as scratches are unavoidable.
One of the HKPA workshops taught learners how to fall in a way that will inflict least hurt to their heads. After the three-hour workshop, no one was hurt, although many were exhausted, soaked in sweat.
Players of both groups said they were optimistic about the development of the sport in Hong Kong.
Mr Wong said sometimes even those supposed to chase them off, like the police, express interest in the sport.
“There was one time the security guards called the police, but when a policeman arrived, he asked for our contacts and he said he wanted to join us,” Mr Wong laughed.
Passers-by may find them strange. “They are adults but they climb walls, do they really think that they are Spidermen [i.e. Spiderman]?” said Mr Siu, a 40-year-old local resident passing by the park when the workshop was in hot progress.
Some, however, has become rabid fans. “I don’t think they are disturbing us nor are they catching our attention with noises,” said Ms Winnie Leung, another passer-by. “They are very energetic. I feel that they treat the sport very seriously. If my daughter wants to join them, I will let her practise the sport,” she added.
Mr Dicky Chan said, “Actually, many people in Hong Kong are interested in parkour. They like to watch us play it and may want to join us, but they are a bit backward-looking so usually, after some minutes of gazing at us, they walk away silently.”
Mr Chow agreed, “They need some more time before the sport flourishes.”
As a physical education teacher in a secondary school, Mr Chow has brought the sport into his school and he said it was quite well-received among students.
Both groups have performed for several commercial activities. Legislative Councillor Wong Sing-chi, who invited HKPA to perform during his election campaign in August, said the sport was a reflection of youth fitness, reaction and confidence, and he hoped the sport can develope further in Hong Kong.
Traceurs’s playgrounds in the city:
Empty space - a large flat ground is where they drill their moves
Small obstacles - small and short obstacles, like cars and fences
Tall walls - they can leap over walls about two metres tall
Gaps - real gaps and gaps between two imaginary lines
Drops - jumping from a higher to lower places
Tight space - very small space, like an alcove, or the space
between two walls in a passage