My Instead: I “performed” Parkour with my grandson Tyler on a dirt pile.
My grandson Tyler was hell-bent on
teaching me Parkour. I asked him what it was and his description was a bit
ambiguous at best. Then I asked him how he learned about it. He didn’t know. I
asked “Did somebody show you?” No. “Did you see it on TV?” No. “Did you see it
on YouTube?” No. “Did you read about it?” No. Tyler never did give me an answer
about where he discovered this wonderful discipline, but I let me show me how it
works anyway.
To anyone who does not know about
Parkour, here is Wikipedia’s encyclopedic
version of it: Parkour is a holistic training discipline using movement that developed from
military obstacle
course training. Practitioners
aim to get from A to B in the most efficient way possible. They do this using
only their bodies and their surroundings to propel themselves. Furthermore,
they try to maintain as much momentum as is possible in a safe manner. Parkour
can include obstacle courses, running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, rolling, quadrupedal movement, and the like, depending on what movement is deemed most suitable for the
given situation.
Then there is Mary’s version…
It was a Thursday night and Tyler
and I were having withdrawal symptoms…we needed to spend time with each other.
Unfortunately, I had to paint at my son’s house. Fortunately, Tyler had no
problem going with me! When we arrived at the house, I got busy in the garage putting
a second coat of paint on some door slabs. When I had to lift a slab off the
saw horses to lean up and dry, Tyler would help me. He asked if I was going to
pay him for all his help. Oh, would I pay all right…
After Tyler’s continual begging me to
go practice Parkour on a dirt pile, I relented. We headed over to this “huge” mound
of ground and commenced to propel ourselves up and over. Tyler kept yelling
"land on the flat". I guess I kept landing on the side of the pile
and then inching my way down. Reminding him that I was 50 years older than he
was did not deter him from his rant. We spent about 45 minutes training to “perfect”
our Parkour skills.
There’s a lot to be said about a boy
and his dirt pile. Add one grandma to the mix and it’s a whole new experience…for
him and her.
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