Have you ever seen someone run up a wall and do a backflip? Have you heard of a dive roll, a round-off, or a front-full? These are things you will see when you watch the sport of parkour.
Isaac Wells is an athlete at Athens drive who practices parkour. Parkour is a sport about moving in different ways than you normally would, this could include running and jumping or even doing flips. In parkour, it is key to use the environment and the things around you. One example of this is instead of jumping on the flat ground, you could jump off a wall and stick a landing on a guard rail.
Wells, junior, is a student here at Athens Drive High School whose hobby is practicing parkour. Wells has been practicing doing parkour for around four years. He started when he was just thirteen years old.
Wells met some friends to practice with at a local parkour gym called Enso Movement. Wells stated, “We tend to go everywhere from cheer gyms to loading docks, and that’s kind of the beauty of the sport: you can do it anywhere.”
He has even gone to Woodward where he won a style contest. Woodward is an extreme sports park with eleven different locations across America and Mexico. Wells said, “Woodward was one of the best experiences of my life, there’s really nothing nicer than being surrounded by a community you love doing a sport you love.
Wells says that the biggest challenge about the sport is overcoming fears and that it is risky when doing some of the tricks not inside a gym.
Wells said, “My favorite thing about the sport is definitely freedom. The culture of parkour is so incredibly open and welcoming, and there’s no right or wrong way to do things. Everyone has a skill set and learns to embrace it rather than following preset standards.”
Some of Wells‘s most impressive tricks are the D-leg twist and the triple full backflip. You can find some of his tricks on his Instagram which is @isaacwells_pk.
Wells’s sister, Lyla Wells, freshman, enjoys watching her brother practice his sport. She said, “Parkour is very unique and a great way to express himself.”
