Parkour Parkour Club at UI blends creativity with movement

They glide, they vault, they sometimes flip.

It began with an unassuming post on a Humans vs. Zombies Facebook page two years ago. Now, parkour is both a class taught by University of Idaho Senior Clyde Mooney, and a club for which he is the president.

Mooney started practicing parkour before he arrived at UI. Once he came to Moscow, he saw how many cool locations the area had to offer, but he knew he had to go about it safely. He said having friends with him to assure that someone would be there if there was an accident was a precaution that ultimately led to the club’s formation.

Parkour encourages participants to look at everyday obstacles as challenges to create more creative paths from one point to another, Mooney said.

 

The club primarily meets in the Physical Education Building, but senior Andrew LaPlant said when the weather is nice they like to explore the challenges that the Moscow outdoors has to offer.

LaPlant has been involved in the club from the beginning, and said he is in much better shape now and will attempt more daring tricks than he ever would have thought of two years ago.

“I definitely attempt a lot more stuff, between like skill-wise and fear-wise,” LaPlant said.

At one practice in March, LaPlant attempted to do a standing front flip. Each time, he nearly stuck the landing but still ended up on his back. Despite this, the only thing he heard from his peers was encouragement.

This is the environment the club operates in, Mooney said — total acceptance. Even when a member completely fails and ends up sprawled on the blue mats, the only sound that can be heard is laughter without judgement.

But LaPlant wasn’t totally satisfied with his performance.

“If I keep landing on my hands I’m going to hurt my elbow,” LaPlant said.

This was where Mooney stepped in as the president, to offer advice and more encouragement. He said the most important rule in both the club and the class is that safety comes before anything else.

Safety first doesn’t always mean padding everything, Mooney said. They can’t make sure the obstacles outdoors are always padded. Most of the time, he said it involves putting thought into every stunt.

“What you’re really doing, if you’re doing it right, is calculating risk,” Mooney said.

Many people have the misconception that parkour is risky, but both LaPlant and Mooney said that is not the case.

A common practice when someone attempts a new trick is to try it on a flat surface first, especially if the full stunt involves being higher up. This way, Mooney said, if the person fails, they don’t get hurt. Once they can consistently perform the trick successfully in a safe environment, then they can try it in a more daring location.

Mooney takes safety so seriously that he doesn’t teach flips in the parkour class that he teaches. The club allows its members to have more freedom to improvise with the tricks they are comfortable trying, but because Mooney cannot successfully perform a flip himself, he said he knows he doesn’t have the right knowledge to teach someone else to do one.

“In the class, I’m the instructor and I’m responsible for everyone,” Mooney said. “If I’m just letting people do whatever and they get hurt, that falls upon me.”

Another misconception LaPlant mentioned is that only people in good shape can do parkour successfully, but that’s also not true. The club is open to everyone, and they use this mindset during their practices.

During one meeting, some students wandered into the PEB basketball court while the other members were in the middle of practice. Most of them were students enrolled in the class who had just arrived early, and while they were content to sit on the risers while Mooney, LaPlant and the others finished, they were encouraged by the club members to join in.

Both LaPlant and Mooney became interested in parkour after the activity grew in popularity due to viral online videos. Mooney, who is a big fan of “Assassin’s Creed” said he was referred to an “Assassin’s Creed” parkour video by a friend and was instantly hooked.

LaPlant watched a similar video and said it seemed like his kind of sport.

“I was always the guy who was quote, unquote ‘monkeying around,'” LaPlant said.

People who love parkour like to move, and Mooney said he isn’t an exception.

But, for the most part, Mooney said the best part about parkour is the sense of freedom it offers. The people in the club participate out of want, not out of need. The viral parkour videos that hooked LaPlant and Mooney include stunts that are much more advanced than what anyone in the club attempts, but the same feeling of freedom exists in their practices, and Mooney said that is appealing to many people who try it.

Some of the best memories both LaPlant and Mooney have of the club are when there is an especially good energy to the practice. LaPlant said he loves it when he gets so in the zone that suddenly an hour goes by and he looks up to see that he and all of his friends are covered in sweat, just laughing.

For Mooney, he said he loves watching the other members when it’s clear that they’re having fun. When music is blaring and everyone has an upbeat attitude about practice, it’s a high for him.

“Those are the days that you remember as good days,” Mooney said. “You remember just the good mojo that exists there.”