The Whanganui Boys and Girls' Gym Club will offer parkour/Free G lessons for rangatahi. Photo/ Unsplash
The Whanganui Boys and Girls' Gym Club will offer parkour/Free G lessons for rangatahi. Photo/ Unsplash
The Whanganui Boys and Girls' Gym Club will be turned into a parkour playground.
On Friday evenings during school term three, rangatahi will be able to safely practice their parkour moves at the club.
Parkour is a sport founded by Raymond Belle in France and developed by his son David Belle and a group of friends during the 1980s. Parkour is an action-packed sport where balance and power are used together to challenge gravity.
It's a type of physical education where the person aims to overcome obstacles by moving, running, jumping and climbing from one point to another.
Operations manager Annette Cox says the club saw a need for a parkour space, after two of the youth coaches ran an event.
"Two of our amazing young coaches secured sponsorship from Awhi te Rangatahi the Youth Empowering Sports Squad council. They ran [a] free parkour or Free G youth event for rangatahi aged 12 to 18 years old in the gym club."
Following the success of the event, the Whanganui Boys and Girls' Gym Club applied for funding through Sport Whanganui for the Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa programme.
The programme is run by Sport New Zealand and each of the country's 14 regional sports trusts helps to deliver the programme.
Annette says there is currently no safe space for parkour in Whanganui.
Parkour is a sport founded in France in which balance and power are used together to challenge gravity. Photo/Unsplash
"We saw the need. The free event for rangatahi generated a lot of interest so we wanted to provide a safe place for these teenagers to practice their tricks in a safe and monitored environment. Our gymnastics for all programme activator Leo Rodrigues will be running the sessions."
She says the club will be running it as a parkour and Free G space, which is a combination of gymnastics, parkour, obstacle training and freestyle movement.
"We're excited to offer this for our rangatahi. Registration is free and the cost is $2 on the evening. We wanted to make this accessible to those who want to practice their skills."
She says the parkour sessions are one of many things run at the club.
"We're a busy hub. At the moment we're in the middle of our school holiday programme where we're taking on 60 tamariki a day. It means that the children have somewhere safe to go and be active while their parents are working."
Annette says the club runs recreational and competitive gymnastics for preschoolers all the way up to adults.
"We also take schools and community groups who want to book in a session and learn gymnastics, we run after-school sessions and we hire out our venue on the weekend for birthday parties. Providing a safe space for the community is very important to us."
The parkour/Free G sessions will be run after the gymnastics session, and Annette says if there is a need or a lot of interest, the club will look at finding a way they can continue to run the sessions.
"To us, it's important to fill the gap. If rangatahi become interested in the sessions, we will look into running them fulltime."
The Details: What: Parkour/ Free G sessions. When: Friday evenings during term 3 (July 29-September 30) from 6.30pm to 8pm. Where: The Whanganui Boys and Girls' Gym Club. Registration: Registration is free. To register visit whanganuigymclub.co.nz. Cost: $2 on the evening. For more information visit whanganuigymclub.co.nz.
