All you need to start free running is a pair of shoes, a place to run and some creativity.

Free Running - What Is It?

Free running, also known as parkour, is a combination of jogging and gymnastics. Free runners view a city as one big playground. Every day city objects like stairs, rails and walls are used in a series of vaults, leaps and climbs. A free runner might leap on to a park bench, backflip over a newspaper box, then walk across a stair rail, before climbing over a wall. The idea behind free running is to link moves over and around obstacles into one fluid run - kind of like the way skateboarders move through a street course. The sport requires great strength, flexibility, creativity and discipline.

Free Running - Getting Started

Becoming a free runner or traceur, as they're sometimes called, is pretty easy. All you need is a pair of shoes and a place to run.

City parks and playgrounds are great locations for free running, or anywhere else where you can make use of a city's obstacles.

There are several basic moves in free running that you should learn including how to land, how to roll, and how to properly balance yourself on obstacles. For a look at some basic free running moves, click here.

To check out pics and videos of free running, click here.

Free Running - Safety

Free running is a fun, cheap and healthy sport - but it's important you practice free running safely. Know your limits and don't try any jumps or moves until you've checked the landing and have learned how to land properly.

Start off my trying basic moves over small obstacles before moving on to more challenging jumps and leaps.

Always free run with a friend. It's more fun, friends can offer suggestions on how to best move around an obstacle and they can help you off the ground if you have a nasty wipeout.

Free Running - Did You Know?

Parkour was started in France and comes from the French word, parcour, which means obstacle course.

A video game based on parkour, called Free Running, for the PSP will be coming out in Fall 2005.

Nike and Adidas now make special running shoes for free running.

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