2024-07-04 22:52:25
“Kubo, look, Kubo, look!” In the gymnasium at the elementary school in Bor near Tachov in West Bohemia, there is definitely no dust on the mats and gymnastic goats. Jakub Pančík teaches parkour to young schoolchildren here every week. “Everyone can learn somersaults. Children need an individual approach, there is no universal one,” says the parkourist, who tries to motivate his children to move.
Remembering his gym classes, Jakub Pančík takes a deep breath. “In primary school, attention was mainly paid to ball games and athletic disciplines. I even argued with the teacher, because I knew that during push-ups I was strengthening different muscles than she told me.” He didn’t even take physical education in high school positively. But in retrospect, he understands the approach of the gymnast. “You could see that he had knowledge of technique, he relied on performance. Such an approach did not suit me at the time, today I would have a different opinion.”
Photo author: Jakub Plíhal
What is parkour?
Parkour is a modern sport that originated in France. The basis is the ability to get from one place to another using jumps, jumps, somersaults and other acrobatic elements. It consists in overcoming any obstacles in the surrounding environment – from railings and concrete walls in cities to branches and stones in nature.
Because Jakub lacked strength training in the gym, he started working out already in elementary school – without dumbbells and strength machines, just using his own weight. A year later, he decided to include something more extreme in his routine. “I found a video on how to do a frontflip properly, i.e. a forward somersault. Within half an hour I was laughing on the field. Of course, then I buried my head in the sand, I found out that it would not be as easy as it seemed,” he recalls the moments when when endorphins started to flow for the first time during parkour.
In the following years, he and friends, who first watched him train but later joined him, began renting a gym. By that time, Jakub was already participating in workshops organized by a well-known parkourist with the nickname Tara. It was from his YouTube video that Jakub learned his first frontflip. “As an introvert, I wasn’t very involved, but I wanted to do sports and improve myself, so I visited about twenty of Tara’s workshops,” describes Jakub.
According to the twenty-three-year-old Jakub, there are countless ways to teach children movement, it always depends on the individual approach to each child. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
Tary and Jakub became friends at frequent events and later Jakub started helping him as a trainee. “He taught me how to train and secure children during exercise. As a coach, I later participated in several parkour camp tours,” he recalls of the collaboration.
How to teach children to exercise?
Jakub Pančík publishes short videos from his courses on the social network Instagram. “During training, we filmed ourselves on our mobile phones to show each other mistakes during the exercise. After all, when you’re in somersaults, you only see the ceiling, the blur and the ground around you. The children themselves later wanted me to film them during somersaults. Moreover, years later I can show them comparison of their performance and visible improvement.”
According to the twenty-three-year-old Jakub, there are countless ways to teach children movement, it always depends on the individual approach to each individual. “I liken teaching to a floorball with holes. One has to find the right entry and exit point. This means that from the child’s mental setting and physical preparation, the coach must find a way through an imaginary inner labyrinth to an approach that suits the child. I don’t know a universal way,” says the parkourist, adding that if the coach wants to motivate the child to move, he must adapt to his needs and above all to his different way of speaking.
“Children don’t know how to communicate like us adults. You have to sense their unpleasant feelings, because they usually don’t say them out loud. Based on that, you can find out if they understand your way of explaining or not. It’s a multilingual approach,” says Jakub before a parkour lesson at an elementary school in Bor near Tachov. Of course, she is not the only one, she has parkour courses every day in different places in the Czech Republic.
Young enthusiasts are already coming to the gym. Jakub trains the age group from six to fifteen here every week. The parkourist Tomáš Gros, who participated in the Czech Republic parkour championship this year and won bronze there, also helps him with his training.
“Children can’t communicate like us adults. You have to sense unpleasant feelings from them because they don’t say them out loud,” says the parkourist. | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
“What are we going to do today?” one of the training participants asks Jakub. “We will build individual stations and drill what we have already learned. You will have a frontflip from the airtrack and we can also polish divekongs,” the coach answers her.
The parkourist points out that the teacher’s limits also limit his students. “But as a teacher, you have to surpass the children by several levels and keep learning. The problem is that the teacher is very often not physically fit enough. For example, when belaying a child at a height of five meters on a pole. At that moment, physical limitations already arise. Meanwhile, working with stress in a few meters above the ground can be translated into real life, for example how to save yourself in the event of a fall,” he explains.
Parkour is for everyone
Jakub Pančík has experience in training hundreds of children, which gives him an insight into their lifestyle. “There is nothing to discuss, children really lack movement and, above all, the desire for it. They have trouble breaking away from computers and phones, which dose dopamine. I am happy that I can influence at least a small amount of them and get them to exercise,” he emphasizes and already devotes himself fully to his charges. He divides the students into three groups, approximately fifteen schoolchildren then jump upside down on the trampoline, gymnastic goats jump from the start and, with Jakub’s belay, manage somersaults backwards. At the same time, Jakub observes the other children, who eagerly shout his name to show off their performance.
“As a teacher, you have to surpass the children by several levels and keep learning,” says Jakub Pančík | Photo: Jakub Plíhal
According to Jakub, there is no need to have prerequisites for parkour, children and middle-aged adults can learn it. However, the individual’s progress will be determined by his physical fitness. “Obviously you’ll have a head start if you’ve been training longer. But parkour itself can be done by anyone.”
And how to overcome the fear of unpleasant falls? “Imagine a bar of chocolate,” says Jakub, “from which you tear off an individual square with each attempt. Finally, you will eat it once, or you will swallow that fear. Gradually, you will begin to understand each movement, how to safely and confidently jump to the second obstacle. But it is not possible right away, it takes time,” he concludes.