1. Think over your answers to the questions below before reading the text:

1. What occurs to you when you hear ‘free running’?

2. Why do you think it is given such a name?

3. Are you a good free-runner? What do you think you must be able to do for that?

2. Read and translate the text: Running Free

‘We were just kids who started playing a game, and we’ve never really stopped’

‘Parkour’ – or free running – is the fast-growing extreme sport that turns (превращает) everyday urban landscapes into obstacle courses(бег с препятствиями). Caroline Williams meets the man who started it all.

Loosely translated, ‘le parkour’ means ‘using every object in your path as an obstacle’. It began in 1987 in the Paris suburbs (окрестности), where bored teenagers Sebastien Foucan and David Belle decided to make life more interesting. ‘Interesting’ involved climbing up buildings, swinging (раскачиваться) around lamp posts and vaulting (перепрыгивать) anything that stayed still for long enough. ‘We were just kids who started playing a game, and we’ve never really stopped,’ says Foucan.

With six friends, they set up (основали) ‘Yamakasi’ – a group which later split when five of them opted (выбрали) to take work as theatre acrobats, but not before it had led (привело) to a 2001 film of the same name. yet, despite all the splits and personal differences, what they refer (ссылаются) to as ‘the discipline’ lives on.

Fifteen years later, it’s a global phenomenon. The UK-based parkour website get 10,000 visitors a day. Foucan is surprised to say the least. ‘For me, it’s amazing but it’s my goal to meet people from all over the world and to spread the philosophy,’ he says. This philosophy is all about challenging and improving yourself, while maintaining (выдерживая) a zen-like calm. That’s why there are no competitions in parkour, and definitely no world records. When asked what is the highest he has ever jumped, Foucan replies: ‘I have no idea’.

There have been serious setbacks (препятствие/неудача). One person died after trying some if the moves in the Yamakasi film. And since the rise of parkour’s popularity amongst (из числа) the general public there have been more than a few broken bones. ‘The key thing,’ says Ez (pronounced ‘ee-zee’), a founder member of the movement, ‘is that you must learn how to roll. It’s very important because if you’re moving forwards with a lot of momentum (кинетической энергией) and you don’t roll, your legs take the shock. If you can roll – across your shoulder, never on your spine – it transfers the energy so you don’t get hurt. You land, you roll, you stand up and you keep running.’

And if you are going to leap (прыгнуть) from a tall building, or even just off the back of your sofa, you should know how to land properly. ‘You might think you just bend your knees, but actually you have to land on the ball (подушечку) of your foot, bend your knees in a certain way and slap the floor with your hand. It takes the shock(поглощает энергию) out of landing entirely (целиком).’ It looks painful but he insists (настаивает) it doesn’t hurt nearly as mu as when he landed flat on his heels (пятки) one time and couldn’t walk for nine weeks.

Once you’ve mastered these moves, you can create as many jumps and death-defying (бросающих вызов смерти) handstands off the edges of buildings as you like. But, as the cliché goes, it’s practice that makes perfect. And you have to be able to suppress any last-minute doubts or fears. ‘When you get scared, you become more rigid (деревянным) in your movements, your muscles become tense (напряженными) and you’re more likely to lose co-ordination,’ says Professor Stuart Biddle, a sports psychologist. ‘The mind plays a massive part,’ agrees Ez. ‘When you’re standing at the edge of one building leaning to do a spot jump, you fall until the very last second and then jump. It’s scary because you can see exactly how far up you are – it might be eighteen or twenty metres. If the fear gets to you, it’s all over, so you really have to have confidence in your training.’

Exercises on the text: