# How dangerous is Parkour? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131 "2010-08-23T02:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/1 "2010-08-23T02:54:51Z")
Just how dangerous is Parkour? [(obligatory Parkour video)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voB6WiP83NU) It seems that with all the spills and tumbles it would take to get good at it, you would be seriously injured or killed by the time you aquired enough skill. For every video like this of obviously incredibly skilled people doing some serious acrobatics, there has to be 100 teens revovering from serious head injuries. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/2 "2010-08-23T03:08:39Z")
Holy shit, those dudes are like real-life Spider-Mans! Spider-Men. Spideys. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/3 "2010-08-23T03:53:02Z")
Veddy dangerous. You go first. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/4 "2010-08-23T03:59:12Z")
They probably practice on the ground first before jumping over buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/5 "2010-08-23T04:15:10Z")
No more dangerous than tumbling. In the videos I’ve seen, they do mundane things in flashy ways. One exampl would be the video where the guy drops from level to level on a cone-shaped garage. While it looks impressive, he’s actually only doing the equivalent of a jump off a dining room table. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/6 "2010-08-23T04:33:36Z")
If there’s a lot of random flashy bits, it’s probably freestyle running. Parkour is supposedly strictly a here to there efficiency run. But the stunts are the same as any gymnast or daredevil - start with small safe easy stuff and gradually train your way up to the bigger stuff. If you watch a lot of these videos you’ll see some of people training inside gyms on safety mats, or on the beach where the sand will cushion things… ---
**Author:** ![palacheck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e57/32.png) [@palacheck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palacheck)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-is-parkour/551131/7 "2010-08-23T05:15:53Z")
Those vids always feature the type of young guys that skateboard and climbed kitchen counters and backyard trees as kids. I think if your average office worker tried any of those stunts they’d have a spectacularly short Parkour career.