With the newest addition of the four-lane ninja warrior course to Rebounderz of Edison, you may have been wondering a bit about where ninja warrior activities originated from. We previously went over the history of the show American Ninja Warrior, and how the idea of the ninja warrior competition got started, but why does anyone do movements like what you will see on TV anyway?

One of the continued inspirations behind ninja warrior courses is the practice of parkour. Alright, you’re probably wondering how a Japanese competition show and a French style of movement could possibly have anything in common. Ironically, both have their roots in military styles of combat training. Obstacle courses or environments led to the development of both styles of movement and physical activity. These techniques now heavily influence one another, but that wasn’t always the case.

Parkour is a style of movement that was created by a small handful of individuals in France during the 1980s. The style’s “founding father,” Raymond Belle, was a Frenchman who aimed to help people see their surroundings differently. By seeing your surroundings differently, you trained in order to be able to move through these surroundings.

Most parkour is done in urban environments, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. The goal is to challenge yourself to envision the environment and how you could move through it, whether that’s going under, over, on, across, or through the obstacles that the environment provides. It is both a mental and physical challenge to create these new patterns of fluid movement in areas that may not be ideal for the challenge.

While parkour is more of a philosophy and style of movement with no strongly defined “moves,” there are some specific moves that you may already do when you’re at Rebounderz of Edison that are typically associated with parkour.

Vaulting over an object smoothly is a traditional parkour move. An example of this move may include vaulting over a low wall where you plant your hands on the wall and smoothly swing your legs around to the side. Or consider trying this move on the different height pommels that you have to get over on one lane of the ninja warrior course.

Running up a wall and catching the edge of the top in order to pull yourself up is also a move you will traditionally see in many depictions of parkour. You can find this at the very end of some of our ninja warrior course lanes where you will be presented with a very steep ramp that turns into a wall which you have to get up in order to complete the course.

You might also see individuals jump onto small and narrow obstacles where it is exceptionally important to maintain balance. There are so many opportunities to test yourself doing exactly that on the Rebounderz of Edison ninja warrior course, that you’ll forget you’re doing a parkour move.

Now that you know a little bit more about parkour, come try out some of the challenging movements at the new four-lane ninja warrior course at Rebounderz of Edison! Call us for more information today!