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FAIRFIELD, Conn. Joe Cannato gets the signal, and after that theres no stopping him. He leaps over obstacles, twists around poles, and before you can say Wait hes clinging to a wall and pulling himself up to a perch 10 feet off the ground in Fairfield.
The 10-second blur is all just a demonstration of Cannatos discipline and art of parkour.
The discipline side is similar to martial arts you start small, understand yourself and then take it to the next level, Cannato says. And the artistic side is when you show your own style, where youre creative with your movements. No one moves the same way.
The Gymnastics and Cheerleading Academy of Connecticut set up a parkour-specific section in its space at the Sportsplex on Mill Plain Road last fall. Last month, the gym opened its expanded parkour gym, making Fairfield home to the largest facility dedicated to the sport in the Northeast.
The 5,500-square-foot gym has the cushioned mats and foam pit you would expect at any gymnastics center. But Cannato and the academy added metal poles, hard walls and other obstacles to stand in for the buildings, fire escapes and concrete structures a freerunner would use in his native environment.
We try to give them that outdoor aspect, Cannato said. But we always give them the fundamental training with soft obstacles so they can explore themselves without as much risk as there would be outdoors.
The gym accepts kids as young as 7 for classes, but most of Cannatos pupils are 10 to 14. But the facility also attracts adults, including professional stuntman Luis Moco. Moco, whose credits include the recent Men in Black 3 and the heist film The Town, got his start as a parkour practitioner.
Like Cannato and a few of the academys other coaches, Moco recently competed on NBCs "American Ninja Warrior," in which athletes race through an obstacle course with stunts similar to the parkour gyms training regimen. Moco was one of the top finishers in the region, earning a spot in the finals in Las Vegas.
Its pretty grueling, but it relates well to parkour because freerunning, in its nature, teaches adaptability, Moco says of the course. You dont always know whats about to come at you, but you have confidence in yourself and your abilities.
Cannato uses the terms freerunning and parkour interchangeably, but some practitioners divide the two. Pure parkour is more practical, focused on finding the quickest way to get from Point A to Point B. Freerunning traditionally adds more flourish to a routine, with more flips and spins.
About 130 kids are training at GCA Parkour, as little as once a week or as often as every day. The program groups kids by skill level, not age, so they learn and practice at their own pace.
That idea transfers to the classes as well. Cannato says he sets aside time in each session where kids are supervised but free to explore the gym without instruction.
Thats what parkours all about, he says. You dont want it to become something where the training is all about competition and being better than anyone else. Its about finding your own way, and your own movements.
To find out more about GCA Parkour, visit its website.
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