Parkour is on its way to the Mount Laurel public library.
The main purpose of parkour is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing, and jumping.
The class will be taught by Mount Laurel native Chris Wilczewski, who has appeared on America Ninja Warrior 2.
He said his first exposure to parkour was in his junior year of high school.
“I didn’t know much about the discipline at the time,” Wilczewski said. “I kind of just watched some videos on YouTube and thought it would be something fun to learn.”
Wilczewski’s brother Brian insisted he make a video for American Ninja Warrior.
“For the video I knew I would have to start training parkour again so I picked up where I left off going around to different parks and such just working on things I saw in the videos trying to make a good video,” Wilczewski said. “After about six months of training we were able to piece together a half way decent video I still thought it was a long shot but we sent the video in anyways and sure enough G4 invited me out to Los Angeles for American Ninja Warrior 2.”
He said he was struggling with personal problems at the time.
“When I ran the course for the first time all of those problems seem to disappear,” Wilczewski said. “That moment after I ran the course and completed it was one of the happiest of my life so far.”
The following day he competed in the finals and ended up failing on the salmon ladder and getting knocked from the competition.
“From that moment on I knew that I wanted to train harder and to come back next year,” Wilczewski said. “Finally I started to see a purpose in my life again and it all centered on training.”
The majority of his training focused on movement.
“Parkour was huge in my life from that moment on I wanted to learn everything I could about the discipline to better my training and to make me more ready for the competition,” Wilczewski said. “I spent the entire year training everywhere and with everyone.”
He visited some of the elite parkour gyms in the country in places like Boulder, Colo. and Los Angeles.
To Wilczewski, parkour is everything.
“When training you learn to focus your mind to overcome your fears and you learn to use your body to adapt and become creative and efficient,” he said. “Through proper training I can take these techniques and apply them to anything else.”
So what will he teach the class at the library?
“I want to show them they are capable of incredible things if they put their mind to it,” Wilczewski said. “Specifically, I plan to teach a few basic movements from parkour.
“I want to show them how to condition the body so their muscles and ligaments can withstand the strain placed on the body from these types of movements,” he added. “Then I will teach the technique used to absorb the shock when landing on concrete along with how to vault safely over and obstacle.
Teen librarian Samantha Marker said parkour is new to her. She said several teens had asked if there was a parkour class available at the library.
That’s when she reached out to Wilczewski.
The class is free, is open to anyone in grades 7 to 12, and will meet Oct. 15 at 3 p.m.
“I think it’s really exciting, a little bit scary,” Marker said.
Weather permitting the class will be held on the back lawn of the library. If there is inclement weather, it will be in one of the meeting rooms.
Permission slips, found in the library or online, are required. People can register up until the day before the first class.
“I hope that they maybe see the library in a new light,” Marker said. “We do some really interesting things here this is not something most people would expect to find at a library.”
She said there may be as many as 30 teens who will take the class.
“We can accommodate a pretty big group,” Marker said.
