Freerun. Russian athlete wins international tournament

Recently, Alexandra Shevchenko from St. Petersburg, master of sports in artistic gymnastics, became the first among women at the biggest parkour and freerunning competition Red Bull Art of Motion 2017. In an interview with her, we decided to find out how the girl’s passion for parkour began, what freerunning is and what her daily training consists of.

– Sasha, tell us how you started doing parkour. How did this choice happen?
– At first I was a long and professional gymnast, then I finished my sports career and got a job as a general physical training coach for tennis players. At some point I decided to look for another job and went to get a job at a sports club as an acrobatics coach. There I saw guys jumping and doing some unusual elements. It looked cool! I mean, it looked like acrobatics, but it wasn’t, it was something unusual and new. From the first day I was so fascinated by it that I was in the gym every day after that.

– What kind of coach would you be if you hadn’t seen parkour then?
– I came to get a job to teach people ordinary, classical acrobatics. And there was a parkour park in the center of the club. And the first thing I saw was guys climbing on cubes, doing somersaults, moving on them, jumping into a foam pit. That was the first time I saw other acrobatics, and I loved it.

From the first day I was so fascinated by it that I was in the gym every day after that.

– How did parkour and freerun come about?
– Actually, parkour was originally invented. The guys who practiced it (the famous Yamakashi team) had their own philosophy. It was that parkour is not even a sport, but an art of movement: we move, beautifully and quickly overcome obstacles on the playground and in life, thus nurturing our spirit. Then something happened, they separated, and David Belle remained associated with the word “parkour”, while Sebastian Foucan called his direction freerun.

– At a competition that took place recently, you competed in the freerun discipline. Can you tell us more about what it is?
– It is the same parkour, the same jumps, but with added elements of acrobatics. To make it clearer, parkour is moving from point A to point B in the most efficient way, you need to get to the finish line as quickly as possible, and freerun is moving on a certain area, you do tricks, jumps, add acrobatic elements. It’s more spectacular and more beautiful.

– What does a freerun program for competitions consist of? Are there any basic mandatory elements?
– Of course, there are elements that are most often repeated, there are also elements from regular parkour. For example, you climb the wall with the help of a classic “vol rana”, but then you jump from there through a somersault. Also the program often includes classical gymnastic screws, but in general you can be creative and think up your own program, because your task at the competition is to surprise the audience and judges. Nowadays there is such a race for tricks, to come up with something new, something that no one has seen.

You can watch the video on the official Team Farang YouTube channel.

– How do you train?
– I always say to everyone that you can’t go anywhere without physical fitness. Because if you don’t train your muscles, your body will not be ready and even with a trivial landing you can get a serious injury. In general, I try not to jump on bare asphalt, but, for example, on Santorini there were no other options. So OFP, stretching, acrobatics, classic parkour – this is something that is always in my training schedule.

– I know that a couple weeks before the competition you took part in a crossfit camp. Tell me about what crossfit gives you? Why this particular type of fitness?
– Yes, a couple weeks before the competition I actually went to a Crossfit camp and did a whole week of functional training, not doing any acrobatics, but preparing my body in terms of endurance.

– Did it help you in your preparation for the competition?
– Actually, yes. If before I went down a couple of times and then went up, I could feel my muscles starting to ache. This time there was no such thing and with the help of endurance I pulled it all out.

– Is balance important in parkour and freerunning?
– We have such a sport that if you relax a little bit, you will get injured immediately. Your head must always work, you must always be focused. And if you feel that you are very tired and cannot concentrate, it is better to stop training and go for a rest.

– Tell us how were the competitions you took part in recently?
– Red Bull Art of Motions is the biggest parkour and freerunning competition in general. Selection takes place in several stages. Six finalists from the previous year make it to the finals, then 4 more boys and 3 girls go through online selection. And even if you don’t pass through this stage, you always have a chance to come to Santorini and get selected on the spot in three days.

In general, everything was grand and there was such a crazy atmosphere around. This year’s qualifiers were very strong, no worse than the final.

– What are your plans now?
– My goal now is to compete, to have as much time as possible, to participate everywhere. And, of course, I am very serious about the World Cup next year.