Johnny Kirstein is a 17-year old senior who, on his free time, does something that the most of us wouldn’t dare do. He does something that caused him to break his arm. What is it you may ask? Well, Kirstein started practicing parkour and free-running when he was in the 7th grade. Developed from military obstacle course training, parkour is running, swinging, jumping, and climbing from point A to point B in the quickest way possible. Freerunning is similar, but it emphasizes the flashy side of parkour, with fancy flips and stylistic acrobatics. It’s more like an art of movement to express your creativity with your environment, the KKParkour blog explains. Johnny would like to pursue parkour/free running as a career.  He think it would be cool to get sponsored and join a team someday. His dream is to be able to qualify for the Red Bull Art Of Motion – this competition is a free-running competition, not so much of a parkour competition. When asked how he was able to get over obstacles when he knows he have a high chance of getting hurt, he said, “Mind over matter. It’s about not being afraid to get hurt.”  Johnny was inspired by YouTube videos and friends to pursue parkour/free-running. The parkour community is super cool and isn’t super competitive, but it is just like any sport. You need to put time and effort, and you need to apply yourself. Kirstein said that parkour was popularized by David Belle in the 90’s early 2000’s and gyms/schools for this are popping up all over the country. “I want to do this for the rest of my life,” Kirstein claimed. Johnny is clearly incredibly passionate about his sport. Best of luck to this traceur.