Parkour

There are two parts to this article. The first is a general overview of how hearing aid classification works, including a comparison study of normal-hearing listeners and multiple manufacturers' hearing aids while listening to a sound parkour composed of a multitude of acoustic scenes. Most hearing aids applied nearly identical classification for simple listening environments. But differences began to appear across manufacturers' products when the listening environments became more complex. The second section reviews the results of a study of the acoustic ecology (listening environments) experienced by several cohorts of hearing aid users over a 4-month period...

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Arboreal animals often leap through complex canopies to travel and avoid predators. Their success at making split-second, potentially life-threatening decisions of biomechanical capability depends on their skillful use of acrobatic maneuvers and learning from past efforts. Here, we found that free-ranging fox squirrels ( Sciurus niger ) leaping across unfamiliar, simulated branches decided where to launch by balancing a trade-off between gap distance and branch-bending compliance. Squirrels quickly learned to modify impulse generation upon repeated leaps from unfamiliar, compliant beams...

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle sport activities (e.g. parkour or skateboarding) are considered attractive and beneficial for a long-term commitment to physical activity (PA) and might be a great opportunity for adolescents who do not feel comfortable in an organized or competitive atmosphere. The purpose of the study was to assess whether participation in lifestyle activities is associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), out-of-school vigorous physical activity (VPA), and sedentary behaviour in adolescents aged 10-15 years, with major demographic variables (sex, age, socioeconomic status) being taken into account...

In sports science, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has many unknown effects on neuromuscular, psychomotor and cognitive aspects. Particularly, its impact on power performances remains poorly investigated. Eighteen healthy young males, all trained in a jumping sport (parkour) performed three experimental sessions: anodal tDCS applied either on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, cathode in supraorbital area) or on the primary motor cortex (M1, cathode on contralateral shoulder), and a placebo condition (SHAM), each applied for 20 min at 2 mA...

Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live in Poverty , a socio-economic status that has been identified as a key determinant of a lack of sports participation. Still, numerous athletes around the world have grown up in underprivileged socio-economic conditions. This is the case in Brazil, a country with around 13.5 million impoverished citizens, yet, over decades, many of its best professional footballers have emerged from its favelas. In this article, we explore the role of the socio-cultural-economic constraints in shaping the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian professional football players...

Parkour speed-runs require performers (known as Traceurs) to negotiate obstacles with divergent properties such as angles, inclinations, sizes, surfaces, and textures in the quickest way possible. The quicker the run, the higher the performer is ranked. Performance in Parkour speed-runs may be regulated through Parkour Traceurs' functional movement skill capacities given the physical requirements of the event. This study examined what functional movement skills correlate with Parkour speed-run performance. Nineteen male Parkour Traceurs undertook a physical testing battery inclusive of: agility T-test, maximal grip strength test, and maximal vertical and horizontal jumps across several jump modalities...

Domain-specific knowledge guides our attention and thus influences our perception. Prior change-blindness research has shown that expert athletes can spot meaningful scene changes more quickly than novices, but less is known of whether this expertise is modulated differentially between open and closed sporting activities. We presented 81 individuals (20 gymnasts, 19 rock climbers, 22 parkour practitioners, and 20 control participants) with alternating sequences of images that corresponded to the habitual training landscapes of each group (gymnasiums, rock cliffs, and urban environments, respectively)...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if "state-of-the-art" 3D- versus 4K-display techniques could influence surgical performance. BACKGROUND: High quality minimally invasive surgery is challenging. Therefore excellent vision is crucial. 3D display technique (3D) and 2D-4K technique (4K) are designed to facilitate surgical performance, either due to spatial resolution (3D) or due to very high resolution (4K). METHODS: In randomized cross-over trial the surgical performance of medical students (MS), non-board certified surgeons (NBC), and board certified surgeons (BC) was compared using 3D versus 4K display technique at a minimally invasive training Parkour...

For flightless arboreal arthropods, moving from the understory into tree canopies is cognitively and energetically challenging because vegetational structures present complex three-dimensional landscapes with substantial gaps. Predation risk and wind-induced perturbations in the canopy may further impede the movement process. In the Australian stick insect Extatosoma tiaratum, first-instar nymphs hatch on the forest floor and disperse toward tree canopies in the daytime. Here, we address how their tactic responses to environmental cues and movement strategies are adapted to the canopy environment...

BACKGROUND: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is promising for improving motor and cognitive performance. Nevertheless, its mechanisms of action are unclear and need to be better characterised according to the stimulated brain area and the type of exercise performed. METHODS/DESIGN: This is a double-blind crossover study, organised into two parts: the first is to assess the effects of tDCS on explosive performance (jump task) and the second is to assess the effects on endurance performance (cycling time trial task)...

BACKGROUND: Gait and balance impairments are common in neurological diseases, including stroke, and negatively affect patients' quality of life. Improving balance and gait are among the main goals of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is mainly performed in clinics, which lack context specificity; therefore, training in the patient's home environment is preferable. In the last decade, developed rehabilitation technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) have enabled gait and balance training outside clinics...

Developing effective landing strategies has implications for both injury prevention and performance training. The purpose was to quantify the kinematics of Parkour practitioners' landings from three heights utilizing four techniques. Seventeen male and three female Parkour practitioners landed from 0.9, 1.8, and 2.7 m utilizing the squat, forward, roll, and stiff landing techniques when three-dimensional kinematics were collected. The stiff landing demonstrated the shortest landing time, and the roll landing showed the longest landing time for 1...

Tarsal navicular fractures, as well as other midfoot injuries, are rare, and can result in severe impairment if not properly treated. Parkour, a modern sport, is gaining popularity among young individuals in urban areas, and is prone to result in high-energy trauma, which is scarcely described in the literature. The following is a report of a rare case of tarsal navicular fracture in a 17-year-old male, sustained during parkour practice, which was treated successfully with open reduction and internal fixation...

BACKGROUND: Freezing of gait is a highly disabling symptom in persons with Parkinson's disease (PwP). Despite its episodic character, freezing can be reliably evaluated using the FOG score. The description of the minimal clinically relevant change is a requirement for a meaningful interpretation of its results. OBJECTIVE: To determine the minimal clinically relevant change of the FOG score. METHODS: We evaluated video recordings of a standardized freezing-evoking gait parkour, i...

Main aim of this study was examining validity and reliability of using a new specific Parkour repeated sprint ability test (SPRSA) for assessing repeated sprint ability while facing obstacles and establishing between-day reliability and sensitivity of SPRSA related to its physiological and performance responses. Thirteen high-level traceurs (three females) performed in random order and twice eight tests for assessing a total of 23 variables: SPRSA (a typical maximal-speed shuttle run interspersed with four Parkour competition-common fundamentals) and seven established fitness tests, core stability, hand-grip, vertical-jump, long-jump, pull-up, 300-m shuttle run (as a field test for anaerobic capacity), and Leger test...

BACKGROUND: Handball is one of the most popular team sports in Germany, as well as one of the most dangerous ones. Injury rates in Germany are higher amongst handball professionals than in soccer, with the knee being the most commonly injured joint. To prevent injuries, a functional inert stability is necessary, but definitions and objective measures are lacking. OBJECTIVES: Establishing valid reference data of functional knee stability in amateur handball players with use of an established test battery giving objective measures METHODS: 261 athletes (f:130; m:131), mean age 25...

It is recognised that power-sport practices have a particular effect on lower-limb neuromuscular parameters. Less is known about corticospinal network adaptation, however, or whether these adaptations are specific to the lower limb. In the present study, the corticospinal and spinal excitabilities of upper and lower limbs have been examined in a group of untrained participants (UT, n  = 10) and compared to those of a group of well-trained athletes practicing parkour (PK, n  = 10). This activity, consisting of overcoming obstacles offered by the urban environment, was chosen as a model of power activity...

BACKGROUND: Three-dimensional (3D) stereoscopic vision is crucial to perform any kind of manual task. The reduction from real life 3D to virtual two-dimensional (2D) sight is a major challenge in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). A 3D display technique has been shown to reduce operation time and mistakes and to improve the learning curve. Therefore, the use of a3D display technique seems to optimize surgical performance for novice and experienced surgeons. Inspired by consumer electronics, a 4K display technique was recently introduced to MIS...

This study examined the mechanics of the horizontal to vertical transition used by parkour athletes in wall climbing. We used this task as an alternative to normal running - where the functional options differ substantially - exposing the movement control priorities required to successfully complete the task. Ground reaction forces were measured in several expert parkour athletes and centre of mass trajectory was calculated from force plates embedded in the ground and the wall. Empirical measures were compared with movements predicted by a work-based control optimization model...