Strength, speed, efficiency: Walnier Perez

Practicing parkour has fundamentally changed Walnier “Wally” Perez’s life. A sophomore at the College of Saint Elizabeth, Wally’s interest in parkour initially stemmed from an admiration of superheroes and anime. Yet, Wally quickly recognized the level of mental acuity and physical strength it actually required. Parkour was unlike anything he had ever encountered before but it remains widely misunderstood.

A few years ago, thousands of videos featuring people breaking into restricted areas, scaling impossible heights and performing outrageous stunts flooded the internet under the label of “parkour.” However, the vast majority of those videos on social media actually depict freerunning and urban exploration rather than that of their sister discipline, parkour.

Freerunning is an unstructured form of parkour where people laud the art of movement and engage in increasingly dangerous acrobatics while urban exploration encourages people to seek man-made, often abandoned areas. Meanwhile, parkour is rooted in military techniques, known as "la méthode naturelle,” (or the natural method) that prioritizes speed, strength and efficiency. It was developed by French Officer Georges Hébert after watching Indigenous people effortlessly move across dangerous terrain. He taught this practice to Raymond Belle whose son, David, founded the modern parkour movement.

“It took me weeks to learn the basic roll and months to learn more,” recalls Wally. “During those practices, things started to take a different meaning for me. I met new friends within that community that guided me into the correct way of practice.”

Since parkour has elements of non-combative martial arts and frequently involves running, vaulting, jumping, climbing and rolling, it requires a full merging of the mind and body. Without precise movements, it can be dangerous.

“Parkour helped me acknowledge where my limits are and how to break through them. I learned that it’s okay to stop, take a breath and appreciate every detail of the journey,” says Wally. “When I do parkour, I am most myself. I am in the moment, the movements are flowing, and I am purely me.”

By being uniquely himself, Wally has also been able to find a community of like-minded people at the College of Saint Elizabeth. He values the College’s familial environment and appreciates how, similarly to parkour, it has facilitated his ability to grow as a person. Wally credits Saint E’s with instilling in him the leadership skills necessary to achieve his dreams of working for a technology company such as Google and Microsoft or for an air and space company such as NASA or SpaceX.

“The College of Saint Elizabeth doesn’t only help me in achieving my goal of becoming a software engineer,” explains Wally. “It also helps me acquire what is necessary to grow and work within the industry itself.”