Haven't cheerleaders been doing this for years?
3
I am excited to hear that girls can now be subject to the same injuries that boys suffer while doing all these dumb stunts.
5
Bravo to these awesome young women.
FLY!
5
All I see is the potential to be rendered a paraplegic from neck injuries.
7
Yay! Just be careful and work your way up to the risky moves! I was a klutz who hated organized sports but the one thing that got me going every year in HS gym were the graduated traveling rings. I’m sure they don’t have these in schools anymore — too dangerous! Totally exhilarating to recall almost 50 years later, so I get this gtramp high a little bit.
3
I don't understand why this is considered new and novel.
Sure it is on the internet and children have wildly protective parents these days, but I was doing this in 60s and 70s.
And until 14 or so, even later, I was better at football and baseball than most boys. Always, re my brothers!
6
I like this article because the author doesn’t presume girls are being excluded. She notes:
>>The kids who do the biggest tricks — some are doing as much as quintuple flips and twists — tend to get noticed the most, and thus far, it’s the boys who are doing the biggest tricks.
That’s perfectly logical. Will girls be able to pull off “the biggest tricks?” Sure, but it’s physically harder, which will always be a deterrent and likely guarantee a gender disparity. And that’s okay. The goal should be to create an environment in which girls have the opportunity to participate, meaning no misogyny but no special treatment, either.
I don’t know if it’s possible, but I’d love it if girls could modify the sport to play to their physiological strengths. On average, women are more flexible and have better balance than men, for example. Feats of strength aren’t the only way to dominate.
14
Rock climbing for instance. Yep.
3
@Ramon Reiser. So women are better at scaling a sheer cliff using mainly arm strength?
2
@Greg - It's more like women often being better at scaling a sheer cliff NOT using mainly arm strength.
3
Ah, spinal injuries. Definitely, the area where we should focus on more female inclusion.
We have all seen the picturesque photos and videos of social media stars flipping into a pool or jumping off fifty-foot rocks into the ocean. However, there are entire channels on youtube devoted to people, mostly teenagers failing at these tasks.
The human spine and head are not designed for the impacts created when these stunts go wrong and you can very easily paralyze or kill yourself.
I read about par kor Instagrammers falling to their deaths on the news and have known people to be consigned to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.
I cannot remember the exact statistic however boys are much more likely to injure themselves doing stunts then girls.
Young adults should not tie their sense of self-worth to their Instagram page.
Flipping into a pool for the perfect Instagram shot when your head is feet away from the concrete side is about as intelligent as eating tide pods for views on youtube.
Every time I see these photographs and videos all I wonder is how many people miss.
28
@2-6 youre most certainly right, but many of these athletes don't just "huck and tuck" we train in a gym, with mats and pads, and we don't do a trick until we are confident in landing it well. It depends who you're looking at, many of those stunts by teens you see on youtube are reckless and don't have much preparation behind it, we take care of our bodies, stretching and taking time off from training :)
12
All "extreme" sports pro athletes now have to flip to stay competitive. Snowboarders, bikers, surfers, etc.
Not sure it's good or bad - it sure up's the ante and potential for serious injury.
But, as this teen shows, they really don't think about injury - Tramp with no side netting ? Kinda risky.
10
@S B Tramps WITH side netting are an abomination, and the standard round, solid-bed, backyard trampoline is like a tricycle with training wheels compared to any competitive trampoline. You want risky? Bouncing without a spotter on each side qualifies as risky.
2
Yipee!
What a delight to read and click through.
Passion, intensity, humor.
and more than a bit of deconstructing social strictures by ignoring them
thanks for brightening my day, y'all.
3
Way to go, ladies! You have learned an important lesson about being yourselves, and having confidence in yourselves, much earlier than I did, and that will be an invaluable gift and resource for you throughout your whole life. As will your ability to work at and accomplish amazing feats of athleticism. It looks really fun.
9
I'm training for a Spartan Race -- I'd argue they're the second best known elite level 'run' outfit behind Ironman -- and honestly at that top level most people have gotten over the idea that women can't compete.
Men will always post faster times, but the last course I ran, there was more than a few women outpacing the men on some of the obstacles.
We still probably need separate leagues for sports, but, I suspect Gen-Z will lead a big push to fund women's soccer, and hopefully the WNBA. More girls then ever are training for college scholarships and you can 1,000% bet they'll fight for 'pro' opportunities after graduation.
Good luck to all the girls Flipping. I for one hope the next 'Tony Hawk' of the whole extreme sports ends up being a woman!
15
At ultra marathons, such as 200 miles, women tend to outperform men!
And of course, on the uneven bars!
4
@Ramon Reiser. Absolutely untrue. Every ultramarathon record is held by a man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramarathon
2
I said tend. Far fewer women competing although that is changing. At 200-500 miles it starts to shift in their favor; I admit that not a few of the exceptional long runners and wrestlers have higher testosterone level than most competing women.
Wikipedia is a good start but scarcely the dogma. I have encountered significant errors several times.
I guess it varies with the area, and feel a bit disturbed by the comment and essence of the text implying that girls wouldn't do something because of what the boys might think!
I am impressed by the videos of the parkour (and unfortunately the outtakes where things don't go as planned) which seem to be mostly boys, but overall, the grace, style and athleticism of female gymnastics outshines most of the male examples.
Keep it up (safely) and don't push the envelope too hard. There was a reason most schools took their trampolines out of the gyms and parents resisted getting one for their home.
Those injuries, even when supervised training is in play, can be devastating and life changing.
17
@reid As someone who was once a teenage girl myself, it doesn't surprise me. I remember caring very much what boys thought, even if in a sort of vague way. A lot of the social hierarchies of girls at that time had to do with whom the boys found most attractive or coolest, and girls at that time (not that long ago - I'm only in my 30s now) were conditioned by almost everything around them (family, their community, religion, media) to value the characteristics that would make them most agreeable to others - including how they looked and what activities they did. I hope and think it's getting better, as there are many different girl empowerment movements and more and more visible, celebrated female role models who aren't also (in addition to whatever other qualities they might have) very traditionally pretty, made up, and attractive to men. But, I'm also sad to hear that what boys think still matters to some girls. Of course we shouldn't ignore what other people think (being considerate and respectful of others is a social and ethical virtue) but the traditional girl-boy dynamic of teenagers, and girls wanting to appear a certain way to boys, isn't a great example of that.
7
My 13 year old son spends 5 hours a week at a local parkour gym. There is always a mix of girls and boys there, and I've never observed anyone being treated differently because of their gender. It's all about "show me your tricks."
27
Women are built for parkour and flipping! Pound for pound, except for the pecs, they are naturally stronger. And certainly, as teenagers, crazier!
Mom was six years old when she saw Tarzan. It was 2 1/2 miles each way to school. One mile to the bridge across the deep, narrow chasm in Iowa City. Then another mile to be across from home and but another half mile to school.
So she played the great vines from trees and made a long rope with a knot. And swung across the chasm, tied her vine off, and walked the short 1/2 mile to school. Then came home the same way.
By 11 she was doing somersaults, twists, and backflips from the 30’ boards. (Later they stopped having boards and just had 30’ platforms. Boards are too dangerous!)
She was a skinny 11 year old, so there was only one good way to get enough spring. She stood on the safety railing and kept as high as she could to get more spring to get more somersaults and twists. Of course every two or three weeks she pancaked on her back or belly and wa black and blue for several days.
The it was horse back riding on the 20 trail miles of Rock Creek Park at National Park College (later Walter Reed Hospital) trained by a retired Czechoslovakian cavalry colonel.
Parkour is a natural for girls and women. As is rock climbing.
18
@Ramon Reiser
"Pound for pound, except for the pecs, they are naturally stronger"
Do you unironically believe this? In a world where high school boys regularly beat women's world records?
Recommended reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone
7
@Ramon Reiser
"Pound for pound, except for the pecs, they are naturally stronger."
Seriously? In a world where high school boys regularly beat women's world records?
Educate yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone
3
Yes. As a coach of track and field, boxing, and wrestling. I do.
Wrestling is a good example. It has weight classes. Not many girls wrestle, as in Washington it includes both sexes wrestling each other. But the African girls quite hold their own.
And Pow Wow dancing! The best dancer was a solid 350 lb young woman who not only was the most agile dancer in four states but would go nonstop except for a quick bathroom break for three days without stopping, and had the best dance clothing.
She also bench pressed sets of ten with 275 lb and was a premed major. But her tribe valued strength, agility, and endurance in their wives, and the POW Wow was a means of ensuring it.
Sadly, in the mid 90s few medical schools accepted more than a token four or so women. Recently it is even steven.
3
Very cool. Over 40 years ago, I got to bounce in the same gym with Leigh Hennessy, who was a world champion trampolinist at the time. On my very best days, I couldn't come close to doing the stuff she did.
6
How on earth do you have an article on something like flipping without having a single video of one of the article subjects performing or practicing her sport??
54
@Annika K. Martin just click on a name, like Seneca's, and a link opens to videos.
5
@Seneca Quoted in the NYTimes! Well done, Sen.
2
@Annika K. Martin
If you click on the link to my video in my section it will take you to my YouTube!! I also see that you live in katonah... I live right around there too :))
16
What a fun article. I love flipping, tumbling, etc. I never had the agility, strength, grit, or daring for it, but will never tire of watching it. I clicked on some of the Instagram links and was surprised to learn that I have an Instagram account. I assigned this article to my homeschooled son who enjoys a little casual Parkour from time to time. Athetic girls and women are awesome!!!
22