"I would say kids often come to these classes on their own initiative. It's usually not a sport parents push them into. A child might see someone jumping around in the city or on TV or YouTube," Imre Liivak, a coach at Tallinn's Parkour Center, told ERR.

"The kids want to come themselves. It's a very non-routine kind of training. You're not doing the same thing 200 times. You learn something every day, every session. You have to learn something new because every situation is different. There's very little pressure. They come in smiling and genuinely want to do it."

According to Liivak, the sport is only as difficult as you make it for yourself.

"No one tells you to jump from a great height or start climbing a four-meter wall. You begin at your own level. Nobody says you have to climb a pipe two and a half meters off the ground," he said reassuringly.

"You start at knee height and many people come from a completely inactive lifestyle. They sit at home on the computer, see a video, come to training — and three years later they're moving around at greater heights. It's not a problem at all."

In Tartu, parkour is practiced at the Akros Gymnastics Club. Its director and one of the promoters of competitive parkour, Heigo Klaus, said people actually begin practicing parkour and its elements at a very young age. Alongside athletic ability, the sport also has a philosophical side: whether to approach it as a speed discipline or add artistic elements.

"Parkour training is full-body training. It requires speed, strength, courage, endurance, coordination and balance — absolutely everything. Essentially, parkour is the art of movement aimed at getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Along the way there are all kinds of obstacles you have to overcome," he explained.

"But parkour also offers another option: instead of trying to complete the course as fast as possible, you can do it creatively and with style — flips, tricks and elements of creativity. Which direction someone chooses — artistic or speed-focused and competition-oriented — depends on their training goals and the structure of training differs slightly as well."

"Obstacle techniques, ways to move faster and more efficiently, how to run up walls, how to land," he listed.

"If you go in the creative direction, then naturally there are all kinds of flips. The range is very broad. You can do it on the street, but if you want to learn techniques and practice safely, it's mostly done in gymnastics halls before moving onto harder surfaces."

Formal parkour training in Tartu begins with groups of children aged 5 to 7.

"But there are also classes for very small children. It's called gymnastics, but in reality we're climbing, running, jumping, going over all kinds of obstacles and doing exercises using our own body weight. In practice, it's basically parkour. We make use of every opportunity."

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