The 16 year-old is addicted to free running, also known as parkour. If your are not sure what that is press play on this clip below and prepare to be amazed. You will recognise a few Cwmbran landmarks.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIcZqN9vZk&w=560&h=315]
I met Will tonight and recorded an audioboo with him. Click here to listen to him talk about free running (4min 35 secs).
He said: “With free running you have to be able to empty your mind of everything before you do anything. If you get distracted by anything it won’t go right. It is times like that when you start getting injured.
If you don’t assess the danger of anything first then you know you won’t do it right and will hurt yourself.
In the last three years he has broken three metatarsals, sprained his ankles and wrists, needed six stitches in his leg and suffered cuts on his knees.
Here is a photo gallery of Will in action and includes a pic of one of his injuries.
[slideshow]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlnlMi-UD6w&w=560&h=315]
This is how Wikiedia describes free running
Free running or freerunning is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, known as free runners (or practitioners, though this is a generic term used for freerunning and parkour), use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures.