Action sports, adventure sports or extreme sports are activities perceived as involving a high degree of risk. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion and highly specialized gear. Extreme tourism overlaps with extreme sport. The two share the same main attraction, "adrenaline rush" caused by an element of risk, and differ mostly in the degree of engagement and professionalism.
Parkour is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing flips. With roots in military obstacle course training and martial arts, parkour includes flipping, running, climbing, swinging, vaulting, jumping, plyometrics, rolling, and quadrupedal movement—whatever is suitable for a given situation. Parkour is an activity that can be practiced alone or with others, and is usually carried out in urban spaces, though it can be done anywhere. It involves seeing one's environment in a new way, and envisioning the potential for navigating it by movement around, across, through, over and under its features.
Tag is a playground game involving one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to "tag" and mark them out of play, usually by touching with a hand. There are many variations; most forms have no teams, scores, or equipment. Usually, when a person is tagged, the tagger says, "Tag, you're 'It'!" The last one tagged during tag is "It" for the next round. The game is known by other names in various parts of the world, including "running and catching" in India and "catch and cook" in the Middle East.
Stickball is a street game similar to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City and Philadelphia. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, typically a spaldeen, pensy pinky, high bouncer or tennis ball. The rules come from baseball and are modified to fit the situation. For example, a manhole cover may be used as a base, or buildings for foul lines. The game is a variation of stick and ball games dating back to at least the 1750s. This game was widely popular among youths during the 20th century until the 1980s.
A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen or a Pensie Pinkie, is a rubber ball, described as a tennis ball core without the felt. These balls are commonly used in street games developed in the mid-20th century, such as Chinese handball, Australian Handball, stoop ball, hit-the-penny, butts up, handball, punchball, boxball, half-rubber, Wireball and stickball.
Sébastien Foucan is a French freerunner.
David Nicholas Williams Belle is a French actor, film choreographer and stunt coordinator. He is deemed the founder and leading pioneer of the physical discipline parkour, coining it based on his training and the teachings from his father Raymond Belle.
Robert Michael Lipsyte is an American sports journalist and author and former Ombudsman for ESPN. He is a member of the Board of Contributors for USA Today's Forum Page, part of the newspaper's Opinion section. He received the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2001 for his contribution in writing for teens.
The World Freerunning Parkour Federation (WFPF) is an international federation or organization that was established in 2007. Its focus is to bring together patrons of Parkour and Freerunning and aims to bring the sport and philosophy to the mainstream audience.
Daniel Marcus Ilabaca is a freerunner and traceur from Moreton, Merseyside, England. He along with Ryan Doyle, is the founder of the World Freerunning and Parkour Federation.
Indigenous North American stickball is a team sport typically played on an open field where teams of players with two sticks each attempt to control and shoot a ball at the opposing team's goal. It shares similarities to the game of lacrosse. In Choctaw Stickball, "Opposing teams use handcrafted sticks or kabocca, and a woven leather ball, or towa. Each team tries to advance the ball down the field to the other team's goalpost using only their sticks, never touching or throwing the ball with their hands. Points are scored when a player hits the opposing team's goalpost with the ball."
Vitilla is a popular variation of stickball played primarily in the Dominican Republic and areas in the United States with large Dominican populations.
There are a variety of traditional rural games in the historical region of Bengal. These games are typically played outside with very limited resources. Many of them have similarities to other traditional South Asian games. Nowadays, with urbanization, many traditional games are being played less and less.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport that has many recreational variants. The major sport most related to baseball is the Olympic discipline of softball, with the two sports being administered internationally alongside Baseball5 by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
India has several traditional games and sports, some of which have been played for thousands of years. Many of these games do not require much equipment or playing space. Some traditional Indian games are only played in certain regions of India, or may be known by different names and played under different rules and regulations in different regions of the country. Many Indian games are also similar to other traditional South Asian games.
Pakistan has many traditional games and sports. Many of them are similar to the traditional South Asian games played in countries such as India and Bangladesh.
The traditional games of New York City are one of the notable aspects of New York City's culture; many of them were brought over by the diverse mix of immigrants that settled in New York City, particularly from Europe. Many of these games used street furniture and other features of New York City's high urban density and were therefore also played in other cities of the United States. Most of these games have declined or disappeared in the modern era.
