Parkour

Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK), or l'art du déplacement (English: the art of movement) is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment.^[1] It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed. The goal of a practitioner of parkour, called a traceur if male, or traceuse if female, is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. The obstacles can be anything in one's environment, but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of the many suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails.

The term freerunning is sometimes used interchangeably with parkour. While freerunning is more to do with expressing yourself within your environment, parkour is aiming to get from A to B the fastest. However, there is some controversy over the exact definitions of the two terms. Many "parkour purists" say that the biggest difference has to do with theatrics. Free-running involves a lot of trick moves, particularly aerial rotations and spins. Because these moves are merely showy, not economical, and do not help the participant to get from place to place, they are considered contrary to the nature of parkour. This is contrary to the philosophy originally laid down by David Belle. Although Sebastian Foucan co-founded parkour, he is more often associated with the sport of free running.

Overview

A traceur performing a passe muraille

In September 2009, American Parkour began a community effort to define parkour. They invited the entire community to post their personal definition of parkour. It was edited into the final version by a committee of American Parkour employees and people outside of American Parkour to ensure that it was truly a community effort. Their result:

Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment.

• Parkour requires... consistent, disciplined training with an emphasis on functional strength, physical conditioning, balance, creativity, fluidity, control, coordination, precision, spatial awareness, and looking beyond the traditional use of objects.
• Parkour movements typically include... running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, balancing, and quadrupedal movement. Movements from other physical disciplines are often incorporated, but acrobatics or tricking alone do not constitute parkour.
• Parkour training focuses on... safety, longevity, personal responsibility, and self-improvement. It discourages reckless behavior, showing off, and dangerous stunts.
• Parkour practitioners value... community, humility, positive collaboration, sharing of knowledge, and the importance of play in human life, while demonstrating respect for all people, places, and spaces.

—American Parkour Community Definition ^[1]

Two primary characteristics of parkour are efficiency and speed. Practitioners take the most direct path around an obstacle as rapidly as that path can be traversed. Developing one's level of spatial awareness is often used to aid development in these areas. Also, efficiency involves avoiding injuries, both short and long term. This idea embodying parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last). Those who are skilled at this activity normally have extremely keen spatial awareness.

Parkour's emphasis on efficiency distinguishes it from the similar practice of free running, which places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity.

Traceurs say that parkour also influences one's thought processes by enhancing self-confidence and critical-thinking skills that allow one to overcome everyday physical and mental obstacles.^[2][3][4] A study by Neuropsychiatrie de l'Enfance et de l'Adolescence in France reflects that traceurs seek more excitement and leadership situations than gymnastic practitioners.^[5]

Terminology

The first terms used to describe this form of training were l'art du déplacement and le parcours.^[6]

The term parkour (French pronunciation: [paʁˈkuʁ]) was coined by Hubert Koundé. It derives from parcours du combattant, the classic obstacle course method of military training proposed by Georges Hébert.^[7][8][9]

Traceur [tʁasœʁ] and traceuse [tʁasøz] are substantives derived from the French verb tracer, which normally means "to trace",^[10] or "to draw", but which is also a slang for "to go fast".^[11]

History

Passement

Hébert's legacy

Before World War I, former naval officer Georges Hébert traveled throughout the world. During a visit to Africa, he was impressed by the physical development and skills of indigenous tribes that he met:^[12]

Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.

—Georges Hébert, ^[12]

On May 8, 1902, the town of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, where he was stationed, suffered from the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée. Hébert coordinated the escape and rescue of some 700 people. This experience had a profound effect on him, and reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism. He eventually developed this ethos into his motto: "être fort pour être utile" (be strong to be useful).^[12]

Inspired by indigenous tribes, Hébert became a physical education tutor at the college of Reims in France. He began to define the principles of his own system of physical education and to create various apparatuses and exercises to teach his méthode naturelle,^[12] which he defined as:

Methodical, progressive and continuous action, from childhood to adulthood, that has as its objective: assuring integrated physical development; increasing organic resistances; emphasizing aptitudes across all genres of natural exercise and indispensable utilities (walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, equilibrium (balancing), throwing, lifting, defending and swimming); developing one's energy and all other facets of action or virility such that all assets, both physical and virile, are mastered; one dominant moral idea: altruism.

—Georges Hébert, ^[13]

Hébert set up a méthode naturelle session consisting of ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defense, swimming, which are part of three main forces:^[13]

• Energetic or virile sense: energy, willpower, courage, coolness, and firmness
• Moral sense: benevolence, assistance, honor, and honesty
• Physical sense: muscles and breath

During World War I and World War II, Hébert's teaching continued to expand, becoming the standard system of French military education and training. Thus, Hébert was one of the proponents of parcours — an obstacle course, developed by a Swiss architect,^[14] which is standard in the military training and led to the development of civilian fitness trails and confidence courses.^[12] Also, French soldiers and firefighters developed their obstacle courses known as parcours du combattant and parcours SP.^[15]

Belle family

David Belle, parkour founder, at The New Yorker Festival

Raymond Belle was born in French Indochina (now Vietnam). His father died during the First Indochina War and Raymond was separated from his mother during the division of Vietnam in 1954. He was taken by the French Army in Da Lat and received a military education and training that shaped his character.^[16]

After the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Raymond was repatriated to France and completed his military education in 1958. At age 19, his dedication to fitness helped him serve in Paris's regiment of sapeurs-pompiers (the French fire service).^[16]

With his athletic ability, Raymond became the regiment's champion rope-climber and joined the regiment's elite team, composed of the unit's fittest and most agile firefighters. Its members were the ones called for the most difficult and dangerous rescue missions.^[16]

Lauded for his coolness, courage, and self-sacrifice, Raymond played a key role in the Parisian firefighters' first helicopter-borne operation. His many rescues, medals, and exploits gave him a reputation of being an exceptional pompier and inspired the next young generation,^[16] especially his son, David Belle.^[17]

Raymond introduced his son David to obstacle course training and the méthode naturelle. David participated in activities such as martial arts and gymnastics and sought to apply his athletic prowess for some practical purpose.^[15] At age 17, David left school seeking freedom and action. He continued to develop his strength and dexterity in order to be useful in life, as Raymond had advised him.^[15]

Development in Lisses

It was the end of the day. I was just doing stuff with a bunch of kids. I fall all the time — I fall like the monkeys — but it never shows up on film, because they just want the spectacular stuff.

—David Belle on his video, The New Yorker ^[14]

After moving to Lisses commune, David Belle continued his journey with others.^[15] "From then on we developed," says Sébastien Foucan in Jump London, "And really the whole town was there for us; there for parkour. You just have to look, you just have to think, like children." This, as he describes, is "the vision of parkour."

In 1997, Yann Hnautra, Chau Belle, David Belle, Laurent Piemontesi, Sébastien Foucan, Guylain N'Guba Boyeke, Charles Perriere, Malik Diouf and Williams Belle created the group called Yamakasi,^[18] whose name comes from the Lingala language of Congo, and means strong spirit, strong body, strong man, endurance. After the musical show Notre Dame de Paris, Belle and Foucan split up due to money and disagreements over the definition of l'art du déplacement,^[17] The film Yamakasi, in 2001, and the French documentary Génération Yamakasi were created without Belle and Foucan.

Over the years, as dedicated practitioners improved their skills, their numbers of moves grew. Building-to-building jumps and drops of over a storey became common in media portrayals, often leaving people with a slanted view of parkour. Actually, ground-based movements are more common than anything involving rooftops, because legal accessibility in urban areas is difficult. From the Parisian suburbs, parkour went on to become a widely practiced activity outside of France.

Philosophy and theories

According to Williams Belle, the philosophies and theories behind parkour are an integral aspect of the art, one that many non-practitioners have never been exposed to. Belle trains people because he wants "it to be alive" and for "people to use it".^[4] Châu Belle explains it is a "type of freedom" or "kind of expression"; that parkour is "only a state of mind" rather than a set of actions, and that it is about overcoming and adapting to mental and emotional obstacles as well as physical barriers.^[4]

A recent convention of parkour philosophy has been the idea of "human reclamation".^[19] Andy (Animus of Parkour North America) clarifies it as "a means of reclaiming what it means to be a human being. It teaches us to move using the natural methods that we should have learned from infancy. It teaches us to touch the world and interact with it, instead of being sheltered by it."^[19]

"It is as much as a part of truly learning the physical art as well as being able to master the movements, it gives you the ability to overcome your fears and pains and reapply this to life as you must be able to control your mind in order to master the art of parkour."^[20]

Non-rivalry

A campaign was started on May 1, 2007 by Parkour.NET portal^[21] to preserve parkour's philosophy against sport competition and rivalry.^[22] In the words of Erwan LeCorre:

Competition pushes people to fight against others for the satisfaction of a crowd and/or the benefits of a few business people by changing its mindset. Parkour is unique and cannot be a competitive sport unless it ignores its altruistic core of self development. If parkour becomes a sport, it will be hard to seriously teach and spread parkour as a non-competitive activity. And a new sport will be spread that may be called parkour, but that won't hold its philosophical essence anymore.

—Erwan LeCorre^[21]

Movements

Saut de précision

There are fewer predefined movements in parkour than in gymnastics, as there is no list of "moves". Each obstacle a traceur faces presents a unique challenge. The ability to overcome the challenge depends on multiple factors, for example, on body type, speed, angle of approach, the physical make-up of the obstacle. Parkour is about training the "bodymind" to react to those obstacles appropriately with a technique that is effective. Often that technique cannot and need not be classified and given a name. In many cases effective parkour techniques depend on fast redistribution of body weight and the use of momentum to perform seemingly difficult or impossible body maneuvers at great speed. Absorption and redistribution of energy is also an important factor, such as body rolls when landing which reduce impact forces on the legs and spine, allowing a traceur to jump from greater heights than those often considered sensible in other forms of acrobatics and gymnastics.

According to David Belle, you want to move in such a way that will help you gain the most ground as if escaping or chasing something. Also, if you go from A to B, you need to be able to get back from B to A,^[23] but not necessarily with the same movements or passements.

Despite this, there are many basic versatile and effective techniques that are emphasized for beginners. Most important are good jumping and landing techniques. The roll, used to limit impact after a drop and to carry one's momentum onward, is often stressed as the most important technique to learn. Parkour has sometimes received concerns for its health issues due to large drops.^[24][25][26] Communities in Great Britain have been warned by law enforcement or fire and rescue of the risk in jumping off high buildings.^[27][28] Although David Belle has never been seriously injured while practicing parkour,^[29] there is no careful study about the health issues of large drops and traceurs stress gradual progression to avoid any problems. American traceur Mark Toorock says that injuries are rare "because participants rely not on what they can't control -- wheels or the icy surfaces of snowboarding and skiing -- but their own hands and feet," but Lanier Johnson, executive director of the American Sports Medicine Institute, says "It's really hard to get people to report these kinds of injuries."^[30]

Basic movements

Some movements defined in freerunning (tricks are not part of parkour) are:^[31]

Training places

Unlike many other activities, parkour is not currently practiced in dedicated public facilities (e.g., skateparks), although efforts are being made to create places for it.^[32] Traceurs practice parkour in urban areas like gyms, parks, playgrounds, offices, and abandoned structures. Concerns have been raised regarding trespassing, damage of property,^[33] and the practice in inappropriate places.^[34] However, most traceurs will take care of their training spots and will remove themselves quickly and quietly from a public place if asked. Eyres Monsell Estate: Leicester, England, United Kingdom. Magpie youth center free running club have raised 40,000 to build a free running park/training utility on the park opposite the youth center.

There is also the concern that practitioners are needlessly risking damage to both themselves and rooftops by practicing at height, with police forces calling for practitioners to stay off the rooftops.^[35][36] Some figures within the parkour community agree that this sort of behaviour is not to be encouraged.^{[35][37][38][39]} These issues, however, do not appear to apply to the majority of practitioners whose relationship with authorities is generally a positive one.^[40]

Accessories

There is no equipment required, although practitioners normally train wearing light casual clothing:^[41][42]

• Light upper body garment — such as T-shirt, sleeveless shirt or crop top.
• Light lower body garment — such as sweatpants, tracksuit bottoms or light shorts.

Comfortable running shoes, that are generally light, with good grip, are encouraged. Many traceurs think cheaper and easier to replace shoes such as Nike dart IV or even Kalenji Ekiden 50 are much more practical. More experienced traceurs with stronger feet tend to train barefoot, which is the best way to feel the environment. Various sport shoes manufacturers around the world started offering parkour-specific lines. Some traceurs use sweat-bands for forearm protection. Some use thin athletic gloves to protect the hands;^[43] those who don't, prefer to "feel their environment" directly, developing thick callouses.^[44][45]

Since parkour is closely related to méthode naturelle, sometimes practitioners train barefooted to be able to move efficiently without depending on their gear. David Belle has said: "bare feet are the best shoes!"^[46]

Outcome

Free running

Another saut de bras

The term freerunning was coined during the filming of Jump London, as a way to present parkour to the English-speaking world. Although, as noted above, parkour and freerunning are considered to be slightly different by some people, the founders and principal practitioners in Europe do not recognize any distinction, and use all names interchangeably for the discipline.

The founder and creator of Freerunning Sébastien Foucan defines free running as a discipline to self development, following your own way. His dissatisfaction of limited creativity and self-expression in parkour was the motivation that made Sebastian Foucan to develop a similar but also very different art of movement that became known as freerunning.[1]

Understand that this form of art has been created by few soldiers in Vietnam to escape or reach: and this is the spirit we'd like parkour to keep. You have to make the difference between what is useful and what is not in emergency situations. Then you'll know what is parkour and what is not. So if you do acrobatics things on the street with no other goal than showing off, please don't say it's parkour. Acrobatics existed long time ago before parkour.

—David Belle or PAWA team, or both, ^[7]

When questions are raised between the differences of parkour and freerunning, the Yamakasi group deny the differences and say: "parkour, l'art du deplacement, freerunning, the art of movement... they are all the same thing. They are all movement and they all came from the same place, the same nine guys originally. The only thing that differs is each individual's way of moving". Thus leading to what they view as separation of parkour community or wasting energy debating the differences when one should follow his/her own way and find why practice.^[47]

Military training

After the attention that parkour received following the film Casino Royale, militaries from different countries began looking for ways to incorporate parkour into training. The British Royal Marines hired parkour athletes to train their members.^[48] Colorado Parkour began a project to introduce parkour into the U.S. military^[49] and parkour is slowly being introduced into the USMC.^[50]

Popular culture

A traceuse vaults an obstacle.

Parkour has appeared in various television advertisements, news reports and entertainment pieces, often combined with other forms of acrobatics, such as free running, street stunts and tricking.

Film and television

• Banlieue 13 features parkour and stars David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli.^[51]
• Banlieue 13 Ultimatum amazing parkour stunts with David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli
• Yamakasi - Les samouraïs des temps modernes 2001
• Yamakasi les fils du vent//The Great Challenge 2003
• In many films starring Jackie Chan, parkour-like and free running-like moves can be seen, before the invention of both (for example in the Police Story film series, Rumble in the Bronx, Mr. Nice guy)
• The Australian version of 60 Minutes featured a segment of parkour on September 16, 2007, which featured Sébastien Foucan on a trip to Australia, and French traceur Stephane Vigroux.^[52]
• Top Gear (series 8) episode 7 (and The Challenges DVD) has James May racing two parkour athletes across Liverpool in a Peugeot 207.^[53]
• My Playground Documentary by Kaspar Astrup Schröder. It explores the way parkour and freerunning is changing the perception of urban space and how the spaces and buildings they are moving on are changing them. Mainly set in Copenhagen the film follows Team JiYo as they explore the city and encounter the obstacles it presents^[54]
• Jump Britian and Jump London are also freerunning/parkour documentaries.
• Jonas Brothers: Living The Dream featured an episode where the brothers took Parkour classes.
• In the 2010 film Cop Out, the character Dave uses parkour to rob houses and escape from the police. (As they watch Dave rob the house they've staked out, Jimmy (Bruce Willis) exclaims, "Woah! What is that?!" Paul (Tracy Morgan) replies, "That's called parkour. It's a french martial art to get you around and over stuff.")^[55]
• Die hard 4.0 includes actor and Traceur Cyril Raffaelli as a henchman to the film's main villain. There is a limited use of Parkour in several action scenes.

Literature

• Jump Derry by Christine Donovan, April 2010. Set in Derry, Northern Ireland, a 16 year old girl watches her traceur boyfriend and learns to negotiate her physical and emotional environment.^[56]
• Spiked Parkour and Action sports magazine - A parkour magazine produced in the UK and distributed to several other countries.
• Teodor's Parkour Interlude by Chris Onstad, November 11, 2007. The popular internet comic uses a reference to Parkour as an absurdist literary device.^[57]

Video games

• Splinter Cell series feature the protagonist Sam Fisher using parkour moves to infiltrate, escape, eliminate enemies steathily to accomplish missions.
• Assassin's Creed 's protagonist Altaïr and Assassin's Creed II 's protagonist Ezio use parkour (although the action is referred to as "free-run" while in-game).^[58][59][60]
• Mirror's Edge is about a gang of outlaws called "runners," who excel and specialize in parkour.
• Prince of Persia and its sequels use parkour consistently throughout the game by the main character, the prince (although the portrayal is taken to superhuman levels).
• Prototype mentions parkour by name and it plays a vital role in the game.
• True Crime, a to be released sandbox game set in Hong Kong is to feature a blend of parkour and freerunning style movements mixed in with the game's combat, reminiscent of the Hong Kong action genre.(Character is seen in early gameplay videos of being able to lazy vault over objects and kick enemies or objects while doing so).
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland has several techniques the player can do while not on the skateboard: free-running (although it is called parkour in the game), wall-run, wire-grab, and other parkour movements.
• Brink, which will feature S.M.A.R.T.
• Infamous's protagonist Cole uses parkour extensively.
• Tron Evolution producer, Alex Peters, said in an interview with Gamespot (Pre-E3) that Tron's basic movements and combat were based on parkour and capoeira. Interview from Gamespot
• Tomb Raider's Lara Croft character often employs parkour moves when moving through the game.
• Crackdown 2 Agents use parkour and other agility movements to clear obstacles and buildings.

See also

• Par course
• Buildering - the act of climbing the outside of buildings and other urban structures. The word is a portmanteau combining the word "building" with the climbing term "bouldering".
• Dérive - a French situationist philosophy of re-envisioning one's relation to urban spaces (psychogeography) and acting accordingly.
• Free Running - a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, known as free runners, use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures.
• Tricking - an art with roots in different forms of martial arts and gymnastics, often mistaken for parkour by the media and public.
• Qing Gong - a traditional Chinese martial arts that translate into "light body skill" where the martial artist would perform feats of great agility and jump to great heights. Certain Wudang martial artists are seen using this skill to scale vertical heights in a way similar to parkour movements.
• Yamakasi - a group founded by Yann Hnautra, David Belle, Laurent Piemontesi, and Chau Belle Dinh 3 years before parkour with emphasis on style, fluidity, and freedom. It is also a 2001 movie.

References

Jesse La Flair