Parkour

A traceur performs an équilibre de chat (cat balance).

Parkour (sometimes also abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement (English: the art of moving) is a physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, as if moving in an emergency situation, using skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves. The object is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment around you. 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 that are accessible to most people, such as buildings and rails.

The official definition from the American Parkour website says, "Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment."

Parkour practitioners are often called traceurs if male, or traceuses if female.

Overview

A traceur performing a passe muraille

Physical aspects

Parkour is most often practiced outdoors, usually without spectators, and is not considered to be performance oriented. According to REFO, "the physical aspect of Parkour consists of getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency. You want to move in such a way that helps you gain the most ground on someone or something, whether escaping from it or moving towards it." As martial arts are a form of training for the fight, parkour is a form of training for the flight.

Parkour is an urban sport and as a traceur (people practicing this discipline) you focus on moving from point a to point b as fast, smoothly and efficiently as possible. You are using the abilities of your body to surpass any obstacle in your surrounding whereby you are given complete freedom – physically and mentally.

— Urban Idiots

Two primary characteristics of parkour are efficiency and speed. Practitioners are supposed to 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 an extremely keen.

Parkour's emphasis on efficiency distinguishes it from the similar practice of free running, which places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity. However, it is not certain whether free running was initially intended to be similar to parkour.

Mental aspects

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. 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.

Terminology

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

The term parkour (French pronunciation: [paʁˈkuʁ]) was coined by David Belle and his friend Hubert Koundé. It derives from parcours du combattant, the classic obstacle course method of military training proposed by Georges Hébert.

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

History

Passement

See also: Timeline of parkour

Hébert's legacy

Main article: Georges Hébert

Before World War I, former French 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:

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

— Georges Hébert,

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).

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 apparati and exercises to teach his méthode naturelle, 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,

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:

• 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, which is standard in the military training and led to the development of civilian fitness trails and confidence courses. Also, French soldiers and firefighters developed their obstacle courses known as parcours du combattant and parcours SP.

Belle family

David Belle, parkour founder, at The New Yorker Festival.

Main articles: Raymond Belle and David Belle

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.

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).

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. It's members were the ones called for the most difficult and dangerous rescue missions.

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, especially his son, David Belle.

Born in a firefighter's family, David was influenced by stories of heroism. 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. 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.

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

After moving to Lisses commune, David Belle continued his journey with others. "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, David Belle, Laurent Piemontesi, Sébastien Foucan, Yann Hnautra, Charles Perrière, Malik Diouf, Guylain N'Guba-Boyeke, Châu Belle-Dinh, and Williams Belle created the group called Yamakasi, 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, 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 moves grew. Building-to-building jumps and drops of over a story 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, due to accessibility to find legal places to climb in an urban area. From the Parisian suburbs, parkour became a widely practised activity outside 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". Châu Belle Dinh 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.

A recent convention of parkour philosophy has been the idea of "human reclamation". 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."

It is as much as a part of truly learning this activity 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."

Non-rivalry

A campaign was started on May 1, 2007 by Parkour.NET portal to preserve parkour's philosophy against sport competition and rivalry. In the words of Erwan (Hebertiste):

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.

— 

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, wherever you go, you must be able to get back, if you go from A to B, you need to be able to get back from B to A, 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. Communities in Great Britain have been warned by law enforcement or fire and rescue of the risk in jumping off high buildings. Although David Belle has never been seriously injured while practicing parkour, there is no careful study about the health issues of large drops and traceurs stress gradual progression to avoid any problems. Despite this, the American traceur Mark Toorock and Lanier Johnson, executive director of the American Sports Medicine Institute say that injuries are rare because parkour is based on the control of movements, not on what cannot be controlled.

Basic movements

Some movements defined in parkour are:

Synonym		Description
French	English
Atterrissage [ateʁisaʒ] or réception [ʁesɛpsjɔ̃]	Landing	Bending the knees when toes make contact with ground (never land flat footed; always land on toes and ball of your foot).
Équilibre [ekilibʁ]	Balance	Walking along the crest of an obstacle; literally "balance."
Équilibre de chat	Cat balance	Quadrupedal movement along the crest of an obstacle.
Franchissement [fʁɑ̃ʃismɑ̃]	Underbar	Jumping or swinging through a gap between obstacles; literally "to cross" or "to break through."
Lâché [laʃe]	Lache, swing	Hanging drop; lâcher literally meaning "to let go." To hang or swing (on a bar, on a wall, on a branch) and let go, dropping to the ground or to hang from another object. This can refer to almost all hanging/swinging type movements.
Passe muraille [pas myʁaj]	Pop vault, wall hop, Wallpass, wallrun	Overcoming a tall structure, usually by use of a step off the wall to transform forward momentum into upward momentum, then using the arms to climb onto and over the object.
	Dyno (shortened from "Dynamic", opposite to "Static")	This movement comes from climbing terminology, and encompasses leaping from a position similar to an armjump, then grabbing an obstacle usually higher than the initial starting place, often used for an overhang. This movement is used when a simpler movement is not possible.
Passement [pasmɑ̃]	Vault, Pass	To move over an object with one's hand(s) on an object to ease the movement.
Demitour [dəmi tuʁ]	Turn vault, Turn Down	A vault or dropping movement involving a 180° turn; literally "half turn." This move is often used to place yourself hanging from an object in order to shorten a drop or prepare for a jump.
Passement	Speed vault	To overcome an obstacle by jumping side-ways first, then placing one hand on the obstacle to self-right your body and continue running.
	Lazy vault	To overcome an obstacle by using a one-handed vault, then using the other hand at the end of the vault to push oneself forwards in order to finish the move.
Saut de chat [sod ʃa]	Cat pass/jump, (king) kong vault, monkey vault	The saut de chat involves diving forward over an obstacle so that the body becomes horizontal, pushing off with the hands and tucking the legs, such that the body is brought back to a vertical position, ready to land.
	Dash vault	This vault involves using the hands to move oneself forwards at the end of the vault. One uses both hands to overcome an obstacle by jumping feet first over the obstacle and pushing off with the hands at the end. Visually, this might seem similar to the saut de chat, but reversed. Allegedly David Belle has questioned the effectiveness of this movement.
	Reverse vault	A vault involving a 180° rotation such that the traceur's back faces forward as they pass the obstacle. The purpose of the rotation is ease of technique in the case of otherwise awkward body position or loss of momentum prior to the vault.
	Kash vault	This vault is a combination of two vaults; the kong vault and the dash vault. After pushing off with the hands in a kong vault, the body continues past vertical over the object until the feet are leading the body. The kash vault is then finished by pushing off of the object at the end, as in a dash vault.
Planche [plɑ̃ʃ]	Muscle-up or climb-up	To get from a hanging position (wall, rail, branch, arm jump, etc) into a position where your upper body is above the obstacle, supported by the arms. This then allows for you to climb up onto the obstacle and continue.
Roulade [ʁulad]	Roll	A forward roll where the hands, arms and diagonal of the back contact the ground, often called breakfall. Used primarily to transfer the momentum/energy from jumps and to minimize impact, preventing a painful landing. It is identical to the basic Kaiten or Ukemi and it was taken from Martial Arts such as Judo, Ninjutsu, Jujutsu, hapkido and Aikido.
Saut de bras [sodbra]	Arm jump, cat leap, cat grab	To land on the side of an obstacle in a hanging/crouched position, the hands gripping the top edge, holding the body, ready to perform a muscle up.
Saut de fond [sodfɔ̃]	Drop	Literally 'jump to the ground' / 'jump to the floor'. To jump down, or drop down from something.
Saut de détente [sodə detɑ̃t]	Gap jump, running jump	To jump from one place/object to another, over a gap/distance. This technique is most often followed with a roll.
Saut de précision [so d presiziɔ̃] or précision [presiziɔ̃]	Precision	Static or moving jump from one object to a precise spot on another object. This term can refer to any form of jumping however.
Saut de mur	Wall Jump, Tic-Tac or Tac Vault	To step off a wall in order to overcome another obstacle or gain height to grab something

For certain terms, the French version is used, commonly "lache", and some will be used in English, usually with simple names such as "catpass" and "precision".

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. Traceurs practice parkour in urban areas like gyms, parks, playgrounds, offices, and abandoned structures. Concerns have been raised regarding trespassing, damage of property, and the practice in inappropriate places. However, most traceurs will take care of their training spots and will remove themselves quickly and quietly from a public place if asked.

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. Figures within the parkour community, including parkour instructors and David Belle, agree that this sort of behaviour is not to be encouraged. These issues, however, do not appear to apply to the majority of practitioners whose relationship with authorities is generally a positive one.

Accessories

There is no equipment required, although practitioners normally train wearing light casual clothing:

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

The only gear really required is comfortable athletic shoes that are generally light, with good grip. Various sport shoes manufacturers around the world started offering parkour specific lines. Some traceurs use sweat-bands for forearm protection, or even thin athletic gloves to protect the hands, but most traceurs advise against this as it reduces grip and feel.

However, 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!"

Outcome

Free running

Main article: 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. Often misunderstood as separate arts, the founders and principal practitioners in Europe do not consider any distinction, and use all names interchangeably for the discipline.

Understand that this art has been created by few soldiers in Vietnam to escape or reach: and this is the spirit I'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,

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.

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. Colorado Parkour began a project to introduce parkour into the U.S. military and parkour is slowly being introduced into the USMC.

Popular culture

A traceuse vaults an obstacle.

Main article: Parkour in popular culture

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.

• Banlieue 13 features parkour and stars David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli.
• Casino Royale features Sébastien Foucan in a chase that implements many aspects of parkour.
• Breaking and Entering includes a parkour scene.
• Live Free or Die Hard includes a parkour sequence.
• Cops and Robbers includes parkour sequences.
• 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.
• Through the Assassin's Creed protagonist Altaïr and the Assassin's Creed II protagonist Ezio, the player uses parkour.
• Crackdown is an Xbox 360 action game and it has a parkour feature.
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland: one of the several techniques that the player can do whilst not on your skateboard is free-running, although it is called parkour in the game. Also, it's possible to wall-run, wire-grab and other parkour movements.
• Mirror's Edge: a critically acclaimed Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game with the main focus being on a gang of outlaws called "Runners," who excel and specialize in parkour.
• In The Office (season 6, episode 1), characters Michael Scott, Andy, and Dwight became fascinated with Internet parkour videos. The three decided to make parkour video, taping their parkour antics in the office and outside of the building, all the while yelling "hardcore parkour!"
• "The Road to El Dorado", a 2000 movie made by Dreamworks, sees the two main characters (Miguel and Tullio) performing multiple Parkour-type stunts.
• the Xbox 360 title Prototype mentions parkour by name and plays a vital role in the game.
• In House (season 6, episode 6, "Brave Heart"), the opening sequence features parkour in a chase scene.
• the Xbox 360 and PC title 'Left 4 Dead' has a character, known as a "Hunter", whose design and abilities are based on parkour. This character also returns in the sequel Left 4 Dead 2 (with a slightly modified appearance).
• Madonna made use of 3 Parkour performers, including Sébastien Foucan during her 2006 Confessions Tour, and Parkour featured heavily in her music video to Jump.

See also

• 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.
• Urban freeflow
• 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.