Parkour
Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement(English: the art of movement) is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment—from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls—and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Parkour practitioners are referred to as traceurs, or traceuses for females.
Founded by David Belle in France, parkour focuses on practicing efficient movements to develop one's body and mind to be able to overcome obstacles in an emergency.
Overview
Parkour is a physical activity that is difficult to categorize. It is often mis-categorized as a sport or an extreme sport; however, parkour has no set of rules, team work, formal hierarchy, or competitiveness. It is an art or discipline that resembles self-defense in the ancient martial arts.According to David Belle, "the physical aspect of parkour is getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency. You want to move in such a way, with any movement, as to help you gain the most ground on someone or something, whether escaping from it or chasing toward it."Thus, when faced with a hostile confrontation with a person, one will be able to speak, fight, or flee. As martial arts are a form of training for the fight, parkour is a form of training for the flight.Because of its unique nature, it is often said that parkour is in its own category.
A characteristic of parkour is efficiency. Practitioners move not only as fast as they can, but also in the most direct and efficient way possible; a characteristic that distinguishes it from the similar practice of freerunning, which places more emphasis on freedom of movement, such as acrobatics. Efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term, part of why 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 spatial awareness (a.k.a. air sense).[citation needed]
Traceurs say that parkour also influences one's thought process 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 for more sensation and leadership than gymnastic practitioners.
Belle family
Raymond Belle was born in French Indochina (now Vietnam) but 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. Although trained to kill, he would go on to save lives. At age 19, his dedication to fitness and willingness helped him to 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. Its members were the ones called for the most difficult and dangerous rescue missions.
Lauded for his coolness, courage, and spirit of self-sacrifice, Raymond was to have a key role in the Parisian firefighters' first ever 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. At age 17, David left the school to seek his love of freedom, action, and to develop his strength and dexterity to be useful in life, as Raymond had advised him.
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.
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.
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, 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, resulting in the production of Yamakasi (film) in 2001 and the French documentary Génération Yamakasi 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 practiced activity outside France.
Movements
There are fewer predefined movements in parkour than gymnastics, as it does not have a list of appropriate "moves". Each obstacle a traceur faces presents a unique challenge on how they can overcome it effectively, which depends on their body type, speed and angle of approach, the physical make-up of the obstacle, etc. Parkour is about training the bodymind to react to those obstacles appropriately with a technique that works. 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 impossible or difficult body manoeuvres at 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 techniques that are emphasized to beginners for their versatility and effectiveness. 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. Many traceurs develop joint problems from too many large drops and rolling incorrectly. 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 in the high buildings. Although David Belle has never been seriously injured while practising 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 or réception | Landing | Bending the knees when toes make contact with ground (never land flat footed; always land on toes and ball of your foot). |
| Équilibre | 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 | 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 more simple 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. David Belle has officially rebuked this vault however,[citation needed] and thus its inclusion as a parkour movement is debatable. | |
| Reverse vault | A vault involving a 360° 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. | |
| 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 minimise impact preventing a painful landing. Identical to the basic Kaiten or Ukemi of martial arts such as Judo, Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, and Aikido. |
| Saut de bras [sodbra] | Arm jump, cat leap | 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] | 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. |
| Tic tac [tik tak] | Tic tac | To step off a wall in order to overcome another obstacle or gain height to grab something. |
It is notable how certain French terms will be used undiluted, commonly 'Lache' or 'Passe Muraille' and some will be used in English, usually with simple names such as 'Catpass' and 'Precision'. It is important to remember that movements are not single 'tricks' in Parkour, but more that technique names are categories to place movement types into—much like how martial arts use different kicking techniques, yet they are all still kicks.
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 gym, parks, playgrounds and abandoned structures, and concerns have been raised regarding trespassing, damage of property, and the practice in inappropriate places.
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. 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!"
Freerunning
The term freerunning was coined during the filming of Jump London, as a way to present parkour to the English-speaking world. However, freerunning and parkour are separate, distinct concepts—a distinction which is often missed due to the aesthetic similarities. Parkour as a discipline comprises efficiency, whilst freerunning embodies complete freedom of movement—and often includes many acrobatic maneuvers. Although often the two are physically similar, the mindsets of each are vastly different. Foucan defines freerunning as a discipline to self development, following your own way.While traceurs and traceuses practice parkour in order to improve their ability to overcome obstacles faster and in the most efficient manner, freerunners practice and employ a broader array of movements that are not always necessary in order to overcome obstacles. The meaning of the different philosophical approaches to movement can be summed up by the following two quotes:
The most important element is the harmony between you and the obstacle; the movement has to be elegant... If you manage to pass over the fence elegantly—that's beautiful, rather than saying I jumped the lot. What's the point in that?
—Jerome Ben Aoues (experienced freerunner), Jump London
David Belle or PAWA team, or both emphasized the division between parkour and freerunning by stating:
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.
When questions are raised between the differences of parkour and freerunning, however, 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.
Popular culture
Parkour has appeared in various television advertisements, news reports and entertainment pieces, often combined with other forms of acrobatics also called freerunning, street stunts and tricking.
The most notable appearances have been in narrative films and video games:
- Yamakasi (2001)
- District B13 (2004)
- The Great Challenge (2004)
- Casino Royale (2006)
- Breaking and Entering (2006)
- Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) - David Belle is credited as Parkour coordinator
- The Simpsons aired 28 September 2008 (Season 20, Episode 1 "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes")
- You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008)
- Mirror's Edge (2008)
- Assassin's Creed (2007)
Notable parkour documentaries include:
- Génération Yamakasi - Vol au dessus des cités
- Jump London (2003)
- Jump Britain (2005)
- Jump Westminster (2007)
- Parkour Journeys (2007)
- Pilgrimage (2008)
