Le Parkour

[lefuet]

Le Parkour (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour) is a physical discipline of French origin. It is an art form of human movement, focusing on uninterrupted, efficient forward motion over, under, around and through obstacles (both man-made and natural) in one's environment. Such movement may come in the form of running, jumping, climbing and other more complex techniques. The goal of practicing le parkour is to be able to adapt one's movement to any given scenario so that any obstacle can be overcome with the human body's abilities.

According to founder David Belle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Belle), the "spirit" of parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach"; that is, the idea of using physical agility and quick thinking to get out of difficult situations, and to be able to go anywhere that one desires. However, fluidity and beauty are also important considerations; for example, cofounder Sébastien Foucan speaks of being "fluid like water," a frequently used metaphor for the smooth passage of barriers through the use of parkour. Similarly, experienced traceur (practicioner of parkour) Jerome Ben Aoues explains in the documentary Jump London that:
...
The most important element is the harmony between you and the obstacle; the movement has to be elegant ...

[from Wikipedia]


http://media.planetvids.com/pvids/David_Belle_the_Jumper.wmv
Belle in a BBC ad (http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/bbccontinuity/bbc1/bbc1rushhour2002.rm)

[Prince Loeffler]

Assuming this is in French. What exactly does the word "Le Parkour" means ? Thanks

[Fred27]

Assuming this is in French. What exactly does the word "Le Parkour" means ? Thanks

Well according to wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page)


Parkour

An athletic discipline in which practitioners, known as Traceurs, traverse any environment in the most efficient way possible using their physical abilities; Parkour commonly involves running, jumping, vaulting, rolling and other similar physical movements. See www.parkour.net

:)

[Prince Loeffler]

Thanks for the response Fred, It does tells me what Le Parkour is, but not what the words means.

[Prince Loeffler]

There is something else I found interesting about this, according to the site "This art originated with French soldiers in Vietnam and was developed by David Belle, inspired by his father."

I'd be curious to know exactly how the french soldiers used this art in Vietnam.

[Tony Wolf]

"Parkour" is a "street slang" spelling of the French word parcours which means "obstacle course".

The Vietnam connection is that French soldiers and firefighters have a long tradition of serious obstacle-course training. The originator of this tradition was naval officer George Hebert, who developed a very comprehensive series of exercises known as la Methode Naturelle (the natural method), which became the basis of most French high school, college and military physical training during the early-mid 20th century.

Raymond Belle was a soldier in Vietnam and later became a military firefighter. Belle passed these skills along to his son David, who combined them with certain concepts and training methods drawn from Asian martial arts to create the modern sport/discipline of Parkour.

Tony Wolf

[Prince Loeffler]

"Parkour" is a "street slang" spelling of the French word parcours which means "obstacle course".

The Vietnam connection is that French soldiers and firefighters have a long tradition of serious obstacle-course training. The originator of this tradition was naval officer George Hebert, who developed a very comprehensive series of exercises known as la Methode Naturelle (the natural method), which became the basis of most French high school, college and military physical training during the early-mid 20th century.

Raymond Belle was a soldier in Vietnam and later became a military firefighter. Belle passed these skills along to his son David, who combined them with certain concepts and training methods drawn from Asian martial arts to create the modern sport/discipline of Parkour.

Tony Wolf

Thanks Mr. Wolf, Now I know what "parkour" means. Its very interesting though as It does seems like one has to have the "super" agility and stamina to do all those techniques.

[lefuet]

David Belle is organizing a workshop in Berlin:
http://www.parkourwm.com/
you can come to participate or watch :)
couldn't find the date on the website though. But I guess sometime between now and soon ;)

[Gavin Gunavardhana]

You don't need to be super-agile to do parkour but you do have to be in shape and willing to experiment. A lot of the moves are easily doable by someone who keeps in shape but there are a lot of mental blocks to overcome.

It does have a certain "wow" factor but what I have enjoyed about parkour is the open attitude of the top practitioners. Any beginner who shows up to train and is willing to have a go will find lots of encouragement and good advice on offer from more experienced traceurs.

I saw an old Bujinkan video with a clip of a guy running up a tree called shoten-no-jutsu. This move is also seen in parkour and called a wall run

Whilst the philosphy of parkour is influenced by martial arts, it definitely has a cross over to real world self-defence. There may come a time when your ability to quickly negotiate various obstacles is crucial.

If you want to learn more, the best English language site is www.urbanfreeflow.com which has a ton of articles, downloads, product reviews, a forum etc.

I'd write more coherently but I'm tired and I have to be up early in the morning. :)

[lefuet]

at last I found the date of the Parkour World Meeting and Workshop (browsing the "Presse"-links of http://www.parkourwm.com/ )
sadly it is already finished :(
Osram Parkour World Meeting / 06. Mai 2006 / Berlin Postbahnhof

[Texasmic]

It looks like fun! I would most likely kill myself if I tried it. LOL

Looks like the stuff Jakie Chan does in his movies.

[Hughes]

Parkour come from "parcours", which you can translate by "course"

i.e: assault course = parcours du combattant