Parkour

In the 1980’s in Lisses, France, a suburb of Paris, there was a young man named David Belle. David wanted to emulate his father, Raymond Belle, a military firefighter. His father was known for his strength and agility, Raymond could navigate urban landscapes as if he had evolved to do so. Raymond Belle was fascinated by the “Method Naturelle” a personal fitness method invented by Georges Hebert. The Method Naturelle grew from the idea of functional fitness, training to aid you in survival. David greatly respected his father and in wanting to gain his approval he started training himself to move quickly and efficiently throughout his landscape. He would imagine emergency situations, such as running from someone dangerous or saving someone in peril. He would act out these situations and try to find the quickest route from one point to another. In order quickly move he would run up walls, vault over low obstacles, and drop from height. On these foundations Parkour was built. The word Parkour comes from the French word Parcours meaning obstacle course. Parkour is usually practiced in an urban setting but people often train in a forest environment.
People often liken Parkour to other urban sports such as skateboarding or BMXing. The major difference between them is philosophy, Parkour has a central philosophy of improving oneself mentally and physically, and of course efficient movement. Many people who practice Parkour have applied a similar mindset to other facets of life, you must break down the steps of a move to execute it perfectly, a method one can use for many people face in life. A male Parkour practitioner is called a Traceur, female a Traceuse. As one can imagine Parkour takes a great amount of Physical strength, and because it uses your entire body you must have balanced strength. There is also a great importance for conditioning, a ten foot drop puts an enormous strain on joints and muscles. Parkour is an individual’s sport, even though many train in groups the progression is with only yourself. There has been some talk of Parkour competitions but because of the individual nature of the discipline most of the community agrees that competition is against the spirit of Parkour.
In the early days David and his friends practiced this discipline around their town never expecting it might one day gain global attention. At the peak of their training they were practicing for 4-6 hours every day. Around ten years into his training David was suggested to video some of his discipline and show it to people. After this he filmed a short video of himself and the word of Parkour soon spread. Soon after there was a report on him in the French news, the news team followed him around his town while he explained Parkour and demonstrated it. It didn’t take long for more publicity to come, there were some very funny Nike commercials he and his friends did. After that the momentum only got larger, the director, Luc Besson, was very interested in him and allowed David to play the lead role in the French motion picture, B-13, which was released on November 10, 2004. The movie was fairly reminiscent of Jackie Chan movies, with a neutron bomb aimed right at Paris.
What really garnered Parkour an audience outside of France was the British documentary,”Jump London”, which featured one of David’s childhood friends, Sebastien Foucan. The documentary, which aired September 9, 2003, focused on foucan and his compatriot Jerome Ben Aoues doing parkour in and on many famous London landmarks. After all this exposure the word of Parkour quickly spread, mainly through Internet forums and videos. Many people joined the discipline in Europe and it still has the largest Parkour community. The discipline is slowly starting to trickle into American consciousness, being featured in movies such as the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, as an amazing chase scene through a construction site.
Parkour is only gaining momentum, with articles in magazines such as TIME and The New Yorker dedicated to spreading the word. Parkour has a very central philosophy of growth and individual achievement. Tracuers are not encouraged to compare their skills, mainly because of the non-competitive nature. A Traceur trains for personal gain, not for the approval of others.