Parkour

Georges Hébert (1875-1954)

In Western Europe, a forerunner of parkour was developed by French naval officer Georges Hébert, who before World War I promoted athletic skill based on the models of indigenous tribes he had met in Africa.[23] He noted, "their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature."[23] His rescue efforts during the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Saint-Pierre, Martinique, reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism.[23] Hébert became a physical education tutor at the college of Reims in France. Hébert set up a "méthode naturelle" (natural method) session consisting of ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defence and swimming. These were intended to develop "the three main forces": energetic (willpower, courage, coolness, and firmness), moral (benevolence, assistance, honour, and honesty) and physical (muscles and breath).[24] During World War I and World War II, teaching continued to expand, becoming the standard system of French military education and training. Inspired by Hébert, a Swiss architect developed a "parcours du combattant"[25]—military obstacle course—the first of the courses that are now standard in military training and which led to the development of civilian fitness trails and confidence courses.[23]

Born in 1939 in Vietnam, Raymond Belle was the son of a French physician and Vietnamese mother. During the First Indochina War, his father died and he was separated from his mother, after which he was sent to a military orphanage in Da Lat at the age of 7. He took it upon himself to train harder and longer than everyone else in order never to be a victim. At night, when everyone else was asleep, he would be outside running or climbing trees. He would use the military obstacle courses in secret, and also created courses of his own that tested his endurance, strength, and flexibility. Doing this enabled him not only to survive the hardships he experienced during his childhood, but also eventually to thrive. After the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, he returned to France and remained in military education until the age of 19, when he joined the Paris Fire Brigade, a French Army unit.[12][26][27]

David Belle is considered the founder of parkour.

Raymond's son, David Belle, was born in 1973. He experimented with gymnastics and athletics but became increasingly disaffected with both school and the sports clubs. As he got older, he claims to have to read (as-yet-unconfirmed) newspaper clippings that told of his father's exploits and was increasingly curious about what had enabled his father to accomplish these feats. Through conversations with his father, he realised that what he really wanted was a means to develop skills that would be useful to him in life, rather than just training to kick a ball or perform moves in a padded, indoor environment.[12][18]

Through conversations with his father, David learned about this way of training that his father called "parcours". He heard his father talk of the many repetitions he had done in order to find the best way of doing things. He learned that for his father, training was not a game but something vital which enabled him to survive and to protect the people he cared about. David realised that this was what he had been searching for, and so he began training in the same way. After a time, he found it far more important to him than schooling and he gave up his other commitments to focus all his time on his training.[18]

David initially trained on his own, and after moving to Lisses, found other young men (including his cousins) who had similar desires, and they began to train together.[1] The group eventually included David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Châu Belle Dinh, Williams Belle, Yann Hnautra, Laurent Piemontesi, Guylain N'Guba Boyeke, Malik Diouf, and Charles Perrière.

The group drew influence from Asian culture and Asian martial arts, notably the acrobatic antics of Jackie Chan in his Hong Kong action films,[28][29] as well as the philosophy of Bruce Lee.[30]

The group put themselves through challenges that forced them to find the physical and mental strength to succeed. Examples included training without food or water, or sleeping on the floor without a blanket, to learn to endure the cold.[31] For example, no one in the group was permitted to be late for training, as it would hold back the whole group. If any member completed a challenge, everyone else had to do the same thing.[32] During their training no one was allowed to complain or be negative. Few excuses were allowed. For instance, if someone claimed that his shoes were too worn out in order to make a jump, he had to do it anyway, even if it meant doing the jump barefoot.[33] At the same time, everyone was required to have knowledge of their own limits.[34]

Respecting one's health and physical well-being was one of the foundations of the group. If any member hurt himself during or after the execution of a movement, the movement was deemed a failure. A movement executed only once was not considered an achievement; only with repetition was the challenge complete. Every movement had to be repeated at least ten times in a row without the traceur having to push his limits or sustaining any injury. If any mistake was made by any traceur in the group everyone had to start all over again.[32]

Humility was an important principle.[34] No traceur was allowed to feel superior over someone else, for example by executing a movement only to show off in front of someone who could not perform the movement. If any traceur in the group claimed that he had completed a difficult and dangerous challenge that should not be attempted unaided, he had to prove his claims by doing the challenge again. Anyone who lied violated the principle of humility.[32]

To join the group, new members had to be recommended by an existing member and then pass tests to evaluate their motivation for joining.[33] Despite the huge emphasis on the collective, each traceur had to progress and develop independently—"to create the means to be yourself"[35]—and there was a complete trust within the group.[34] Every traceur was to encourage the others and show confidence through their behaviour.[36] If a member violated the principles, the group could meet without the offending person to discuss various punishments. Anyone deemed unsuitable could be temporarily or even permanently banned from the group in order to uphold its disciplines and values.[37]

In 1997, David Belle's brother Jean-François invited the group to perform for the public in a firefighter show in Paris.[38] For the performance, the group named themselves Yamakasi, from the Congolese Lingala ya makási, meaning strong in one's person, or "strong man, strong spirit". Sébastien Foucan also invented a name for what they were doing: "l'art du déplacement" (French for "the art of movement").[38] The firefighter performance caused both positive and negative attention. Some members of the group were concerned how the public would view their discipline since the performance did not demonstrate all aspects of it, such as their hard training and their values and ethics. Jean-François also sent pictures and video of the group to a French TV programme, and the popularity of parkour began to increase. A series of television programmes in various countries subsequently featured video footage of the group, and they began to get more requests for performances. During this time, conflicting interests arose within the group. Sébastien Foucan wanted to teach more rather than to train more, and David Belle had the ambition to become an actor. David and Sébastien chose to leave the group, and used the name "parkour" to describe their activity (see § Etymology above). The seven remaining Yamakasi members continued to use the term l'art du déplacement[12][39] (see § Derivative terminologies and disciplines below).

A campaign was started on 1 May 2007 by the Parkour.NET portal to preserve parkour's philosophy against sports competition and rivalry.[56][57] In the words of Erwan Le Corre: "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."[56] Red Bull's sponsored athlete for parkour, Ryan Doyle, has said, "Sometimes people ask, 'Who is the best at parkour?' and it is because they don't understand what Parkour is; 'Who is the best?' is what you would say to a sport, and parkour is not a sport, it is an art, it's a discipline. That's like saying, 'What's the best song in the world?'"[58] This seems to be a highly consensual opinion of many professional traceurs who view parkour as a style of life more than a set of tricks, as has been popularised by YouTube and most media exposure.

There are competitions that use parkour as the main influence for formatting and judging criteria. Sport Parkour League's "North America Parkour Championships" hosts a series of local and regional qualifier events which culminate in a final event in Vancouver, B.C.[59] Red Bull's Art of Motion event[60] is the longest running and highest profile professional freerunning competition.

In his 2009 book Parkour, David Belle stressed that the most important aspect of parkour is not the physical movements, but rather the practitioner's mentality and understanding of its principles. "When young trainees come to see me and give me videos telling me to check out what they are doing, I just take the tape and throw it away. What I'm interested in is what the guy's got in his head, if he has self-confidence, if he masters the technique, if he has understood the principles of parkour. I just can't deal with guys who do Parkour because they saw videos on the Internet and thought it was kinda cool and want to do even better."[61] Further, he states the importance of traceurs being aware of their abilities and limitations, and developing in their own way. "When a young person asks me: 'Can you show me how to do this?' I simply answer: "No, I am going to show you how I do it. Then, you'll have to learn with your own technique, your own way of moving, your style, your abilities and your limitations. You are going to learn to be yourself, not someone else."[62]

The philosophy of parkour has been compared to that of martial arts.[63] In an interview with The New Yorker, David Belle acknowledges the influence: "There's a quote by Bruce Lee that's my motto: 'There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. A man must constantly exceed his level.' If you're not better than you were the day before, then what are you doing—what's the point?"[25] In an interview with the press, Belle explained that parkour is a training method for warriors. "So many people try to train easy 'Come do parkour! It's really cool!' But if tomorrow I made you do real training, you would end up crying. That's what you need to know: you are going to cry, you are going to bleed and you are going to sweat like never before."[64] In his book, Belle also quotes his father Raymond: "If two roads open up before you, always take the most difficult one. Because you know you can travel the easy one."[65]

Belle is an influential proponent of discipline and control in parkour, saying, "Precision is all about being measured," and going on to describe parkour as an art that requires huge amounts of repetition and practice to master.[66] "With parkour, I often say, 'Once is never'. In other words, someone can manage a jump one time but it does not mean anything. It can be luck or chance. When you make a jump, you have to do it at least three times to be sure you can actually do it. It's an unavoidable rule. Do it the hard way and stop lying to yourself. When you come for training, you have to train. Even if it means doing the same jump fifty or a hundred times."[62] To its founder, parkour is a method of self-refinement, used for learning to control and focus oneself.

While there is no official list of "moves" in parkour, the style in which practitioners move often sets them apart from others,[5] and there are a number of movements considered fundamental.[10] Some examples of common movements are:[67][68]

• Vaulting over obstacles.
• "Precision" Jumping and landing accurately with the feet on small or narrow obstacles.
• "Arm Jumps" Jumping and landing feet-first on a vertical surface, catching the horizontal top with the hands.[69]
• Using a rolling motion to help absorb impacts from larger drops.
• Running towards a high wall and then jumping and pushing off the wall with a foot to reach the top of the wall.
• Moving from a position hanging from a wall-top or ledge, to standing on the top or over to the other side.

A traceuse vaults an obstacle

Parkour is practiced without equipment of any kind, though items such as bars, walls, and boxes, are used. Practitioners normally train wearing light, non-restrictive casual clothing.[70][71] Traceurs who wear gloves are rare—bare hands are considered better for grip and tactile feedback.[72][73] Light running shoes with good grip and flexibility are encouraged because they allow for more natural and fluid movements. Practitioners often use minimalist shoes, sometimes as a progression to bare feet, for better sensitivity and balance, while others prefer more cushioning for better absorption of impacts from large jumps.[74] Barefoot training is done by some for movement competency without gear—David Belle noted that "bare feet are the best shoes."[75] Various sneaker manufacturers have developed shoes specifically for parkour and freerunning. Many other companies around the world have started offering clothing targeted at parkour.[76]

Traceurs in Lisses re-painting a wall, repairing shoe scuff marks from parkour

A notice on a wall of the Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2012 prohibiting parkour (removed in 2018)

Parkour is not widely practiced in dedicated public facilities. Although efforts are being made to create places for it, many traceurs do not like the idea, as it is contradictory to parkour's values of adaptation, creativity, and freedom.[77] Traceurs practice parkour in both rural and urban areas such as gyms, parks, playgrounds, offices, and abandoned structures. Concerns have been raised regarding trespassing, damage of property,[78] and use of inappropriate places such as cemeteries.[79] Many parkour organizations around the globe support the Leave No Trace initiative, an urban version of the outdoor conservation ethic created by the Seattle nonprofit Parkour Visions in 2008, promoting safety, respect for the spaces used and their other users, and sometimes includes picking up rubbish to leave areas in better condition than they were found.[80][81][82][83][84]

Concerns have been raised by law enforcement and fire and rescue teams of the risk in jumping off high buildings.[85] They argue 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.[78][86][87] Some practitioners of parkour agree that such behaviour should be discouraged.[86][88][89][90]

Because parkour philosophy is about learning to control oneself in interaction with the environment, many parkour experts tend to view serious physical injury as a deviation from true parkour. Daniel Ilabaca, co-founder of the World Parkour and Freerunning Federation, said "Thinking you're going to fail at something gives you a higher risk of doing just that. Committing to something you're thinking or knowing you will land gives you a higher chance of landing or completing the task."[91] On biomechanical grounds, studies found parkour landing techniques result in lower landing forces in comparison with traditional sport techniques.[92][93] In a survey of parkour-related emergency department visits in the United States between 2009 and 2015, most injuries were reportedly caused by landing or from striking objects.[94]

American traceur Mark Toorock said 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, noted that many of the injuries are not reported.[95]

Parkour has become a popular element in action sequences, with film directors hiring parkour practitioners as stunt performers. The first director to do so was Luc Besson, for the film Taxi 2 in 1998, followed by Yamakasi in 2001 featuring members of the original Yamakasi group, and its sequel Les fils du vent in 2004. Also in 2004, Besson wrote District 13, another feature film involving advanced parkour chase sequences, starring David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli,[103][104] followed by the sequel District 13: Ultimatum in 2009 and remade in English as Brick Mansions in 2014.

In 2006 the film Casino Royale featured Sébastien Foucan in a chase taking place early in the movie, sparking renewed media interest in parkour.[25] Along with The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Casino Royale is credited with starting a new wave of Parkour-inspired stunts in Western film and television.[105] Parkour was prominent in Live Free or Die Hard (2007),[106] again with stuntman/actor Cyril Raffaelli, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), choreographed by David Belle.[107] Several films besides Yamakasi are about thieves who use parkour, such as Breaking and Entering (2006),[103][104] Run (2013),[108] and Tracers (2015). The 2011 film Freerunner is about eight freerunners racing through a city for survival. The 2019 Netflix film 6 Underground featured several parkour scenes choreographed and performed by team Storror.[109][110] Parkour also featured in Dhoom 3 (2013),[111] Bang Bang! (2014) and Aadhi (2018).[112]

Parkour is also featured on TV. MTV's show Ultimate Parkour Challenge premiered as a one-hour special in October 2009 starring the athletes of the World Freerunning & Parkour Federation. This was followed in May 2010 with a six-episode series of the same name. The athletes were Daniel Ilabaca, Tim Shieff, Ryan Doyle, Michael Turner, Oleg Vorslav, Ben Jenkin, Daniel Arroyo, Pip Andersen and King David. The programme format was a two-part weekly competition in different Southern California locations.[113]

WWE wrestler John Hennigan is a long-time practitioner of parkour and often incorporates it into his wrestling style, with the WWE giving him the nickname "The Prince of Parkour".[114][115] Actor Stephen Amell learned parkour at Tempest Academy in preparation for his role as Oliver Queen in the television series Arrow,[116] and co-star Caity Lotz is also a practitioner.[117]

Modern video games frequently include aspects of parkour as major game-play elements. The Assassin's Creed series makes heavy use of parkour movement (called freerunning in the game).[118][119][120] The Mirror's Edge games are heavily inspired by parkour, consisting entirely of efficiently moving around buildings, rooftops, and other obstacles.[121][122] Brink introduced a parkour mechanic into a realistic first person shooter.[123] Prince of Persia and Dying Light include a central parkour mechanic,[124][125] while Crackdown and Crackdown 2 include an emphasis on gripping and vaulting from ledges and protruding objects.[126] Tony Hawk's American Wasteland allows the character to use several freerunning techniques while not on the skateboard.[127] Tron Evolution's basic movements and combat were based on parkour and capoeira.[128]

Although parkour itself grew out of military obstacle-course training,[12][26] it has become a separate discipline. After the attention that parkour received following the 2006 film Casino Royale, military forces around the world began looking for ways to incorporate elements from parkour into military training. A physical trainer with the Royal Marines trained with parkour practitioners with hopes of introducing some of their techniques to his own students.[129] Colorado Parkour began a project to introduce elements from parkour into the U.S. military[130] and one San Diego staff sergeant trained US Marines in parkour.[131]

Studies found that in exercises such as the standing long jump, depth jump and vertical jump, parkour athletes outperform physical educators, gymnasts, and power athletes.[132] Parkour training is especially linked with the development of eccentric load resistance and jumping ability.

Studies and experiments have integrated parkour kinaesthetics into robotics.[133][134][135][136]