Although martial-arts always have been , and stil are, my big passion I write about the art of movement here,
as it's something very important and fundamental that every athlet should give attetion to.
Long long time ago, the people needed be physically fit and resourceful in order to master their everyday life. Then the civilzation came for most the people and to importance of physical fitness decreased.
In the early 20th century a man called Georges Hébert developed the natural methode "Methode Naturelle". According to this idea every human being should train to get along in the nature. "Be strong to be useful" is the mottoe. Useful for you, and other people.
The natural method which is still tought in the french army today has 10 exercises.
- Walking
- Running
- Jumping
- Climbing
- Quadrupedal movement
- Balancing
- Lifting
- Throwing
- Self Defense
- Swimming
Parkour is an art to help you pass any obstacle. This art is developed by David Belle, inspired by his father. (www.parkour.net)
Raymond Belle was a child soldier in Vietnam. His life depended on perfect physical fitness, and the ability to move through the jungle.
Years later in France he educated his son
David Belle according to the ideas of the natural method.
When David was 15 years old the family moved to Lisses, a suburb of Paris. He applied the ideas of movement to the urban sorroundings.
He inspired other youths in the suburb and in the early 1990s the group "Yamakasi" who were training together movement and acrobatics were founded.
Later in the 1990s David wanted to follow his father's way, while the yamakasi saw acrobatics as a party of parkour, and he founded the group "Les Tracers".
During this time the idea of efficient movement got the name "Le Parkour", and the philosophy of today's Parkour was developed.
The name "Le Parkour" was an idea of a friend of David Belle, who didn't train himself.
"Parkour" springs from the french word "parcours". Some sources tell, the "c" was exchanged for an "k" to show Parkour is nothing soft, the "s" got omitted because of the efficiency.
The person who practises Le Parkour is called "Traceur", that can be translated as "someone who's finding a path".
être et durer - to be and to last
If you start training Le Parkour seriously, you recognize a process of self-knowledge.
You should learn to listen to your body, learn about your physical limits but also of your potential.
Training the basics to your body, and understanding the warning signales are parts of a responsible training.
A good traceur has to master all the steps on his way, and not to be focused on big jumps.
Beacause he wants to
be strong, healthy, flexible and fit and also
last so. It's not about being better than the other people, but developing youself a bit everyday.
Here a qoute from Blane's Blog:
What will be the long-term effects of doing 12ft level arm jumps when the shoulders haven't experienced 10,000 smaller ones?
What will be the long-term effects of dropping 15ft to concrete when the legs haven't experienced 10,000, 5ft drops?
Time will tell.
Parkour is not only the name of the "sport" you can see in videos, but the name of the idea of effiency standing behind the physical exercises.
But what does effiency mean? How can it be measured?
Parkour shuold teach you the physical and mental ability to move everywhere in nature and urban surroundings.
Because real effiency can only originate if you're not specified to an special environment.
You should not measure effiency by the length of the jumps, the height of the drops or the time you need to run a way.
For example, if you run through a pedestrian zone without loosing speed and without touching any person,
you do good Parkour although you probably don't use any techniques like saut de bras or saut de chat."
So effiency must be defined new for every situation and every environment case by case. And it always requires to pay attention to your body and the environment,
as neither destroying something nor lying in the hospital is efficient. The basis for this ability is a long and hard training with open eyes and an open mind.
Beyond Le Parkour there are some other sports that look similar to it. But they aren't.
Today's Yamakasi call their combination of Parkour techniques and arcobatics "L'art du déplacement, the term
"Free Runnig" occured when Sebastien Foucan,who is one of the first persons who were training with David Belle, tried find an explanation for his ideas of expressing yourself by free and aesthetic movement.
Especially for beginners it's not easy to come along with these definitons for the forms of movement. It's a pity they get their first impression from bad documentaries and videos in the internet. So they often begin with the wrong motivation. They think it's about showing-off, beging cool, follwing a trend, creating videos, seeing theirselfes in the media, probably making money....
And they igonre or just mix the philosophies lacking the real knowledge about them. It's true between all those influences by different ideas and styles and rolemodels it's not easy to finde your way. It's a process taking several years of training and reflecting about yourself.
My tip is: learn and get your inspiration from all those athlets you appreciate. Keep your mind open, and respect people training with another motivation and philosophie. But it will be your way and you will never be David Belle 2nd, Jackie Chan 2nd but always the first who's going your way.