AN INTRODUCTION TO FREE RUNNING

Note: While the terms ‘Free Running’ and ‘parkour’ were initially interchangeable, in recent years they have been used to describe two activities, which, although sharing many common techniques, have fundamental differences in philosophy and intention. In essence, parkour focuses on the ability to access areas that would otherwise be inaccessible, to escape and to evade pursuers. Taking parkour as its root, Free Running focuses far more on the style and aesthetics of such movement. Although this introduction mostly concerns Free Running, both terms are used throughout.

Originally founded in France by David Belle as parkour, Free Running is an artistic physical discipline 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 Free Running is to be able to adapt one’s movement and progress to any given scenario so that any obstacle can be overcome purely by using the human body and the ‘athletes’ own physical abilities.

According to 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, co-founder Sébastien Foucan speaks of being ‘fluid like water,’ a frequently used metaphor for the smooth passage of barriers through the use of parkour.

Free Running is often connected with the idea of freedom, in the form of the ability to overcome aspects of one’s surroundings that tend to confine – for example, railings, staircases, or walls. To some people (particularly non-practitioners), Free Running is considered an extreme sport, to others it is a discipline more comparable to martial arts. Some consider it a combination of the two, recognising similarities between it and the stunts and techniques of Hong Kong martial arts star Jackie Chan. For many more, Free Running has transcended its status as an “extreme sport” and is now also regarded as an art form and a lifestyle choice, influencing how people perceive and navigate their own environment. Having initially captured the imagination of the youth and those involved in youth culture, it has since been integrated into the school system as an accepted form of physical education and has become a powerful inspirational force for architects and artists, from sculptors and painters to designers and photographers.

Terminology

Practitioners of Free Running or parkour are known as traceurs, a term of French origin. The terms ‘Free Running’ and ‘Free Runner’ have been adopted by the English language media as a result of their use in the television documentary on parkour, Jump London. Over time, Free Running has also been widely used by journalists to describe activity that is parkour-like, but that has often placed more emphasis on ‘showy’ moves that are not normally a feature of pure parkour. More recently, the term Freestyle Parkour was coined to refer to activities that share some similarities with parkour, but that incorporate movements (such as flips and spins) that lie outside the realm of parkour as practised and advocated by David Belle.

History

Arguably, the essence of Free Running has no origins. In the Jump London documentary Sebastien Foucan says, ‘Free Running has always existed. Free Running has always been there. The thing is that no one gave it a name. We didn’t put it in a box.’ He makes a comparison with prehistoric man, ‘to hunt, or to chase, or to move around, they had to practice the free run.’

Inspiration for parkour came from many sources, not least the ‘Natural Method of Physical Culture’ developed by George Hébert in the early twentieth century. David Belle was introduced to this method by his father, Raymond Belle, a Vietnam soldier who practised it. The word ‘parkour’ derives from ‘parcours du combattant’, the phrase referring to the obstacle courses of Hébert’s method. As a youngster David Belle had participated in activities such as martial arts and gymnastics and sought to apply his athletic prowess in a manner that would have practical use in life.

According to Foucan, the start of the ‘big jumps’ came when he was around the age of fifteen. Over the years as dedicated practitioners improved their skills, their moves continued to grow in magnitude, so that building-to-building jumps and drops of over a storey became common in media portrayals, often leaving people with a slanted view on the nature of parkour. In fact, ground-based movement is much more common than anything involving rooftops.

The journey of parkour from the Parisian suburbs to its current status as a widely practised activity outside of France saw splits occur among the originators. The founders of parkour started out in a group named the Yamakasi, but later separated due to disagreements between themselves.

Implementation of Free Running

There are fewer predefined movements in Free Running than gymnastics and other extreme sports, in that it is about unlimited movement over obstacles; the ability to improvise is as important as being able to replicate previously practiced moves. Despite this, there are many standard ‘basic’ movements that many traceurs practice. Most important are good jumping and landing techniques. The roll, used to limit impact after a drop and to flow easily into the next movement, is often stressed as the most important move to learn.

Vaults are used to clear solid obstacles and come in many forms. Some recognised types of vaults add only technical skill (and hence sometimes aesthetic value) to a move and not functionality. These moves tend to be looked down on by traceurs, as they are inefficient movement and thus not truly parkour. Many vaults are maximally functional to certain situations, but learning specific vaults is not as worthwhile as learning to improvise and adapt to differing situations.

For clearing gaps a number of methods are generally used; each is dependent on the particular obstacle in question, and as with the vaults a good improvisation technique aids free runners far more than a pre-learned collection of techniques.

Tricks, such as flips, are a topic of much debate amongst traceurs. Many agree that since these disrupt the fluidity of a run they cannot be classed as parkour. Others argue that parkour is about being free to move how one wishes and try to incorporate certain tricks into their style of movement.

David Belle has released a statement declaring in no uncertain terms that parkour is about efficient movement, and therefore flips and tricks are (in almost all cases) not parkour.

A movement by itself is not parkour unless it is used the right way. Vaulting a single rail could be considered parkour so long as it gets you somewhere faster than going around it.

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