| abstract
| - Parkour (and its similar offshoot free-running) is a physical discipline originating in France, more specifically, a suburb of Paris called Évry (although it's worth noting that the inventor's father/teacher was born in a French-controlled Vietnam). It can be summed up as "acrobatics meets assault courses" -- whereas free-running is a far more demonstrative discipline best described as a form of skateboarding which is practiced without a board. Parkour is based on general principles of survival: Should one ever need to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, the shortest distance is always a straight line. The goal, therefore, is to get past, over, under, or through various obstacles without wasting any time. And it just happened that Évry's central agora is an incredible mishmash of stairs, decks, catwalks and roofs at different heights -- and thus, the best way to go in a straight line from A to B in Évry was jumping and running through obstacles. Parkour practitioners (called by gender-specific nouns, following the original French; a male Parkour runner is a traceur, a female is a traceuse; referring to multiple practitioners uses traceurs) run their environment like an obstacle course: vaulting obstructions, leaping gaps, running up walls, Wall Jumps, and otherwise taking wild shortcuts. Although commonly associated with cities, Parkour can be used to negotiate any type of environment. Traceurs will tell you their discipline becomes a mindset over time. They learn to unconsciously scan their surroundings for routes and movements. Think The Tetris Effect after playing Assassin's Creed or Mirror's Edge. Plus, it not only looks damn cool, but is Awesome Yet Practical, and may prove to become a more widely practiced discipline similar to martial arts. The obvious example of Parkour usage is moving from point A to B, but the core idea is simply to make yourself more practically agile and more able to overcome physical obstacles. A mundane example is accidentally throwing something (e.g. a football) on a rooftop and needing to recover it. A practitioner of Parkour would be able to get onto the roof, get the object and get down safely. Parkour actually predates itself. It is a refinement of human movement rather than a brand new skill, the movements have been practiced in various ways for a long time. For example, stuntmen and martial arts film actors have been doing similar things for years, a good recent example being Jackie Chan. The difference between Parkour and "Free Running" is similar to the difference between "function" and "form." One of the central "rules" of Parkour is that it is not a competitive sport, and emphasizes efficiency, self-discipline, and oneness with the surroundings, whereas "free-running" is based on display stunts and acrobatics that can be done in one location, just for the hell of it. Note that often, traceurs will be able to and will perform flips and the like and can be considered both a traceur and a free-runner. The main distinction of traceur and free-runner is in the mindset of the person. Parkour has begun to appear more frequently in TV shows, owing to its growing popularity. Its moves are commonly employed by martial artists, notably Ninja and practitioners of She Fu. With special effects and wirework, it becomes an even more impressive feat than it already is. That could be considered proof positive that movie producers are dedicated to Completely Missing the Point, because Parkour is cool because it is real. A realistic version of Roof Hopping -- most Parkour is done at or near ground level, because that's where one encounters the most obstacles. If used well this can be a great help to a person running a Mobstacle Course. Examples of Le Parkour include:
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