Parkour. Le Parkour (also called Parkour, and abbreviated PK) is a physical discipline of French origin in which participants attempt to pass obstacles in the most efficient way possible as if moving in an emergency situation, using skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves.
The obstacles can be anything in one's environment, but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of many suitable public structures that are accessible to most people, such as buildings and rails. Parkour also has a deep mental and spiritual side; based around the overcoming of fears and mental obstacles in an altruistic way which may one day prove beneficial to the community. Welcome to the Parkour Wikibook Another discipline which is related on the surface is Freerunning, which is a break-away discipline formed by Sebastien Foucan, where the freerunner moves through their environment in anyway they wish, which often includes acrobatic manouveres such as flips and kicks.
Parkour. Parkour is a non-competitive activity, which can be practiced alone or with others.
It can be practiced in any location, but is usually practiced in urban spaces.[10][11] Parkour involves seeing one's environment in a new way, and imagining the potentialities for movement around it.[12][13] Developed in France, primarily by Raymond Belle, David Belle, and Sébastien Foucan during the late 1980s,[14][15] Parkour became popular in the late 1990s and 2000s through films, documentaries, and advertisements featuring these practitioners and others.[4] Parkour's training methods have inspired a range of other activities, including freerunning and l'art du déplacement.
Although their creators define them as separate activities, practitioners and non-practitioners alike often find it difficult to discern the differences between them. Etymology[edit] Timeline of parkour. Sébastien Foucan. Sébastien Foucan (born 27 May 1974 in Paris) is a French freerunner of Guadeloupean descent.
He is the founder of freerunning, and considered an early developer of Parkour. Known for his views on the philosophy of Parkour and freerunning, Foucan stresses the need for training in the basics of both for individual safety and to maintain a positive public perception of the activities.