Parkour

[Crafty_Dog]

I've never seen this sort of stuff before.  Amazing athleticism.  Hat tip to John Spezzano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUksaD-JJgI&search=parkour

[Kumaw]

More popular in Europe. Seems to becoming popular in movies too.

[Mongo Gary]

Yes it is . Parkour is big in france. It was featured in a llitte unknown movie called District B13. Great stunts it was from the same french filmmaker that brought us the movie le femme niktia Luc Bessoun. Who also brought us the transporter movies. But the art of Parkour like i said was in the movie district b13 worth a look and pretty good stunts also for all of you James Bond fans out there  Parkour was in Casino Royale. The guy was Sebastion Fouche who was one of the founders of the art. That was running all over the place in the opening of Casino Royale. Sorry not just a martial artist but a bit of film geek in me also!!!! 

[Poidog]

A scene from B13.

Aloha, C-Poi Dog

[sting]

Thanks for the clip, PoiDog.  Amazing.   The lastest James Bond movie "Casino Royale" included some stunts along these lines in the initial action scene.

[peregrine]

Just recently in the IFL someone did a cartwheel type move on his opponent and connected the kick to the neck/head.

[Crafty_Dog]

Awesome.  Clip anyone?

Could be a Capoeira influence , , ,

[maija]

There's another french movie, with english subtitles, featuring a group of parkour practitioners who have to get the money together to save a young kid's life by getting him a heart transplant. i can't remember the name, but i think it has the guy who did the casino royale stunts in it. very cool stuff and a neat movie set in Paris.
'par cour' means 'by/using the heart ' in french. i think this is where the name comes from (?). as i understand it, many of the practitioners are from poorer, urban areas where there is high unemployment and it started as an underground youth movement. this movie starts with the group meeting before dawn to climb an appartment building to watch the sunrise from the roof, making their escape as the police show up...

[Kumaw]

Awesome.  Clip anyone?

Could be a Capoeira influence , , ,

It was Brian Ebersole. He was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission for doing it.

[Crafty_Dog]

I don't understand why they would suspend him.  What was the logic?

[peregrine]

http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/51-2006_ParkourCompendium.pdf

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/parkour1.htm

http://sports.expertvillage.com/videos/parkour-wall-running.htm
this one has other how tos on the bottom

There was also a video on a childrens program that i thought was awesome. I think it is a great start in body awareness for youth and body coordination, a variation on gymnastics. A little more functional than learning a rountine on the rings or parralell bars.

[Kumaw]

I don't understand why they would suspend him.  What was the logic?

CSAC believed it to be a fixed fight based on the cartwheel as well as other things.

The California State Athletic Commission has announced that Shannon “The Cannon” Ritch and Brian Ebersole have both been suspended indefinitely after their fight this past weekend.

The CSAC believed that their fight was “worked” as they barely engaged and they could be seen talking while on the ground. Eventually Ritch tapped and Ebersole was declared the winner but the fight was quickly ruled a no contest and both fighters were suspended immediately.

http://www.mmaontap.com/mma/category/Brian-Ebersole/

I've read on a several sites that CSAC has been suspending a lot of fighters.

http://mmacalifornia.net/index.php?cat=16

Sorry to creep on the original topic.

[Crafty_Dog]

No worries, it was a seemingly relevant tangent initially.  May I ask you to re-post about these DQs on the MMA thread?

[Black_Grass]

The art started in France, I don't think Capoeria influenced it. There is two 'styles' of parkour.

1) 'parkour' which is now more about  making your way through/around obsticals
2) ' free running'  an offshoot which is more about  'tricks'

Sébastien Foucan (freerunning)  was the guy in Casino Royale, David Belle (parkour) was the guy in B13 are the founders of the art.

I was teaching eskrima to a guy, who did parkour/free running and shared with me some of the training methods. To train jumping from heights, you simple jump initially from a height where you feel no pain. I started @ 4 feet but found it to hard on my knees so I when down to 2 feet and did this for a week. The next week i increased it to 3 ft, the follwong week, 4 and then to 5 ft which for a time was my upper limit.

I think this kind of training can be a valuable part of ones self defense/preservation often instructors talking about running if you can to escape a bad situation. This type of running is very different than a flat out run something in the city you might now be able to do.

Vince
aka Black Grass

[Mongo Gary]

Thanks Blackgrass for the info. I was wondering who was the guy in B13 I figured that he was one of the founders of the art. That movie had a lot of crazy stunts. I'm a big guy 6foot 2  230 punds i dont think about jumping that sounds painfull! Also anybody out there who knows any more movies besides District b13 and Casino Royale that have parkour in it let me know.

[Crafty_Dog]

Black Grass or anyone:

I like the point about this having self-defense applications-- sometimes running away is the best course of action and being able to jump from a height with a knowledge of how to do it and of what one is capable seems a good thing.

Any thoughts on how many reps to do?  How many days rest between?  How to modulate other training?  How age affects these answers?  And what about those forward rolls that we see in these clips?  Is this a show-off technique or is it one that allows for greater absorbancy of the shock of the impact?  Do we have a people who parachute who can give us some pointers?

I have a vauge memory of an airborne military person telling me something about if you were falling from a really big height that after the feet hit that it was better to fall to one side of the body than the other; something to do about the organs inside.  Anyone?

TAC,
CD

[Kumaw]

The rolling and slapping on the ground after you land are to diffuse the energy of the impact. I believe they teach similar techniques for Aikido.

http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/ Here is the site where I learned what limited knowledge I have of freerunning and parkour.

[peregrine]

Conincidently this weekend before VT i read something about martial arts being the solution to when it is time to fight, and parkour being an answer when it is time to flight.


CD i found some of those answers here-

http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/the_core_level/pages/archives/dilution.htm

from that article what interested me from a strength and martial point-
"I'm concerned that the shortcuts available to today's practitioners might rob them of the irreplaceable muscular development that the Lisses traceurs have, the deep rooted neurological pathways and the vast amount of muscle memory that no book, article or spoken word can give to them. The granddad strength."

Another thought related i was talking to some guys at work about were ejection seats- a fighter pilot can only have 2 ejections in a life (USA) then he will be banned from doing what he loves. Each ejection may shorten him up to .5" i do not have links but can find them if needed. The relation was more of trauma to the body from G forces and shock.

[Black_Grass]

Any thoughts on how many reps to do?  How many days rest between?  How to modulate other training?  How age affects these answers?  And what about those forward rolls that we see in these clips?  Is this a show-off technique or is it one that allows for greater absorbancy of the shock of the impact?  Do we have a people who parachute who can give us some pointers?

I have a vauge memory of an airborne military person telling me something about if you were falling from a really big height that after the feet hit that it was better to fall to one side of the body than the other; something to do about the organs inside.  Anyone?

TAC,
CD

This guy trained every day, in fact he gave up martial arts altogether to train exclusively in parkour. There wasn't a set number of reps or time, most of the training sessions were 1 - 2 hrs. However, every day the would work on different things, jumps, landings, underbar ( going through under or inbetween railings), wall climbing etc... in between free runs.

Its like going to a skate boarding, although there are names to techniques there are no set ways to train them, its what atracts kids to these things, true freedom of expression.  And they are kids.  All the guys I saw doing this were under 25. As for the effect of age, the art hasn't been around long enough, the 2 founders are only in the early 30.


At 35, personally I found 10 min every day enough to increase my static landing. But for the most part its about listening to your body if something hurts stop move on to something else. For many (including me) it is about being goal driven, trying to beat a particular obstical, especially something like wall climbing. Repeating until you succeed ( or don't).

As for the rolls, yes it is an absorbtion technique. The goal in parkour is to keep moving, hence when you roll you keep you forward momentum  so you can continue to run with out a break.

I used to hate to run, I found it completely boring and mind numbing. But by incorporating some parkour into it  like rail jumping, wall vault, ledge balancing it make running more interesting (although some people might think you look like an idiot). Other added bonuses are upper body stregth development,  balance, enviromental awareness and focus,  you simply can't go on auto pilot like regular distance running. You can also do this type of running in woods (off trail) to get the same effect.

London Jump is a documentary about free running featuring the guy from Casino Royale.

Vince
aka Black grass

[maija]

hi vince,
...know what you mean about running being boring. i never enjoyed it until i moved to the mountains of North Wales. many people who lived there practiced "fell running" which is basically running up and down mountains. not mountains in the sense of the Rockies, but steep up and down grades, usually off trail. the best runners win on the down hill sections where the fearless run full tilt, scree running, jumping rocks and boulders, fording streams and generally trying not to fall over things, all without breaking momentum. i was never anywhere close to people that were good at it, but is was total fun to train. exhilarating, absorbing, and a total body experience. parkour seems like it would feel the same, but even more so.

[Mongo Gary]

Found this in men fitness magazine while at lunch. From David J. Llewellyn Ph.D Professor of psychology at the University of Cambridge, England an  expert in the science of risk taking in the article which is short, he states that there are two ways you can chose to live. You can take the safety first approach in which your primary instinct is survival and you advoid unnecessary risk. Or you can take the leap experiencing the unknown and the uncertain,learning something new and powerfull about yourself as you go. HE was talking about Parkour the craze in England and tought to myself hmmm? Is this what we strive for in our selves? The Psychological mindset that its either fight or flight in a situation that may happen to us in our lifetime.
I tought  that was pretty good and wanted to share before bed, and please bear with me new to this fourm stuff but like what i see . In the article there there is a web address have not had the chance to look at it but might have more info. Its risktaking.co.uk. hopefully more vids of Parkour !!!!!

[jonbroster]

There's another french movie, with english subtitles, featuring a group of parkour practitioners who have to get the money together to save a young kid's life by getting him a heart transplant.

The film is called: Yamakasi, les samouraïs des temps modernes you can get a copy at:
http://www.amazon.fr/Yamakasi-samoura%C3%AFs-temps-modernes-Belle/dp/B00005O0B8/ref=pd_bowtega_1/171-5016935-1471443?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1177057042&sr=1-1

Also worth checking out is Taxi 2 (in French with subtitles) the same bunch of guys play ninja who kidnap a Japanese diplomat. No martial arts on display, just lots of mad jumps off buildings etc 

Jon

[kanarwc]

(Le) Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or art du déplacement (English: art of displacement) is a physical art of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anythng in the surrounding environment — from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls — so parkour can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Male parkour practitioners are recognized as traceurs and female as traceuses.

The cultural phenomenon parkour is a physical activity which is difficult to categorize. It is definitely not an extreme sport, but an art that resembles self-defense in the martial arts. According to the founder David Belle, the spirit of parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach," that is, the idea of using quick thinking with dexterity to get out of difficult situations. So having a hostile confrontation with a person, you will be able to speak, fight or flee. As martial arts are a form of training for the fight, parkour is a form of training for the flee. Because of its difficulty to categorize, it is often said that parkour is in its own category: "parkour is parkour."

An important characteristic of parkour is efficiency. The basic meaning of this is that a traceur must not merely move as fast as he can, but move in a way that is the least energy-consuming and simultaneously the most direct. In addition, since parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last), efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term.

Parkour is also known to have an influence on practitioner's thought process. Traceurs and traceuses experience a change in their critical thinking skills to help them overcome obstacles in everyday life, whether they be physical or mental boundaries.[

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

[kanarwc]

The sources of Parkour are interesting :

History

Inspiration for parkour came from many sources, the foremost being the 'Natural Method of Physical Culture' developed by Georges Hébert in the early twentieth century. French soldiers in Vietnam were inspired by Hébert's work and created what is now known parcours du combattant. David Belle was introduced to the obstacle course training as well as Hébert's methode naturelle by his father, Raymond Belle, a French soldier who practiced the two disciplines. 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.

After moving to Lisses, David Belle continued his journey with others. "From then on we developed," says Sébastien Foucan in Jump London, "And really the whole town was there for us; there for parkour. You just have to look, you just have to think, like children." This, as he describes, is "the vision of parkour."

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 story 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 practiced activity outside of France created splits among the originators. The founders of parkour started out in a group named the Yamakasi, but later separated due to disagreements over what David Belle referred to as "prostitution of the art," the production of a feature film starring the Yamakasi in 2001. Sébastien Foucan, David Belle, were amongst those who split at this point. The name 'Yamakasi' is taken from Lingala, a language spoken in the Congo, and means strong spirit, strong body, strong man.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

[Jeff M.]

that clip was incredible. there was a commercial that aired recently using parkour. honestly i think it was a bad idea for the maker to use it in the commercial since i had no interest in what they were selling all i cared about was the acrobatics 

[Bandolero]

I understand the Warriors Forge in Manassas, Va. will be having Parkour seminars in the not too distant future.

[Bandolero]

There's another french movie, with english subtitles, featuring a group of parkour practitioners who have to get the money together to save a young kid's life by getting him a heart transplant. i can't remember the name, but i think it has the guy who did the casino royale stunts in it. very cool stuff and a neat movie set in Paris.
'par cour' means 'by/using the heart ' in french. i think this is where the name comes from (?). as i understand it, many of the practitioners are from poorer, urban areas where there is high unemployment and it started as an underground youth movement. this movie starts with the group meeting before dawn to climb an appartment building to watch the sunrise from the roof, making their escape as the police show up...

My girlfriend, who speaks fluent French, told me this:

"I do not think that is correct.  Heart is not spelled that way.  (Not
that I know how it IS spelled, but I know it ain't like that.)  "Par
cour" to me would mean "by running" or "by race" or something like that."

My research indicates heart is couer and run is cour.  However Wikipedia presents this as the origin:

The term parkour IPA: [/paʁ.'kuʁ/] was defined by David Belle and his friend, but not practitioner Hubert Koundé in 1998. It derives from parcours du combattant, the obstacle course method proposed by Georges Hébert and a classic of French military training. Koundé took the word parcours, replaced the "c" with a "k" to suggest aggressiveness, and removed the silent "s" as it opposed parkour's philosophy about efficiency.[8][9][10]

[maija]

Thanks CWS. I just checked too, and heart is "coeur"......my high school french is rather rusty!
Of course it would have something to do with running(!)...runner in french is "coureur" . i'm sure "courier" in english has the same root.

[bjung]

i saw two guys practicing in the park the other day. it was pretty fun to watch their workout. they took over a small section of the park and just repeated going through this one section with the same techniques...they started with climbing the lampost and then jumping off to swing through a set off pullup bars, then they ran the ledge for a slightly elevated plant enclosure and then did something else which i've forgotten like jumping over a bench or something. the run through took 30 seconds or so and then they would repeat...looks like good fun.

[Bandolero]

Dino from Team Ruthless had a Parkour guy from DC in a few days ago.  The guy showed them some techniques and had them do some stuff to.  Everybody, including Ashley (and that is very hard to do), was sore the next day.

I expect there will be some seminars there in the future.

[Bandolero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtJckTGvCcI

Training video

[Bandolero]

There is some pretty good Parkour during one scene in the new Die Hard movie.

[Bandolero]

A scene from B13.

Aloha, C-Poi Dog

I just saw it yesterday via NetFlex.  The Parkour was great.

I can't believe some of those guys won't have serious health problems with knees and ankles later in life....