Parkour Video Showcase

squidoo.com — Le parkour is a recently coined French term (related to the verb parcourir, 'to run over or through'), sometimes referred to by the initials PK. The activity (and its name) were created by David Belle, Sebastien Foucan, and a group of their friends when they were teenagers living in the Paris suburb of Lisses in the late 1980s. Belle's father had been a soldier in Vietnam, and his training included navigating obstacle courses. Belle picked up many of the moves-and the philosophy behind them-from his father and, along with his friends, developed them into an art form.Parkour combines elements of running, gymnastics, dance, and martial arts into a breathtaking-and sometimes dangerous-way of moving from place to place (typically in an urban setting). The general idea is to move quickly and gracefully, treating whatever objects you come across as elements in an obstacle course. Buildings, walls, handrails, rocks, and anything else that people normally walk around become mere props or gymnastic apparatuses that you 'flow' over, across, or through. The only real rule is that you should not move backwards, but given any number of ways to get from point A to point B, the objective is to do so with as much efficiency and style as possible.Unlike skateboarding (which parkour resembles in some ways), the only equipment required for parkour is a good pair of shoes. Participants, who call themselves traceurs, wear no protective gear but typically invest a great deal of time in training and preparation in order to execute the necessary moves safely. The first thing any participant learns is how to cushion the impact of a jump (or fall) by rolling. Although parkour is ultimately about clever improvisation rather than choreographed moves, there are a couple dozen or so standard maneuvers that almost all traceurs learn-including several techniques for getting over tall walls.Some traceurs participate merely for the fun or the challenge, but others treat parkour as a more serious art Feb 23, 2011 View in Crawl 4