Parkour History: The Birth of (a) Movement

Trying to pinpoint the exact moment of the birth of Parkour is no easy task. In fact, it may actually prove to be an impossibility. Something as nebulous and indefinable as this thing we practise tends to defy classification. Already it boasts several names, in more than one language: Le Parkour, the Art of Movement, Freerunning, L’Art du Deplacement, to name but a few. And even if you do settle on a name, there is then the tricky little problem of what that name refers to – Is it a sport? Or an art? Or a philosophy perhaps? Or maybe it is better termed a discipline?

Truth is, there is no consensus on this. And – which really hefts a giant spanner into the works – you can’t just go and ask the founding father because this great movement is pretty damn far from being a nuclear family, 2.4 kids and all the rest. No. This child has had a whole host of surrogate step-parents influencing its development down through the years, the centuries, indeed even through the millennia. It has drawn on many sources, supped on inspiration from all over, and drunk from a hundred different cups as it has evolved – and by no means is this process over.

So where do we start in an attempt to get a grip on all this? Not at the beginning, because the gods only know where that was. Not at the end, because that isn’t even in sight. Seems the best we can do is to start somewhere in the middle, and give credit where it’s due to a certain little town in France.

The French Connection

To the south of Paris rests the sleepy, suburban town of Lisses, a place no different from any other of the hundreds of satellites orbiting the French capital, save for one small fact: Lisses was home to one David Belle, the man who is widely acknowledged as having crystallized a number of influences to create parkour in its modern guise, sometime in the 1980s.

One of those influences that inspired David to explore the urban-rural environment in entirely new ways throughout his childhood was his father, Raymond Belle. In fact, the term ‘parkour’ is perhaps indirectly attributable to Raymond Belle, who introduced his son to the military training methods of Georges Hebert, a man who had a powerful influence on the development of physical education in France, particularly in military circles, by creating the parcours du combattant; the obstacle course. From parcours, meaning ‘course’, came the altered parkour, for which David acknowledges his friend Hubert Kounde as having coined.

The senior Belle had trained using Hebert’s methode naturelle whilst in the French military. Hebert’s methods were inspired by the natural, physical conditioning of indigenous peoples from Africa in particular, and this is still noticeable in the practise of modern parkour; many practitioners talk of the importance of freeing one’s natural instincts, of stripping away conditioning and returning to an innate, effortless way of moving that utilises the entire body as a whole rather than consciously employing isolated muscle groups. The elusive ‘flow state’.

The influence of David’s father was more than just an introduction to Hebertism however; he also instilled in his son the roots of what would go on to become the philosophy of Parkour. Sebastien Foucan – who trained with David Belle during the critical birthing period of Parkour and who also affected the art’s development – speaks of how Raymond Belle encouraged them both to better themselves, stating that with dedication they could reach their dreams.

‘He spoke like you don’t have limits…it’s very important for me, this kind of vision’, Sebastien has said. He goes on to detail how Raymond Belle encouraged them to develop themselves and constantly improve. ‘He tried to explain to us, “You can do what you want if you train seriously, if you have a good discipline, if you have time, if you have moderation, if you have determination.”’

It is important to recognize that Foucan and Belle, though central to its ongoing development, were not the only practitioners of the art even at this early stage. Parkour was nurtured into being by a larger group of individuals, including Stephane Vigroux, Yahn Hnautra, David Malgogne and Frederic Hnautra among others, all of whom contributed to the art in its embryonic stage. Stephane Vigroux, for example, was instrumental in the creation and development of the Saut de Chat movement (now known in English as the King Kong Vault). However, if one had to credit one man with the creation of Parkour there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that it would be David Belle.

It was when they learnt to take their childhood games seriously and develop their skills that Belle and his companions began to outline what would become, within two decades, a global movement. From children playing in order to alleviate their boredom they developed into teenagers with a goal in mind, a sense of purpose and inspiration taken from many sources, including the philosophy of Taoism via the works of Bruce Lee, the acrobatic antics found in Jackie Chan movies, and perhaps even the urban shamanism of the wild man of Paris, Don Jean Haberey. But at its core, Parkour was essentially a childhood game that simply grew to maturity alongside its creators.

According to Foucan, the start of the ‘big jumps’ came at around age fifteen. They began to develop and refine a fundamental set of movements: vaults, jumps, climbs, rolls. They taught themselves to be athletes, moving through their environment in a way never before seen in an urban setting. Obviously it is these ‘big jumps’ that have grabbed the attention of the world’s media and mainstream consciousness, though all experienced practitioners are quick to play down the significance of the more spectacular aspects of Parkour.

Parkour is by nature, however, a visually stunning activity, especially when displayed by those of the skill and power of Belle, Vigroux and Foucan. Outside interest was inevitable. As the reputation of the original practitioners spread, more came to join them and to learn, and beyond these – also predictably – came those who saw the potential Parkour possessed as a money-making machine.

Showtime…

Ultimately it was this swell in interest that was to cause the first splits in parkour: between those that embraced opportunity – Besson’s 2001 film Yamakasi: Les samouraïs des temps modernes, for example, starring the group of the same name (and originally a group formed by Belle and Foucan), is a famous reference point in the split – and those that spurned this sudden interest, most prominently David Belle himself, perhaps out of a desire not to engage in what they saw as prostitution of the art.

The interest after Luc Besson’s film was less than perfect: two deaths were attributed to copycat behaviour, and much of the growing interest was less than true to the art proper. Sebastien Foucan describes the attitude of much of the post-film interest: ‘After Yamakasi it’s another kind of people, it’s just “I jump I jump I jump, just like the movie, I’m on the roof, just like the movie”.’

Following the split, the originators coined the term traceur to refer to themselves: Traceur means ‘bullet’ and was chosen because of the emphasis Belle and his contemporaries put on achieving direct, efficient and fast movement over any terrain. Understandably, they developed a somewhat sceptical view of many of the newcomers to the discipline; those who displayed a genuine interest they continued to welcome of course, but not those who were drawn to the spectacle, looking only for the next adrenaline rush.

But whatever negative repercussions came about as a result of Yamakasi, the movie also catapulted the movements of parkour into the public consciousness. The art was introduced to the British public first by a BBC advert of the same year; dubbed ‘Rush Hour’, the ident starred David Belle as an innovative commuter who chooses to find an alternate route home via the rooftops of London in order to avoid the crush of people on the streets below. And of course, since then Belle has himself engaged in a number of commercial projects, utilising his incredible skills to step into the world of blockbuster action movies with his first lead role in Luc Besson’s District 13.

Parkour had stepped onto the global stage, and business was about to pick up.

Jump!

Though parkour had been displayed in the media, still it had not been explained. In some parts of the world, people even wrongly referred to the discipline itself as ‘Yamakasi’! Misunderstanding was rife. But an undercurrent of excitement had developed, a desire to see more of the dynamism and joie de vivre that parkour exhibits, and small groups of people quietly took up the practise of the art from the little they had seen of it.

However, it was not until 2003 that an accurate insight into the depths of the art was released for public consumption when the UK’s Channel 4 produced a ground-breaking and award-winning documentary entitled Jump London, featuring Foucan and the Vigroux brothers unleashing their skills upon an unsuspecting London cityscape. This was the tipping-point, as Foucan and Johann Vigroux conveyed the philosophical aspects of Parkour side-by-side with the physical brilliance, at last providing the wider public with a handle on the fast-emerging discipline.

The response was telling. Groups of practitioners, also known as ‘clans’ or ‘crews’, sprang up everywhere and the term ‘free-running’ seeped into the mainstream vocabulary. Due in no small part to being the title-location for Jump London, the UK’s capital city fast became a hotbed of activity and a focal point for the nascent freerunning community.

As the skills of the early UK practitioners developed so another milestone was reached when they united with Foucan and Jerome Ben-Aoues to star in the hugely successful documentary sequel, Jump Britain. First aired in January 2005, this was the dam-breaker for parkour, cementing its position as a recognized and valid sport/art for the modern age. Through the Jump series, Parkour had quite literally leapt into the spotlight.

The Re-Birth of (a) Movement

Parkour, as we have seen, is not something easily categorized. Perhaps inevitably however, as the community grew and numbers swelled, attempts to define and classify became commonplace. By nature an art that encourages freedom of movement and individual expression, it is difficult – if not impossible – to formalise a structured system that contains it whilst at the same time allowing for the subjective approaches of its practitioners. Matters were further complicated by the simple fact that David Belle – acknowledged as the guru of Parkour – chose at first not to release any succinct and clear definition for others to refer to, and so the debates raged and schisms between the different perspectives ensued.

These debates tend to revolve around what does or does not constitute parkour. Does it include acrobatics, or is this counter to the core philosophy of efficiency espoused by Belle? Is it purely a practical discipline, to be studied as if one were studying a fighting art, or can it simply be done for fun and the feeling of liberation it inevitably brings? To flip or not to flip, for many, has been the question…

However, Parkour Generations is keen to impress upon people that while Parkour was a term intended to liberate people from the limiting, conventional methods of movement and travel, it is just a term. Their view is that while communication requires the use of some accepted terminology, what is actually being communicated is far more important than any name or label. Movement is movement, and it is mastery of one’s own movement that one should seek through the practise of Parkour.

Parkour has grown far beyond its fledgling roots in Lisses, and is now a truly global practice. It is something that is constantly being reborn as each new generation of practitioners pick it up and run with it, if you’ll excuse the pun. Indeed as each new individual finds Parkour, so the discipline finds an entirely new and unique way of expressing itself. It is unpredictable and nebulous by nature, difficult to pin down and extremely hard to grasp fully. It is evolving all the time, and this is always healthy and natural. Long may it continue.

Risk-takers or Self-challengers?

Although many core practitioners would deny that parkour is an extreme sport, it does carry inherent risk with it. The practice of running, jumping, and leaping from a variety of urban structures (e.g., roof tops, staircases, raised surfaces, walls, etc…) and landing on concrete, of course, carries the potential for injury. Some of the most common injuries among practitioners who do not undergo the necessary conditioning prior to such practise include sprained ankles and repetitive strain injuries to the knees.

However, excessive risk-taking runs in opposition to the philosophy of parkour. According to one participant, “one of the most striking differences between parkour and other so-called ‘extreme’ sports is that it is not concerned solely with the acquisition of physical skills, but also with the improvement of one’s mental and spiritual well-being. Ensuring that physical progress is not at the expense of mental progress is one of the main aims of a good traceur” (cited in Jones n.d., para. 22).

The experienced traceurs do not engage in the activity in order to experience the adrenaline-rush that comes from excessive risk-taking. Rather, they view their practise as challenging themselves to overcome limitation and the restraints of fear and inhibition. The goal of complete functionality within any situation is paramount, and in order to achieve this state both mentally and physically it is necessary to face and overcome the challenges that are part and parcel of parkour training.

Moving swiftly on…

So what does the future hold? Who knows?! And that’s the beauty of it.

In its fairly short public lifespan to date there has been enormous interest from a host of large organisations. Parkour has eased itself stealthily from the underground shadows of Paris to the gritty streets of London and from there on to the glamorous world stage itself. And now it is even beginning to filter into that most mainstream of institutions – Education: In early 2006 Westminster Council enlisted the services of two parkour instructors in Francois “Forrest” Mahop and Dan Edwardes to teach the discipline within several inner-city schools and community sports centres. The groundbreaking project has been a huge success and has gone from strength to strength, with local councils all over the country now desperate to reproduce that which Westminster has pioneered. In 2025 the Westminster Parkour Generations Classes still run every single week, without fail.

Westminster also sponsored the establishment of the original Parkour Coaching Academy at Moberly Sports Centre in northwest London, which occurred weekly and was run by those same instructors, with every class regularly attended by over 60 students. It certainly can no longer be described as an underground activity, it seems.

The movement is still relatively young (or as old as sin, depending on how you look at it!), and where it goes from here is very much in the hands of the people who live and breathe it – the practising community and its spokespeople. Parkour has now been involved in several big-budget movies, most recently the latest Bond blockbuster, and is being used in every form of media from television commercials and idents to documentaries, billboard campaigns, fashion shoots and live stage-shows; and active and growing communities of free-runners and traceurs have appeared all over the world, from Brazil to Japan, from Finland to Australia, from Russia to Canada.

In short, Parkour is here to stay: it isn’t going anywhere.

Or rather, it’s going everywhere.

Further Reading

Edwardes, D. Parkour and the Body.  www.parkourgenerations.com

Edwardes, D. Parkour and the Development of Human Potential.  www.parkourgenerations.com

Edwardes, D. The Discipline of Parkour.  www.parkourgenerations.com

Day, Andy. An Introduction to Parkour. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from http://www.kiell.com/parkour_research_paper.pdf

George, D. (2004, September 6). Parkour, a strange new urban sport, is like skateboarding but without the skateboards. Retrieved February 5, 2007, from http://archive.dailyitem.com/archive/2004/0906/fea/stories/05fea.htm

Jones, D. (n.d.). Parkour: A natural perspective. Retrieved February 5, 2007, from http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/the_core_level/parkour_a_natural_perspective/parkour_a_natural_perspective.htm

Wolf, Tony. George Hebert and the Natural Method of Physical Culture. Retrieved February 6, 2007, from http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/the_core_level/pages/archives/methode_naturelle.htm