Parkour

Parkour is an activity in which the goal is to move from one place to another as quickly and efficiently as possible, using the abilities of the human body. Parkour helps to overcome barriers, and is practiced in rural and urban areas. Parkour practitioners are called traceurs, or traceuses for females.

Founded by David Belle in France, practitioners only use efficient movements to develop their bodies and minds, and to be able to overcome barriers in an emergency. It may also be a form of entertainment or a hobby.

Acrobatics (such as flips and wall flips) are not part of parkour, because of inefficiency in a difficult situation (emergency). Freerunning is the branch of parkour, when such flips are used rather than efficient movement.

In 1988, David Belle was 15 years old. His father Raymond Belle was a great fireman. David was influenced by his father. He left school at the age of 16 and his father helped him to make him stronger. David and his classmates began to create new actions to train themselves. They named it parkour. 

The basic motion of parkour
1. Landing
2. Roll
3. Rolling
4. Swan dive
5. Balance
6. Cat balance
7. Precision one foot take off
8. Precision 2 footed take off
9. Dismount
10. Turn vault
11. Wall run
12. Tic tac
13. Tic tac to precision
14. Crane
15. Moonstep
16. Catleap
17. 180% cat　　
18. Running cat　　
19. Tic tac to cat
20. Monkey vault
21. Kingkong vault　　
22. Double kingkong
23. Diving kingkong
24. Kong precision
25. Kingkong cat　　
26. Dash vault
27. Kingkong dash
28. Lazy vault
29. Speed vault
30. Underbar
31. Lache
32. Hand stand
33. Flag
34.Palmspin　　
35. Wall spin
36. Aerial。
37. Sideflip
38. Backflip
39. Frontflip
40. Star Jumping

Parkour does involve risks but usually the public tends to overestimate those. Football, as well as quite a lot of other sports as well, has a higher injury rate.

 Reference 

 Other websites 

 American Parkour - American parkour and free running community full of information about parkour and how to get started practicing the art
 Parkourpedia of Australian Parkour Association
 Parkour.NET  - International parkour community.

Category:Leisure