Parkour turns local geography into gymnasium

By Stephen Hlawaty
Outdoors Columnist

Following the principle of the shortest distance between two points, parkour adds efficiency, elegance and fluidity to what otherwise might simply be a straight line.

Rooted in French military training exercises, parkour has become one of the newest mainstream recreational pursuits whose participants--known as traceurs and traceuses (males and females, respectively)--engage in the activity in both urban and rural areas. The French classify parkour as l'art du deplacement (the art of displacement). The point of parkour is to travel from one point to the next as efficiently and fluidly as possible, relying primarily on the human body and gravity as the principle means for conveyance.

In the early 1900s, French naval officer and physical education pioneer Georges Herbert noted the fluidity and efficiency with which indigenous peoples of Africa moved in their natural environment, stating that "their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature."

Herbert's observations evolved into his Natural Method of training, which focuses on using the obstacles of one's immediate environment to one's advantage. It wasn't until the French military adopted this method of training that David Belle, son of French army soldier Raymond Belle, recognized the transcendent quality of what has become parkour.

Parkour aims to engage the participant in a disciplined and artistic approach to encountering obstacles in one's environment. Such aims approximate those in the martial arts, considering that obstacles may manifest themselves in physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual environments.

Thus, Belle saw parkour as something more than just a means toward military training, but rather a means toward individual improvement of body, mind and spirit. He took as his dojo the urban environments of his surrounding France, and with the help of fellow friends, he began a cult following of the sport that eventually evolved into a legitimate outdoor pursuit, giving rise to its own language, as well as parkour films, schools and pop-culture references. But among these offshoots of the sport, it is the urban environment, with its diverse geographical features, to which the practice of parkour has become most synonymous.

Traceurs and traceuses run across rooftops, leap across buildings, jump over walls, fences and railings as if the geography of their urban environment were a gymnasium. Seen more literarally, traceurs and traceuses reinterpret their relationship to the anatomy of their surroundings and empower themselves over those geographical features that would otherwise route, control and block their progress through their environment. In short, traceurs and traceuses are modern-day tragic heroes and heroines, and the tragic drama of parkour offers its players what might be described in the words of American playwright Arthur Miller "a moment [when] everything is in suspension, nothing is accepted . . . [and] the character gains 'size.'"

This gaining in metaphorical size is the philosophical lifeblood of parkour. And as Miller might suggest in his essay "Tragedy and the Common Man," human nobility is no longer the exclusive domain of kings and queens, but rather that of everyday traceurs and traceuses. As such, the venue for such individual growth ranges from sprawling urban centers to tiny rural environments. Anything from rails to rocks may be obstacles with which a traceur or traceuse may have to contend.

Each obstacle presents a unique challenge to traceurs and traceuses of how best to overcome it effectively. This depends on a variety of factors, some of which include body type, speed and angle of approach, and physical make-up of the obstacle. Effective parkour techniques rely on redistribution of body weight, as well as momentum and absorption of energy. Such skills allow parkour practitioners to jump from greater heights and span wider spaces than once thought possible. Such quantifiable skills have been codified into a language all its own and is understood among community, national and international parkour clubs, organizations and schools.

But you do not have to belong to any official parkour association to become a traceur or traceus. All you need to do is practice the most efficient and suitable movement through your environment. This can include running, jumping, climbing or even crawling. As long as you keep safety in mind, a typical approach to parkour might be to put yourself in a certain fight-or-flight mindset before beginning. As such, parkour trains for the flight rather than the fight.

For instructional tips and materials for developing parkour skills visit American Parkour at www.americanparkour.com or for nearby classes in parkour visit Colorado Parkour at www.coloradoparkour.com.