Based: Cape Town | Johannesburg

So what is parkour? Where did it come from? Why is the name associated with people jumping around?

Well parkour is essentially to go from one place to another in the quickest and most efficeint way possible overcoming any obstacle you encounter through the use of your own body.

It is a two syllable word pronounced as (par-core). Parkour is a noun and not a verb. So when you want to go train parkour with your friends, you would say “You guys want to go train parkour?” You would never say ” Hey guys lets go parkouring!!” people in the parkour community would look at you funny.

Parkour is looked at as a discipline and even a lifestyle much like martial arts.

Where as martial arts is the art of Fight, parkour is the art of flight.

A male who trains parkour is called a traceur, a female who trains parkour is called a traceuse.

These terms originated in France, this is were the term parkour was actually coined.

Now parkour has been around for ages, since the beginning of man when he figured out how to escape predators in the wild by using his body to efficiently move through his environment through trees, hills, and rocks to come out alive but it has only recently been given a name.

Parkour’s roots come from a discipline called Le Methode Naturelle, which was developed by a man named George Herbert.

Methode Naturelle was based on what he believed to be ten essential human movements to walk, run, climb, quadrapedal movement (move on all fours), swim, balance, lift, throw, and practice self-defense. Herbert was also one of the first main proponents of the “parcours”(obstacle course) for physical training which has become standard in military training around the world.

 

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