Parkour philosophy is an important part of parkour, but most people are unaware of how important it is. The philosophy is important in understanding the true point or meaning of parkour. Alot of traceurs take the way of thinking they learn through parkour and apply it to everyday life. By challenging yourself to find ways of travelling through ubran environments it challenges your body both mentally and physically, to think quickly, spontaneously and out side the box. This makes it easier to deal with mental or physicall obstacles in life.
Whenever a difficult situation appears, a traceur can see this situation as an obstacle that they have learned to over come using parkour. They can then overcome the situation as efficiently as possible and without disrupting their intended path. This path, even for those with the same goal, may not be the same the point being that you should find your own path, to identify it and then to travel it in the way that suites you. Parkour is a way of thinking and training. The vaults and jumps used are only by-products of this way of thinking.
It can also teach you the most efficient way to over come fear!
Parkour
Parkour,is commonly confused with the art of displacement or sometimes freerunning. Parkour is a utilitarian discipline based upon the successful, swift and energy-efficient traversing of one's surrounding environment via the practical application of self-taught techniques, based around the concept of self-preservation and the ability to help others.It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as jumping, climbing, vaulting, rolling and swinging are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable, and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas. The usage and employment of flips into the named route does not constitute parkour.While art of displacement aims to enable the practitioner to be able to move quickly and creatively past obstacles, freerunning is a competition sport, with Urban FreeFlow being credited with this change of definition. Freerunning includes the use of tricking moves such as aerial rotations and spins, while the definition of parkour founder David Belle does not consider these part of parkour because the moves are merely for show, not efficient, can't help to assist anyone and do not help the participant to get from place to place. Although Sébastien Foucan is considered a co-founder of parkour, his philosophy later turned out to be different to that of parkour and grew to become known as freerunning.Overview
Two primary characteristics of parkour are efficiency and speed. Traceurs take the most direct path through an obstacle as rapidly as that route can be traversed safely. Developing one's level of spatial awareness is often used to aid development in these areas. Also, efficiency involves avoiding injuries, both short and long term. This idea embodying parkour's unofficial motto is to be and to last.Parkour's emphasis on efficiency distinguishes it from the similar practice of free running, which places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity.Traceurs say that parkour also influences one's thought processes by enhancing self-confidence and critical-thinking skills that allow one to overcome everyday physical and mental obstacles.A study by Neuropsychiatry of Childhood and Adolescence in France reflects that traceurs seek more excitement and leadership situations than gymnastic practitioners.
History
Before World War I, former naval officer Georges Hébert traveled throughout the world. During a visit to Africa, he was impressed by the physical development and skills of indigenous tribes that he met:Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature.
On May 8, 1902, the town of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, where he was stationed, suffered from the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée. Hébert coordinated the escape and rescue of some 700 people. This experience had a profound effect on him, and reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism. He eventually developed this ethos into his motto: be strong to be useful.Inspired by indigenous tribes, Hébert became a physical education tutor at the college of Reims in France. He began to define the principles of his own system of physical education and to create various apparatuses and exercises to teach his méthode naturelle,[12] which he defined as:
-Methodical, progressive and continuous action, from childhood to adulthood, that has as its objective: assuring integrated physical development; increasing organic resistances; emphasizing aptitudes across all genres of natural exercise and indispensable utilities (walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, equilibrium (balancing), throwing, lifting, defending and swimming); developing one's energy and all other facets of action or virility such that all assets, both physical and virile, are mastered; one dominant moral idea: altruism.
Hébert set up a session consisting of ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defense, swimming, which are part of three main forces:
-Energetic or virile sense: energy, willpower, courage, coolness, and firmness
-Moral sense: benevolence, assistance, honor, and honesty
-Physical sense: muscles and breath.
