Parkour Training

Learning parkour is becoming increasingly popular, but it isn't the easiest thing to do especially if you try to learn it on your own. This article will discuss 3 ways to learn parkour that will get you on your way to learning this exciting and fascinating sport.

1. YouTube Videos: There are ample videos on YouTube that can show you many parkour techniques to get you started. Whether you are brand new to the sport or you want to learn some more advanced moves, online videos showing you examples can be a great way to find some different ideas. Watching others who have already mastered the techniques is a great way to learn.

2. Parkour Handbook: There is a parkour and free running handbook you could get that will teach you more about the sport and get you going on learning some of the basic moves. The handbook is a user's manual and will teach you about the techniques, the culture and clothes as well as more information about the urban communities that are forming around the common interest of this noncompetitive sport.

3. Find a Group: It is becoming increasingly more common to find a group in your area, especially in urban locations as they make the best places to use parkour techniques. Having a group behind you showing you the ropes and/or being your spotter and inspiration to help you develop unique moves are the best ways to excel at parkour. It can be intimidating at first to try even a basic back flip, but with someone there to help you, this flip will soon become as easy as breathing.

Parkour Training

In this article we looked at learning parkour and 3 ways you can learn parkour easily without risking injuries and giving up before you get started. There are many YouTube videos popping up that you can view to learn some new techniques and there is also a great beginners parkour handbook that will teach you all about the phenomenon that is parkour and free running. Finding a group or community in your area is probably the best way to get started. Having people behind you to help with tricks and basic parkour moves is a great way to eliminate the risk of injury and learn some of the more challenging moves.

David Belle - The founder of PARKOUR

David Belle

David Belle (born 29 April 1973 in Fécamp, France) is the founder of parkour. He is also a physical educator, stuntman and actor. His military training and early athletic, climbing, gymnastic, and martial arts training acted as the foundations for the discipline he has developed.

Belle descends from a modest family in the suburbs of Paris. His grandfather Gilbert Kitten, father Raymond Belle, and brother Jeff Belle have been highly skilled rescuers in the French military fire service.

He spent the first 14 years of his life in his birthplace Fécamp and later in Les Sables d'Olonne, a time during which he demonstrated a taste for action and fast movement. He excelled in athletics, climbing, gymnastics and martial arts. He was strongly inspired by his maternal grandfather Gilbert Kitten who evoked in him a passion for heroism and helping other people.

In 1988, at the age of 15, Belle left school and moved to Lisses, Paris to begin his national service. In this time he obtained his French national First Aid certificate and UFOLEP certificate of gymnastics leadership. He made close friends with a group of teenagers with a similar physical passion, who later became the Yamakasi (Yann Hnautra, Frédéric Hnautra, David Malgogne, Sébastien Foucan and Kazuma). After joining the fire brigade with aspirations of following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps, he was temporarily discharged due to a wrist injury and did not return for personal reasons.

He later joined the Troupes de marine in Vannes, where he received a promotion, a gymnastic agility certificate of honour, and champion records for Regimental rope-climbing (which his father had once held) and the Essonne obstacle course. He has however said that his taste and love for adventure and freedom did not go well with the regimented life of the military.

Upon completing his national service he worked in a number of various professions including a warehouse worker, security guard and furniture salesman. He then flew to India and obtained a Black Belt in Gong Fu. After his return he began promoting his discipline by filming footage of his capabilities. In 1997 the Stade 2 team (Francis Marroto, Pierre Sleed and Pierre Salviac) were shown a video and decided to create a film about Belle and parkour, in a series of his collaborations with 'the speed-air man', 'catmen', 'la Reléve' and 'les traceurs'. The word 'traceur' has since been used to define a practitioner of parkour.

Belle was first introduced to his acting career in a meeting with Hubert Koundé (La Haine), in order to discuss the success of parkour on the big screen. He then began developing his acting ability with the play Pygmalion, and has since been successful in obtaining a number of roles mostly in French films and promotions. Belle has been featured in promotional videos for Tina Turner, and Iam. He has starred in "Les gens du voyages" and "Un monde meilleur", followed by "L'Engrenages" and "Femme Fatale", as well as "Les riviéres pourpres 2", starring Jean Reno. After filming several more advertisements and promotions for the BBC, Nissan and Nike, Belle was contacted by Luc Besson (director of Nikita, and The Fifth Element) regarding co-starring as lead actor with Cyril Raffaelli in the action movie District 13. 

Parkour

Founder of Parkour - David Belle

Parkour (sometimes abbreviated PK) is the non-competitive sport originating in France of traversing mainly urban landscapes by running, climbing and jumping. Participants run along a route, attempting to navigate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas.

A practitioner of parkour is called a "traceur", which is most likely derived from Parisian slang "tracer" which means "to hurry" or "to move quickly". In proper French, traceur is an adjective qualifying something that leaves a trace or a trail behind it.

In practice, a traceur may use several different names interchangeably for parkour, including freerunning or "l'art du déplacement", even though these terms refer to distinct parts of the discipline. While parkour and l'art du déplacement aim to enable the practitioner to move quickly and creatively past obstacles, freerunning includes the use of tricking moves such as aerial rotations and spins.