Parkour

Parkour is a physical discipline that involves traversing your environment in the most efficient manner available. It involves jumping, swinging, running, climbing, and one disregarded by most - landing. Doing these things all together to form the numerous techniques found in Parkour is the key to executing this physical discipline effectively. Not to be confused with freerunning, which is a combination of a lot of things (including some parkour techniques). Freerunning is freedom of movement, which can involve flips and tricks, while Parkour is focused on efficiency of movement, and focuses on the 5 basic movement patterns described above. Parkour was developed as a discipline in the late 20th century by David Belle, the son of a french firefighter. French firefighters were trained in a discipline called le parcours, which was a training format designed to give the fire fighters efficiency as they moved through burning buildings to do their duties. Young David Belle and some of his friends took the things his dad was taught and adapted them to specific techniques you can use in specific environmental conditions (short or tall walls or rails). David Belle and his friends who developed Parkour with him called themselves the Yamakasi. Parkour is great fun and is a great way to condition your body to move well and can be adapted to many other movement related activities as well (most sports). Parkour provides a great joy for many people worldwide.