Parkour analysis

Parkour is an art of movement, using only the body to overcome physical obstacles in a quick and efficient manner. A man named David Belle developed this discipline in the late 1980’s in Lisses, France, a suburb of Paris. David Belle was greatly influenced by his father, Raymond Belle, who was an elite military firefighter with great agility and strength. Raymond was also trained in gymnastics and known for amazing acts of heroism, such as scaling the walls of a burning cathedral to save people on the roof. David developed Parkour with the idea of being in an emergency situation and having to get from one place to the next as quickly as possible. While Parkour practitioners, called Traceurs, don’t like limit their movement to a set list of techniques there are many technques that have proven themselves more useful and versatile and have thus been given names.
Perhaps the most basic of movements is the vault. A vault consists of placing the hands on an obstacle and bringing the feet over the obstacle, to land on the other side. There is a vast array of different vaults used in Parkour, the monkey, kong, dash, speed, thief, kash, lazy, the list goes on and on. The Kong vault is probably the most widely used vault, it is extremely good for retaining momentum and is very versatile. The Kong vault has the Traceur running at an obstacle, throwing himself headfirst at it so he is almost parallel to the ground, then putting his weight on his hands and pulling his feet in-between his hands directly under his body. This vault can be used on extremely long obstacles, by diving farther out, or tall obstacles, by jumping up more.
The dash vault is much less versatile than the Kong but has much more aesthetic appeal. The dash vault has the Traceur running and jumping over the obstacle with his feet in front of him, the body and legs forming an L shape, while the body is directly over the obstacle he absorbs the impact with his hands on either side of the torso, then lands with his feet on the other side of the obstacle. This vault has its advantages in the dismount, because the legs are in front of the body you can continue running with less momentum lost due to the impact. One could write an entire paper on just the different vaults used in Parkour, but vaults alone are not the main focus of Parkour.
One of the most useful techniques used in Parkour is the wall-run. As the name implies this movement has you running up a vertical wall. Depending on the height of the wall the technique itself differs. For a relatively small wall, six to eight feet for example, one would run towards the wall, placing the first foot on the wall and pushing up and out to convert the forward momentum of the run to upward momentum. Soon after pushing off of the first foot both hands are placed on top of the wall, with the entire hand on top of the wall, almost simultaneous with this hand placement the second foot pushes up and away from the wall allowing the entire body to either land on top of the wall or go over the wall without the feet touching the top. On taller wall-runs the Traceur would push off the wall with a hand also and grip the top of the wall with only one hand.
Another of the most important techniques is the cat grab or cat leap, a way to position your body hanging from the top of a wall. If jumping from a standing position the Traceur jumps at the wall and swings his feet forward in a tucked position, grabbing the top of the wall with his hands. The Traceur is left with the bottom of his feet touching the side of the wall, knees near the chest, and the hands on top of the wall. The other part of this is the climb-up, With the bottoms of the feet touching the wall a traceur pushes off with his feet and pulls up with his arms, the critical moment coming when the chest is almost level with the top of the wall. At this juncture the traceur must have enough upward momentum to reposition his hands the entire surface of both hands is on top of the wall then pushing up and thus having the waist at the top of the wall. Very experienced Traceurs can hang from a wall and within less that a second they are on top of the wall.
While the discipline is defined by its movement that is not to say that there is not a mental aspect. Many very experienced Traceurs use the Parkour mindset to not only overcome physical obstacles but mental and emotional barriers as well. When one trains to overcome physical obstacles that seem insurmountable one stops thinking about what is possible and impossible, one only thinks about how best to overcome what is. The Parkour community also has a way of seeing all the good things in a bad situation. If shoes don’t grip well on walls then better technique is needed; is shoes don’t have much cushion then better technique is needed to keep from hurting your feet upon impact. This mindset goes farther than just with Parkour, essentially giving the mindset that anything that is difficult will reward you in some way.
From it’s humble beginnings in Lisses to it’s increasing popularity around the world, Parkour has benefited from modern technology, videos are spread via youtube and people meet each other through forums. It’s core philosophy of moving quickly and efficiently, without letting barriers and obstacles impede progress can be seen as a return to the natural movement we see animals, such as monkeys and lemurs, performing. Many of the names of movements are inspired by animals they imitate, the cat grab, monkey vault, and so on. Many people see Parkour as skateboarding without the board but I see it as so much more, a way to master my environment and move as best as I am able.