Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Parkour or Free-running

I have been looking into free running. If you're reading this, I'm assuming that you have seen Casino Royal, the Bond movie where Mr. Bond chases a guy up the crane, though a wall , jumping and leaping and looking super cool doing it. It got me all amped up and giddy and i wanted to do it. Unfortunately, the city i was in just didn't inspire me to do Batman/Bond like leaps.

My current city is perfect for such shenanigans. Two and three story buildings right next to each other, City squares and cobblestone streets. It seem like the perfect place to do some free-running, so I started to do some research, and research means wikipedkia. There I found a free running page that leaves a lot to be desired and that free running has its roots in Parkour.

Parkour is a French Martial Art form. Here is a quote by one of its founding members David Belle,

"[T]he physical aspect of parkour is getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency. You want to move in such a way, with any
movement, as to help you gain the most ground on someone or something, whether escaping from it or chasing toward it."

Here is wikipedia synopsis of Parkour
"Thus, when faced with a hostile confrontation with a person, one will be able to speak, fight, or flee. As martial arts are a form of training for the fight, parkour
is a form of training for the flight."

Leave it to the French to invent the Martial Art of fleeing.

The next question is if I take up Parkour, should I practice screaming like a little girl? Perhaps hire a German to chase me? I'll keep you up to date.

2 comments:

prof said...

Now that is funny, The French martial art is fleeing.

dicktrickel said...

We saved their asses in WWII