FOREWORD: 2014 is my tenth year of

FOREWORD: 2014 is my tenth year of parkour. As I reflect on this milestone, it’s incredible how much I’ve seen parkour grow. Unlike when I started, there are now many fantastic leaders and resources for new people to guide you and learn from. I’m happy to share my knowledge with you so that you don’t make the same mistakes I did as a beginner in parkour.

In this article, you’ll find a collection of information to help jumpstart your parkour journey. While this article was written to be highly educational, it is also intended to be concise. Want to know more details about the topics I summarize? Take some side adventures by viewing the links and videos I’ve included.

Are you ready to take the red pill? There’s no turning back. Welcome to the world of parkour, where you will tap into your inner child and accomplish things you never thought possible.

What is parkour?
History of Parkour
Who can do parkour?
What equipment do I need?
Where do I go to practice?
How do I get into shape?
Basic Parkour Movements
Intermediate Parkour
Additional Inspiration

What is parkour?
Parkour is a method of training your body and mind to overcome obstacles with speed and efficiency. However, the practice of parkour also includes many challenges that need adaptability, creativity, and strategy. Parkour athletes, known as traceurs and traceuses, use movements such as vaulting, running, climbing, swinging, and balancing to pass over, under, and through obstacles. While parkour can borrow movements from other disciplines, extraneous or purely aesthetic such as flips and twists are not typically considered parkour. Requiring you to see the environment in a unique way, parkour will teach you to face fear, set goals, and think critically to develop gradual plans of progression. As a physical discipline, parkour teaches respect for the environment and development of the body.



Originally intended as a synonym for parkour, freerunning evolved into a style of movement similar to parkour that also incorporates acrobatics and extraneous movement for fun, creativity, difficulty, and aesthetics. Freerunning allows an individual to express themselves by overcoming mental and physical obstacles without being limited to traditional parkour’s ideals of efficiency and utility.



Most practitioners of parkour and freerunning nowadays are not concerned with the names or labels of their style of movement. It is good to know the definitions and differences between movement arts like parkour and freerunning, but the modern trend is to experiment with and blend both. For the sake of simplicity in this article, I am going to refer to “parkour and freerunning” as simply, “parkour.”

Because parkour tends to be sensationalized in the media with roof gaps and flips from monolithic heights, the public has many misconceptions of what parkour truly is. Most importantly, parkour is not reckless risk taking or Jackass type stunts. Parkour is practiced with a sense of sustainability, respect, and discipline. Practice with a sense of sustainability so that your body is capable of moving well for your entire life. We should all respect the environment and people around you so that we can all maintain good relationships with the places we train at and the people we train around. The irresponsible actions of one person or group can negatively affect parkour for everyone. Lastly, pay attention to the original philosophies and ethics that helped shape parkour early on. Even if you have other main reasons for training parkour, there is plenty to be learned from traditional parkour mantras such as être et durer (to be and to last), être fort pour être utile (be strong to be useful), perpetual self-improvement, and developing a warrior-like spirit.

Other Movement Arts
Tricking is another discipline that is commonly mixed up with parkour and freerunning. Tricking is a free-form, modern offshoot of martial arts that incorporates kicks, flips, and twists into long sequences purely for creativity, aesthetics, and increased difficulty. In tricking, the only obstacle is gravity which means that it is typically practiced in large open spaces like grassy fields and gymnastics floors.

Bboying, often referred to as breaking or breakdancing, was developed as a street style of dance in the 1980s. The dance consists of four main elements: toprock, footwork, power moves, and freezes. As breaking has evolved, elements from tricking, gymnastics, and martial arts like capoeira are often mixed in to the dance.

Climbing is a physical discipline in which participants climb natural or artificial rock walls. There are many types of rock climbing including free climbing, aid climbing, and free soloing. Other variations include bouldering and buildering which require no special equipment because climbers typically don’t go higher than ~15 ft. off of the ground.

Gymnastics consists of acrobatic movements and bodyweight exercises that test all of an athlete’s abilities such as strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Tumbling is an acrobatic offshoot of gymnastics that has also been extensively studied, adapted, and modified by cheerleading and martial arts.

Martial arts consists of thousands of different styles and practices of combat learned for self-defense, health and fitness, or mental and spiritual development. Some martial arts like capoeira, ninjutsu, and kung fu have been instrumental in the evolution of other movement arts.

As the traditional practices of dance, gymnastics, and martial arts continue to evolve, more movement arts arise that combine familiar movements with original ones. Recently, other movement arts such as circus arts, street workout, pole fitness, aerial dance, and slacklining have permeated mainstream culture and provided inspiration to parkour practitioners. Gyms such as APEX Movement aim to provide a place where movement artists of all types can train alongside and collaborate with each other.

History of Parkour
It could be argued that parkour was inspired by Jackie Chan, cavemen, or even the first primitive animal that slithered or scampered its way over rocks and plants to evade a hungry predator or chase after prey. However, the roots of the conscious practice of parkour can be traced back to two main people, George Hebert and Raymond Belle.

Georges Hébert (1875-1957) was a naval officer and physical educator who traveled the world. Hébert observed the physical prowess of indigenous people in third world countries despite the absence of a workout regiment. It was noted by Hébert that their daily survival activities resulted in highly functional, well rounded athleticism. Based on this idea, Hébert developed the Methode Naturelle (Natural Method), a training philosophy centered around natural movements that could be done anywhere such as swimming, climbing, lifting, and self-defense. Hébert’s physical education ideas were soon adopted into France’s schools and military obstacle courses known as parcours du combattant.

One of the soldiers who trained on the parcours du combatant during the Vietnam War was Raymond Belle (1939-1999). Renowned for his courage and selflessness in the military and as a firefighter, Belle’s greatest contribution may have been the knowledge, ideals, and inspiration he passed on to his son David. Raymond Belle’s legacy was created in the form of parkour and l’art du deplacement (art of movement), disciplines that were shaped indirectly by his lifestyle and teachings.

Growing up in the suburbs of Paris (Lisses, Evry, and Sarcelles) was a group of young teens who began to experiment with alternative forms of moving through their urban environment, labeling their name as the Yamakasi and their practice as l’art du deplacement. Early on, the group included David Belle, Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle Dinh, Williams Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Laurent Pietmontesi, Guylain N’Guba Boyeke, Malik Diouf, and Charles Perriére. Directly inspired by Raymond Belle’s teachings of the Methode Naturelle and his own firefighting experiences, and values such as altruism and self-improvement, the group of boys began developing the fundamental movements and ideals of l’art du deplacement. As childhood games progressed to casual training and eventually, death-defying jumps and acrobatics, the media began to take notice and a world of new opportunities was opened.



One of the first prominent media opportunities for the Yamakasi was Luc Besson’s 2001 film entitled “Yamakasi”. While some members of the group took part in the movie, others including David Belle chose another path. David’s group eventually coined the names parkour and traceur, meaning “bullet,” to describe their fast, efficient movement style. That same year, David Belle was featured in a BBC commercial and two years later, Sebastien Foucan, Jerome Ben-Aoues, and the Vigroux brothers were featured in Jump London, an award-winning documentary produced by Mike Christie. Jump London aired on national television in the UK and was later shown internationally, exposing a global audience to parkour for the first time. Interestingly, the word freerunning was originally created for Jump London as an English sounding synonym for parkour. Over the next few years, freerunning became known as the creative, aesthetic version of parkour and Sebastien Foucan was credited as the founder. In 2005, Jump London was followed up by a sequel, Jump Britain, that focused on Foucan and the rise of the parkour scene in the UK and around the world. Through the two Jump documentaries, parkour received exposure as a legitimate practice and gained a valuable launching pad that would help parkour become featured and practiced around the world.

Additional Resources
“No Obstacles” by Alec Wilkinson (New Yorker Magazine)
Pronunciation Guide to Parkour Terminology (part 1)
Pronunciation Guide to Parkour Terminology (part 2)




Who can do parkour?
Anyone can do parkour. If you t

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Lời nói đầu: Các 2014 là năm thứ mười của tôi của parkour. Như tôi suy nghĩ về sự kiện quan trọng này, nó là không thể tin bao nhiêu tôi đã nhìn thấy parkour phát triển. Không giống như khi tôi bắt đầu, hiện có nhiều nhà lãnh đạo tuyệt vời và nguồn lực cho những người mới để hướng dẫn bạn và học hỏi từ. Tôi đang hạnh phúc để chia sẻ kiến thức của tôi với bạn để bạn không làm cho những sai lầm đó tôi đã làm như một người mới bắt đầu ở parkour.Trong bài viết này, bạn sẽ tìm thấy một bộ sưu tập của các thông tin để giúp khởi động hành trình parkour của bạn. Trong khi bài viết này được viết để đánh giá cao giáo dục, nó cũng được thiết kế để được ngắn gọn. Bạn muốn biết thêm chi tiết về các chủ đề tôi tóm tắt? Có một số cuộc phiêu lưu bên bằng cách xem các liên kết và video tôi đã bao gồm.Bạn đã sẵn sàng để có những viên thuốc màu đỏ? Có là không có quay trở lại. Chào mừng đến với thế giới của parkour, nơi bạn sẽ gõ vào con bên trong của bạn và thực hiện những điều bạn không bao giờ nghĩ rằng có thể.Parkour là gì?Lịch sử của ParkourAi có thể làm parkour?Tôi cần thiết bị gì?Nơi nào tôi đi để thực hành?Làm thế nào để có được thành hình dạng?Phong trào cơ bản ParkourTrung gian ParkourThêm InspirationParkour là gì?Parkour is a method of training your body and mind to overcome obstacles with speed and efficiency. However, the practice of parkour also includes many challenges that need adaptability, creativity, and strategy. Parkour athletes, known as traceurs and traceuses, use movements such as vaulting, running, climbing, swinging, and balancing to pass over, under, and through obstacles. While parkour can borrow movements from other disciplines, extraneous or purely aesthetic such as flips and twists are not typically considered parkour. Requiring you to see the environment in a unique way, parkour will teach you to face fear, set goals, and think critically to develop gradual plans of progression. As a physical discipline, parkour teaches respect for the environment and development of the body.Originally intended as a synonym for parkour, freerunning evolved into a style of movement similar to parkour that also incorporates acrobatics and extraneous movement for fun, creativity, difficulty, and aesthetics. Freerunning allows an individual to express themselves by overcoming mental and physical obstacles without being limited to traditional parkour’s ideals of efficiency and utility.Most practitioners of parkour and freerunning nowadays are not concerned with the names or labels of their style of movement. It is good to know the definitions and differences between movement arts like parkour and freerunning, but the modern trend is to experiment with and blend both. For the sake of simplicity in this article, I am going to refer to “parkour and freerunning” as simply, “parkour.”
Because parkour tends to be sensationalized in the media with roof gaps and flips from monolithic heights, the public has many misconceptions of what parkour truly is. Most importantly, parkour is not reckless risk taking or Jackass type stunts. Parkour is practiced with a sense of sustainability, respect, and discipline. Practice with a sense of sustainability so that your body is capable of moving well for your entire life. We should all respect the environment and people around you so that we can all maintain good relationships with the places we train at and the people we train around. The irresponsible actions of one person or group can negatively affect parkour for everyone. Lastly, pay attention to the original philosophies and ethics that helped shape parkour early on. Even if you have other main reasons for training parkour, there is plenty to be learned from traditional parkour mantras such as être et durer (to be and to last), être fort pour être utile (be strong to be useful), perpetual self-improvement, and developing a warrior-like spirit.

Other Movement Arts
Tricking is another discipline that is commonly mixed up with parkour and freerunning. Tricking is a free-form, modern offshoot of martial arts that incorporates kicks, flips, and twists into long sequences purely for creativity, aesthetics, and increased difficulty. In tricking, the only obstacle is gravity which means that it is typically practiced in large open spaces like grassy fields and gymnastics floors.

Bboying, often referred to as breaking or breakdancing, was developed as a street style of dance in the 1980s. The dance consists of four main elements: toprock, footwork, power moves, and freezes. As breaking has evolved, elements from tricking, gymnastics, and martial arts like capoeira are often mixed in to the dance.

Climbing is a physical discipline in which participants climb natural or artificial rock walls. There are many types of rock climbing including free climbing, aid climbing, and free soloing. Other variations include bouldering and buildering which require no special equipment because climbers typically don’t go higher than ~15 ft. off of the ground.

Gymnastics consists of acrobatic movements and bodyweight exercises that test all of an athlete’s abilities such as strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Tumbling is an acrobatic offshoot of gymnastics that has also been extensively studied, adapted, and modified by cheerleading and martial arts.

Martial arts consists of thousands of different styles and practices of combat learned for self-defense, health and fitness, or mental and spiritual development. Some martial arts like capoeira, ninjutsu, and kung fu have been instrumental in the evolution of other movement arts.

As the traditional practices of dance, gymnastics, and martial arts continue to evolve, more movement arts arise that combine familiar movements with original ones. Recently, other movement arts such as circus arts, street workout, pole fitness, aerial dance, and slacklining have permeated mainstream culture and provided inspiration to parkour practitioners. Gyms such as APEX Movement aim to provide a place where movement artists of all types can train alongside and collaborate with each other.

History of Parkour
It could be argued that parkour was inspired by Jackie Chan, cavemen, or even the first primitive animal that slithered or scampered its way over rocks and plants to evade a hungry predator or chase after prey. However, the roots of the conscious practice of parkour can be traced back to two main people, George Hebert and Raymond Belle.

Georges Hébert (1875-1957) was a naval officer and physical educator who traveled the world. Hébert observed the physical prowess of indigenous people in third world countries despite the absence of a workout regiment. It was noted by Hébert that their daily survival activities resulted in highly functional, well rounded athleticism. Based on this idea, Hébert developed the Methode Naturelle (Natural Method), a training philosophy centered around natural movements that could be done anywhere such as swimming, climbing, lifting, and self-defense. Hébert’s physical education ideas were soon adopted into France’s schools and military obstacle courses known as parcours du combattant.

One of the soldiers who trained on the parcours du combatant during the Vietnam War was Raymond Belle (1939-1999). Renowned for his courage and selflessness in the military and as a firefighter, Belle’s greatest contribution may have been the knowledge, ideals, and inspiration he passed on to his son David. Raymond Belle’s legacy was created in the form of parkour and l’art du deplacement (art of movement), disciplines that were shaped indirectly by his lifestyle and teachings.

Growing up in the suburbs of Paris (Lisses, Evry, and Sarcelles) was a group of young teens who began to experiment with alternative forms of moving through their urban environment, labeling their name as the Yamakasi and their practice as l’art du deplacement. Early on, the group included David Belle, Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle Dinh, Williams Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Laurent Pietmontesi, Guylain N’Guba Boyeke, Malik Diouf, and Charles Perriére. Directly inspired by Raymond Belle’s teachings of the Methode Naturelle and his own firefighting experiences, and values such as altruism and self-improvement, the group of boys began developing the fundamental movements and ideals of l’art du deplacement. As childhood games progressed to casual training and eventually, death-defying jumps and acrobatics, the media began to take notice and a world of new opportunities was opened.



One of the first prominent media opportunities for the Yamakasi was Luc Besson’s 2001 film entitled “Yamakasi”. While some members of the group took part in the movie, others including David Belle chose another path. David’s group eventually coined the names parkour and traceur, meaning “bullet,” to describe their fast, efficient movement style. That same year, David Belle was featured in a BBC commercial and two years later, Sebastien Foucan, Jerome Ben-Aoues, and the Vigroux brothers were featured in Jump London, an award-winning documentary produced by Mike Christie. Jump London aired on national television in the UK and was later shown internationally, exposing a global audience to parkour for the first time. Interestingly, the word freerunning was originally created for Jump London as an English sounding synonym for parkour. Over the next few years, freerunning became known as the creative, aesthetic version of parkour and Sebastien Foucan was credited as the founder. In 2005, Jump London was followed up by a sequel, Jump Britain, that focused on Foucan and the rise of the parkour scene in the UK and around the world. Through the two Jump documentaries, parkour received exposure as a legitimate practice and gained a valuable launching pad that would help parkour become featured and practiced around the world.

Additional Resources
“No Obstacles” by Alec Wilkinson (New Yorker Magazine)
Pronunciation Guide to Parkour Terminology (part 1)
Pronunciation Guide to Parkour Terminology (part 2)




Who can do parkour?
Anyone can do parkour. If you t