Parkour
[Premise] Via Wikipedia:
The cultural phenomenon Parkour is a physical activity which is difficult to categorize. It is not an extreme sport, but an art or discipline that resembles self-defense in the martial arts. According to the founder David Belle, the spirit of Parkour is guided in part by the notions of “escape” and “reach,” that is, the idea of using quick thinking with dexterity to get out of difficult situations. You want to move in such a way, with any movement, that will help you gain the most ground on someone/something as if escaping from it, or chasing toward it. 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. Because of its difficulty to categorize, it is often said that Parkour is in its own category: “Parkour is Parkour.”
An important characteristic of parkour is efficiency. A traceur moves not merely as fast as he can, but also in the least energy-consuming and most direct way possible. Since Parkour’s unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last), efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term.
Parkour is also known to have an influence on practitioner’s thought process. Traceurs and traceuses experience a change in their critical thinking skills to help them overcome obstacles in everyday life, whether they be physical or mental boundaries.
[Read] I’ve been asked a few times now, “What is a good indication that something is an appropriative game?” In the past I’ve used a few different answers but after listening to a recent NPR report on Parkour, I think I’ve settled on the perfect sound bite: If the game pisses people off and makes them say something like, “Hey! You can’t do that here!” there is a good chance you are playing an appropriative game. Unlike other games, the primary friction between an appropriate game and the rest of the world isn’t a discussion of content. It is a discussion of location and Parkour is a perfect example of that.
One of the things that I find remarkable about Parkour is that there is no question of authorship. In my experience, most ‘happenings’ of this sort seem to develop over an ambiguous period (temporally & geographically) with credit being attributed to a general group of people. Whereas Parkour seems to be universally accredited to David Belle. In fact, I have yet to find a source that doesn’t make reference to Belle.
Belle’s primary influence for Parkour was Georges Hébert’s Natural Method of Physical Culture. Hébert described this obstacle course form of physical training by writing:
A (Natural Method) session is composed of exercises belonging to the ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, equilibrism (balancing), throwing, lifting, defending and swimming.
A training session consists, then, of exercises in an outdoor environment - a course of greater or lesser distance (a few hundred meters to several kilometers), during which, one walks, one runs, one jumps, one progresses quadrupedally, one climbs, one walks in unstable balance, one raises and one carries, one throws, one fights and one swims.
This course can be carried out in 2 ways:
1 - the natural or spontaneous way; i.e., on an unspecified route through the countryside.
2 - within an especially designed environment.
All of the exercises can be carried out while progressing through this environment.
Finally, the session can last from 20 to 60 minutes.
Summarily, Hébert believed in generally unassisted and spontaneous progression through a especially designed environment. Belle’s Parkour extended Hébert’s Natural Method in three distinct directions. First, Parkour is not practiced on an especially designed obstacle course. Generally, Parkour appropriates existing urban environments. Secondly, Parkour is viewed foremost as a physical art. Building off of that, Belle’s vision of Parkour is that it should be completely free of competition and rivalry.
When I watch Parkour, I’m think platformer. Super Mario Bros. seems to born of Georges Hébert’s Natural Method of Physical Culture (walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, equilibrism (balancing), throwing, lifting, defending and swimming). That’s pretty much Mario for you, a designed obstacle course. Now what if we say the hell with the manner in which Mario’s designers intended us to run the level? That’s Super Mario Parkour for you.
What digital environments to people think would facilitate a virtual form or Parkour? The standard MMOs are far to clunky. The Tenchu series might be able to facilitate such an activity. Thoughts? What would Parkour gain, what would it lose? I think it would lose a lot, but I’m just thinking rhetorically here.
The bottom line is that Parkou, in any form, appropriates space for play and then leaves it physically unaltered. Free style movement through a space designed for anything but. I love it.
A David Belle BBC commercial: