Le Parkour

[Shippou]

Well I had left OB for a while and have been practicing the delitfle art of Parkour. And I was Just wondering if there where any other Traceurs out there. And for thise of you who want to learn more go to [url]www.urbanfreeflow.com[/url].





Shippou

[Pawn114]

[color=darkgreen]Hey Shippou, I do indeed practice 'Le Parkour' (also known as freerunning).[/color]

[color=darkgreen]http://[/color][url="http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/"][color=darkgreen]www.urbanfreeflow.com[/color][/url][color=darkgreen] is a wonderful site, as is [/color][url="http://www.le-parkour.com/"][color=darkgreen]http://www.le-parkour.com[/color][/url]

[color=darkgreen]Just a brief overview here:[/color]

[color=darkgreen]Some of you may have seen (albeit, a bit ago) a program called 'jump london' on the discovery channel. It just recently (I believe the 26th, 27th and 28th of september) came on in Canada. This rose the publicity of le parkour immensly, and a sequel is apparently in the making. For people that dont have the time to visit urbanfreeflow.com (But if you can find time, -please- visit it. Its a valuble resource). [/color]

[color=darkgreen]The ultimate goal of parkour can be expressed in a few ways. A couple I've heard are:[/color]

[color=darkgreen]1. move freely in an environment meant to contain us[/color]
[color=darkgreen]2. flowing over all obstacles you come across[/color]
[color=darkgreen]3. find new uses for the objects[/color]
[color=darkgreen]4. express our freedom of bodily movement[/color]
[color=darkgreen]5. because you have to live life to its fullest[/color]
[color=darkgreen]6. point A to point B, straight line, don't go round obstacles[/color]
[color=darkgreen]7. to move with as much agility as possible[/color]

[color=darkgreen]Now this list was taken from a post on urbanfreeflow's message boards, but I think it serves to illustrate why people practice le parkour, and its goals. Another reference would be the 'ultimate aim' my dojo adheres to. It reads[/color]
[color=darkgreen][/color]
[color=darkgreen]'The ultimate aim, in the art of karate, lies not in victory nor defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participents'.[/color]
[color=darkgreen][/color]
[color=darkgreen]This can quite easily be applied to Le Parkour. It's not so much of a sport, as an art with the ultimate goal of bettering one's self. For someone that looks at a few video's found here and there, and viewed jump london, you may get the impression it's all just jumping off rooves. Indeed, Le Parkour does contain this, and much more. The ultimate aim is to pick a point, and another point. Now you move fluidly from Point A, To Point B. [/color]
[color=darkgreen][/color]
[color=darkgreen] Much like water, when a small stream strikes a boulder, it doesnt crash at it endlessly, but rather flows around it. So rather then climb straight up the building (that is called buildering, by the way) you flow around it. Of course, you could just run around everything, but doesnt that take more time? So rather then run around the railing infront of you, you have a number of things you can do. You could gate vault, monkey vault, 360 vault, regular vault etc. Endless amounts of things for just one rail. And better yet, when you come back to that rail, you will probobly have some more moves in your repitoire.[/color]

[color=darkgreen]Now, I know a problem with starting sports. You need to buy this, that and the other thing. Before you can even try it some of the time. All you need for Le Parkour is what your born with, and a set of good trainers (shoes). So it costs nothing to start, isnt competative, has a wonderful atmosphere at the main site (urbanfreeflow.com), and is extremely fulfilling to be able to vault something a week previous, you had thought was impossible. With this art, improvement shows in all aspects of life. [/color]
[color=darkgreen][/color]
[color=darkgreen] So what are you waiting for? Get on the websites, get some basics down and try it for yourself! It can be practiced Anywhere. A blockbuster near me, beside my local library, these are just 2 places I like to drill at. But I do it wherever I can. So get crackin'![/color]

[color=darkgreen]-Pawn[/color]