Scientific Text

PARKOUR

   Parkour is a training methodology which focuses on movement in both natural and urban environments. The focus is to move over, under, around, and through obstacles elegantly, and with efficiency.It’s not strictly defined by any particular workout or conditioning regiment. It’s more about finding the way to keep improving and eventually reach your greatest physical potential. And that’s what makes it so great! Your only opponent here is yourself. Your competition is you ! This includes some useful body-weight conditioning exercises, jumping and landing with precision, developing safe rolling habits, and numerous techniques for vaulting over obstacles. In principle, Parkour is a physical activity that can make a person very quickly on the move, from one point to another point, by simply relying on body.
  Because the movement in parkour are very smooth, this activity became known as the art on the move. Some are even calling it the art of smooth self. In Indonesia, parkour began to grow from about 2 years ago. Starting from the information obtained from the Internet, the demand was then assembled and form a community. One of them in Jakarta's members about 50 people.Basically, every human being has a hidden energy within him, which will appear in a desperate condition. For example, in a panic chased the dog, someone is able to jump over the wall as high as 3 meters. Although it looks easy, that movement is difficult to do ans we have to diligently exercise, including warm up and stretching. To move quickly, in addition to existing technique, also need the self confidence is high, so do not hesitate to do the movement.

  Parkour was first introduced by a French man, named David Belle. And became popular beginning in the 2000s, through a French movie, Yamakasi. The Yamakasi were a group from France who were practitioners of l'art du déplacement, and pioneers of Parkour and Freerunning.Yamakasi is also a name of a French film from 2001 written by Luc Besson, which starred the members of the Yamakasi, and a documentary, called Génération Yamakasi.Yamakasi is also a term used by Traceurs and Freerunners to describe a style and method of training that involves the traditional training of l'art du déplacement, before the Parkour or Freerunning split. The word yamakasi is taken from the Lingala language, which is spoken in Central Africa. Ya makási can mean strong body, strong spirit, ornstrong person.  In 1997, David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Laurent Piemontesi, Yann Hnautra, Charles Perrière, Malik Diouf, Guylain N'Guba-Boyeke, Châu Belle-Dinh, and Williams Belle created the group called Yamakasi. Belle and Foucan would split from the group due to a mixed view of the core meanings of l'art du déplacement. The two Yamakasi filmed would be made without the help of both David Belle and Sébastien Foucan. The group continued to expand their skills and helped to pass them on to others, allowing Parkour to spread from their home towns, to the rest of France, and later the world.

  David Belle was born on the 29th April 1973 in Fécamp, in the Seine-Maritime departement in Normandy. Descended from a modest family from the Parisian suburbs, it was in Fécamp and later in the town of Sables d’Olonne that David spent the first fourteen years of his life. Raised by his maternal grandfather, Gilbert Kitten (former Regimental Sergeant-Major of the Parisian sapeurs-pompiers military fire service), David was impressed by tales of heroism, and developed from a young age a passion for anything to do with action. His father, Raymond Belle, raised as a young soldier by the French Army in Dalat in Vietnam, was also a sapeur-pompier of the Parisian brigade and an outstanding sportsman; he has been described as nothing less than a ‘force of nature’. Raymond was a very highly skilled rescuer, recognised throughout his profession, and has had a large influence on David’s life. Surrounded by such a family of sporting heroes, it was only natural that David became adept at many of the more action-oriented sports such as athletics, gymnastics, climbing and martial arts. On a journey of self-discovery, the young David left school at 15 in order to devote himself to his passion for sport. But not just any sport; for him, sport had to be useful above all else. The strength and agility developed through sport must also be useful in life, as David’s father had often advised him. Running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, hanging from things, keeping his balance, surpassing himself, developing his self-confidence, being able to overcome obstacles so he could continue to advance… For David, all these things became an obsession. An obsession to release himself from all obstacles, constraints and fears, and to be able to go wherever he chose to go; achievements owing as much to mental development as to physical prowess.

  In addition to david belle, there is a french man who pursue parkour. He was Sebastien Foucan, he was David Belle’s friend. Sébastien Foucan was born May 24, 1974 in Paris, France. In his youth Sébastien Foucan and his friends practiced an extension of childplay in their town, they called it ‘Parkour’ with reference to ‘Parcours du combattant’ (Obstacle courses developed by French military).

He drew inspiration from the processes of Bruce Lee in his own practices. Sébastien structured his Parkour discipline by naming the different techniques and defining the fundamental elements. He felt there was another dimension to his way, a philosophy similar to Martial Arts and he began including it naturally in his work. Sébastien discovered the discipline of “Tao du Jeet kune do” and became interested in the concepts of “Aïkido”, “Lao tseu”, “Hagakuré” and others, which he began to incorporate into his practice. As a firefighter in Paris as part of military service, Sébastien suffered a serious injury. It was a turning point for his practice, reinforcing his determination to encourage people to take care of themselves and respect their body, mind and environment.

  He was an early member and contributor to the Yamakasi group before moving on to follow his own path. Sébastien wanted to give extra dimension to his discipline, to separate himself. Looking for a universal word he named his discipline FREERUNNING . The aim of it was to promote positive feeling, show his art, explain the philosophy and give inspiration to others. He created his own concept and belief  ‘Follow your way’ encouraging freedom of expression. He took part in the documentaries, JUMP LONDON and JUMP BRITAIN which became a key reference for the discipline of Freerunning.

So,  if you wanna be like them or more, you have to belief your self if you can, and you have to pursue Parkour. DON’T BE EASILY SATISFIED AND NEVER GIVE UP.

reference :
- http://parkourpedia.com/about/who-is-who/david-belle
- http://parkourpedia.com/about/who-is-who/sebastien-foucan