Being a Traceur (Person who does Parkour/Freerunning)

Lots of people ask me how I got into Parkour. I started doing it not too often as an after school activity in fourth grade. I wouldn’t consider it a sport that I did back then because I wasn’t very serious about it and it was just a fun thing I did on Fridays. Later in fifth grade, my Mom found out about a place called Revolution Parkour, where they taught classes and also had equipment. She asked me if I wanted to try it and I said yes. I don’t recall what the focus of my first class was, but I enjoyed it and wanted to go there again. After spending lots of time at RVPK, I got a membership so I could go more often. Eventually I started doing Parkour almost everyday. I don’t get as much practice in outdoor urban environments than I’d like, but good places to practice are hard to find because lots of things are trivial and the things that aren’t are too hard.

I love Parkour for many reasons. One that’s very simple is, it’s fun! I also love the feeling of moving with a purpose, trying to get somewhere. There is a big creativity aspect in Parkour. Sometimes you have a choice, which is where things get very creative. You could simply tack (push against after jumping at to change momentum direction) up a wall, or you could lache (swing) from a nearby bar into a cat (hanging position).  Parkour is also a great workout. It doesn’t only provide a cardio workout, but also uses most of the muscles in your body, depending on what you are doing.

Right now what I have been training in Parkour is to get farther when doing a kong vault, and also to be able to dive for it from farther. I am also trying to get my front flip landing standing up instead of squatted down.

In most secret agent action movies, at least one chase scene involves “Parkour” as many people know it as. This tunnel vision of the sport makes people think that it contains lots of flips, and also it is always practiced on top of 50 foot high buildings. This version of the sport is only partially correct.

After saying I do Parkour, lots of people respond by saying something along the lines of “Whoa! so do you like jump off giant buildings and stuff like that?” The answer is no. Although these people are aggravating, I don’t blame them. Their idea of Parkour is just what they’ve heard, and they have no reason to think that these descriptions are false. A lot of the movements that people do when high up on buildings has been practiced by them numerous times on soft ground. As an anonymous man/woman once said “An amateur practices something until he gets it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong!”

Most people have heard of Parkour, but not so many people have heard of Freerunning. Wikipedia Gives a good distinction between the two.

Parkour:

Parkour (French pronunciation: ​[paʁˈkuʁ]) is a holistic training discipline using movement that developed from military obstacle course training.[4][5][6] Practitioners aim to get from A to B in the most efficient way possible.They do this using only their bodies and their surroundings to propel themselves; furthermore, they try to maintain as much momentum as is possible in a safe manner.

Freerunning:

Freerunning (or free running) is the art of expressing oneself in his or her environment without limitation of movement. It is a martial discipline founded by Sebastien Foucan, who wrote a book on the subject. Foucan started what he termed "freerunning" in 2003, which he developed as a more inclusive form of parkour, but having more acrobatic-like movements added.

If you didn’t understand the definitions, then basically Parkour is about getting from from point A to point B as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Freerunning adds in non efficient movements that generally look cool like flips and spins, and also sometimes isn’t about going in a specific direction, but just moving around in a small area. Most people think flips and other acrobatic movements are included in Parkour, but they are incorrect. Again, I don’t blame them, I blame the media. I have mixed feeling over these definitions and I think that Parkour can contain some creative inefficient movements and still be considered Parkour, but it can’t be focused on doing them.