Topic: The Thing About Flips...

[FireFly]

Ok, I have been confused about this ever since I got into Parkour. It doesn't have any flips involved, but yet there are so many people who incorporate flips into Parkour, and yet they still call it Parkour. I do not understand as to why people use flips in Parkour, such as the Yamakasi, and David Belle himself. Are the flips just "add-ons?"

And sorry if I am not following the rules as I'm posting this question. I'm new to the Forum.

[JumpOff]

Well people like David Belle are proficient enough in parkour to be able to train and exercice other skills such as flips and tricking.  Otherwise, flips are not parkour. 

You cant SEE someone doing flips IN parkour, because the mentality of parkour (efficiency of movement) does not include flips.  You are only DOING Parkour when you are efficiently moving.  The noun of parkour does not denote a time period when you are moving which may contain a flip or two...

[Unique]

You can learn flips if you want but it's not parkour. Go ahead practice flips. When the time comes to use parkour........Don't use flips.

[JumpOff]

Ugh. Did you not read what I just said? You cant be flipping when you are doing parkour because parkour is not flips. You could easily do vault, flip, vault, flip, vault, flip...but the only times that you are doing parkour is in between those flips. Parkour is a mentality as well as physical movement, and flips are not efficient, thus they are not doing parkour. You can flip your brains out and do it whenever you want, but its not parkour

[Unique]

Yes I read what I said but I'm not seeing your point.

When Training: Do flips if you want.

In a real life parkour situation: Don't

[Mark Toorock]

Firefly, you can see that's it's confusing at best since so many people SEEM to incorporate flips into parkour. You could ask (As I have many times) So if David Belle is running (parkour) and jumps a gap (parkour) and then vaults something (parkour) and then does a flip (not parkour) and then keeps running (parkour) and vaults something (parkour) ... is it true that he was diogn parkour, then not, then doing parkour again? The answer is yes. So while flips may seem to be incorporated, by their nature they are just not parkour. It can be very confusing since many people do flips in the middle of doing parkour, and yes, it does actually cease to be parkour for that brief period. Note that everywhere I say "parkour" in here it's not because running, or vaulting, or jumping IS actually parkour, but that the intention is to get somewhere efficiently, and therefore it COULD be parkour.

[FireFly]

I finally understand now. Thanks guys, appreciate the help.

[Sat Santokh]

people just do flips because they are fun and look cool

[Cody G.]

i realize that flips arent a part of parkour, and even though i do allot of parkour moves i also do allot of flips and spins and things of that nature when i am at jams and training sessions so when people ask me what i do i try to say that i prefer more urban freeflow and free running than parkour...             i just like to do flips because i like the freedome of movement and it also presents extra chalenges for me.     for instance say there was a medeum or small sized fince or wall that i had to overpass,   instead of just jumping over or vaulting i will usually flip over 

                               

[JumpOff]

That wasnt really relevent to this thread...but ok, thanks for the story

The difference is in parkour, you should be shooting for efficiency...by choosing to flip over the fence,you are just challenging yourself in flipping...not doing parkour

[Cody G.]

i didnt say that i was trying to challenge myself in parkour, because i realize that flips arent parkour and that is beside the point because if you can read i said that i do more urbanfreeflow and freerunning than actual parkour so flips can be a part of that because you have freedome of movement, were in parkour, like you said, it is more about efficiency.                   so you can just go f#ck yourself mr. jumpoffmyfoof.... what the hell is that about anyway                                     

                                                                 just kiddin

                                                                   

                                                                but seriously

[JumpOff]

my friend, urbanfreeflow is not a sport nor an art....they are a company.

And my post name is a joke, started 2 years ago when I first started parkour, it neither reflects my practicing ability nor my philosophy on parkour.

[CyanideSoda]

No, but you see that ferret in his avatar? That's what he uses to represent his parkour, AND philosophy. Beat that with a stick.

[Cody G.]

lol just f#ckin w ya dude i meant it as a joke,  i like your post name, avatar etc. sry i realize that it was probably confusing but i think it is kinda funny when people get mad on the forums over little things like that     dont you?
                                                 
                      but seriously dude if you want to settle this we can meet man to man and i will beat your ass

                                                                   
                                                                 jk      lol ok not funny anymore ill stop
                                     

                                                                   

[PK4Life]

hey everybody, im still a little confused why everyone here tries to break everything that these guys do into "parkour" or "not parkour" i would say that if someone wants to do a flip while doing parkour, why call it "not parkour" i dont understand what the big deal is with that why don't you just incorperate what all of these guys who are really good at it do into parkour. I dont see why you should break it down so much.
             Here's a link with the rules of parkour that i understand is what parkour is all about:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6614398787467285640

It says that "for any trick you are planning to do, you need to train in a safe environment" so to me this really takes apart that definition this site gave to parkour. any thoughts?

[bobbshields]

hey everybody, im still a little confused why everyone here tries to break everything that these guys do into "parkour" or "not parkour" i would say that if someone wants to do a flip while doing parkour, why call it "not parkour" i dont understand what the big deal is with that why don't you just incorperate what all of these guys who are really good at it do into parkour. I dont see why you should break it down so much.
             Here's a link with the rules of parkour that i understand is what parkour is all about:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6614398787467285640

It says that "for any trick you are planning to do, you need to train in a safe environment" so to me this really takes apart that definition this site gave to parkour. any thoughts?

That was an excellent video.  Here's a breakdown of my understanding of what parkour is, verses the discipline of free running.

Parkour is the art of movement.  It involves dealing with the obstacles of your environment in a fluid and EFFICIENT method.  It is not intended to be flashy in itself, but the art of it actually makes it visually appealing.  Parkour is about moving and getting through the environment. 

Free running, a close discipline, but separate none-the-less, shares many aspects of parkour.  However, free running is about the flash and the show.  A free runner may stay on one obstacle for an extended period of time, trying to learn new tricks to it.  This is where i see the flips coming into play.

M2, you said something about David Belle doing flips.  I have only seen that occur one time.  It was in a training video, and when I finally found a version translated to English, he said something along the lines of: "I don't normally do this (flip), but its fun so what the heck."

That's my input