I have the website...I can't find her name, as a matter of fact, I don't know her name. She said she's been with them for a week.
I'm gonna email them about it right now.
QUICK, GOOD ARTICLE ON WHAT PARKOUR IS ALL ABOUT!
Hang on, I made a really good one:
Parkour: A Progressive Discipline of the Motion Arts
'Motion Arts' is a term coined by Gabriel Arnold, the writer of RISE, (The first parkour-related fiction book.) To be a motion art, it must be non-competitive and use human movement. Such examples would be things like dance, freerunning, capoeira, tricking, method naturelle, and parkour, the discipline that will be focused on in this essay.
Parkour is still a fairly young art, a bit older than 50 years. As such, the definition and philosophy is argued as to what it truly is. My definition of parkour is 'A discipline in which traceurs, the parkour practitioners, condition their bodies to overcome physical & mental obstacles in their lives.' American Parkour.com defines it as 'Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment.'
Parkour is not crazy stunts. It is not about looking cool or showing off. Flips are used in very rare situations. Most traceurs use them to increase their balance, technique, and proprioception. Proprioception is the sense of knowing where your limbs are in any space, (Such as being upside down in a flip, you'll know when to land.) Parkour focuses on progression, progression, progression. It is important to be as safe as possible, progressing from movement to movement. If you can perform a and b, then you can add a and b to get used to movement c. Progression is very closely related to fear. They go hand in hand, defining each other. Fear is what holds you back from doing a move you cannot do. Progression is a way to get past these fears.
Philosophy is a major part of parkour. The movements that parkour uses are 'empty' without reason, without definition and without use. Some of problems that arise within the philosophy is the differences between freerunning and parkour. The easiest way to see the disagreement is do a flip and call it parkour. Others WILL flip. The generally accepted philosophy of parkour is 'efficient from A to B,' and freerunning is 'expression.' The differences are very evident RISE. In it, 'PKFR' is the most practiced sport. One of the characters has left the 'PKFR' world as a purist, training only Parkour as a discipline.
To summarize: Parkour is movement with reason and purpose. It is progressive and as safe as how you practice it. The philosophy gives the movement it's purpose. Without the philosophy, you have just movement, just competition.
Train safely and learn more at AmericanParkour.com
