Parkour

The word parkour comes from the French verb “parcourir“, or run through, run over. The English came with the term “free running“, or running without rules. In parkour we aim to move the most efficiently from A to B, free running includes the aesthetics of the move more and many acrobatics elements. Both terms are obviously often interchanged. Modern parkour formed in France at Paris suburbs in 1980s, when it was mediatized by several enthusiasts in films and documents. Parkour is understood as an “art” and is called „l’art du déplacement“, or the art move. Today there are built special parks for parkour and the former idea of exploring and overcoming the distance over different buildings, constructions and natural obstacles is diminishing. On the other hand the parkour parks enable training of skills in a safe environment for more people.

Among basic parkour skills belong jumps (jumps over obstacles, jumps down, take-off walls), rolls, climbing up and down buildings, trees, constructions, movement over narrow areas, swings, getting or jumping through narrow holes, etc.

Parkour is a non-competitive activity where everyone decides about the difficulty and tries to develop himself/herself. Individual elements have French and English names in parkour community, so we do not translate them.

Among the basic elements belong:

Saut de précision, precision jump. A huge take-off slightly bended lower legs. Arms from the stretched backwards position help the take-off. During the flight we lift knees high. Landing is on front part of feet and is made softer by slightly bending lower legs. The leg bending should not exceed the right angle. We try to realize “the most silent” landing.

Roulade, roll. In parkour the roll is the most often used when jumping down big heights. Almost always it is used the roll over a shoulder.

Tic-tac.Tic-tac is a jump taking off a wall into the opposite direction. It enables to get high in narrow corridors or in sloping areas. It is important after the take-off to turn your head and shoulder fast in the direction of the flight. The take-off leg must not be too high on the wall, so you did not lose the movement dynamics.

Side vault. This vault belongs among basic techniques of vaulting. The take-off starts from bended legs from a static position or run. When overcoming the obstacle, one arm takes off the obstacle and bended knees overcome the obstacle on the side of this arm. The landing is on slightly bended legs in the front part of feet.

Saut de chat, monkey vault. After the take-off up and forward hold the trunk and head straight. Legs are stretched backwards up to the moment of hands landing on the obstacle. After the hands take-off, bend legs fast and after flying over, stretch them again.

Step vault. This vault is the safest and simplest way how to overcome a low obstacle. We start the first phase of the vault by one leg take-off and one hand support. Almost in the same time we land the outer leg on the obstacle top.

Turn vault. The vault with a half turn is used with obstacles when we do not see the depth behind the obstacle. The often mistake is a huge take-off forward during which it is very hard to manage the half turn and landing behind the obstacle.

Passe muraille, wall run. If the obstacle is too high to vault, this technique is the most efficient way of overcoming. It is a coordinated movement, when the whole body is included and you need a big strength of upper arms.

Saut de bras, lâché, arm jump. This jump is used for the move from a hang on horizontal objects. After the take-off the swing of the whole body is used.

Franchissement, underbar This technique is used if we want to get fast through a narrow hole. To jump through you need a big running speed, the take-off is realized from one leg, when lower limbs go straight ahead the trunk. The trunk is during the flight leaning backwards.

Équilibre de chat, cat balance. Balancing on narrow objects is an excellent exercise of coordination, balance and the whole body strength. When balancing we try to do a controlled and fuent movement.

Movement sequences consist from these basic elements so the move among obstacles was efficient.

The video shows the stable parkour in the Outdoor centre of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport in Stráž nad Nežárkou. This parkour contains jumping on a bar, climbing over sloping and horizontal ropes, balancing on a fixed and free beam, precise swings or swings into a net, jumps over, shining the rope, moving in a net. It is possible to overcome it as an individual challenge or as a team task. The more experienced can limit the tree touches or measure the time. Parkour mostly consists from a range of low ropes courses

To make the parkour safe, it is suitable to put landing mats under the risk places and ensure safety