Parkour — an art of running away?
Perhaps, you saw this popular meme: “Pugilism is the martial art of fighting with the fists. Judo is the martial art of gripping. Parkour is the martial art of running away.” But is this really so?
Some people think this is the case. Nowadays parkour indeed has been represented in videogames, movies and TV shows as a way to escape danger. For example, you are running from bad guys, dogs, zombies etc, and you need to run away quickly. However, it is not about that at all.
If you look at the beginnings of the parkour and understand the philosophy behind it, you’ll see, that parkour is anything but running away.
Parkour or free running is an art of movement, the practice of overcoming obstacles in an urban or natural environment. It became widely popular in the late 1980s in France and since then developed into a cultural trend depicted on Internet, on TV shows, in documentaries and in feature films. However, the discipline existed a long time before.
What French military has to do with it?
Parkour takes its origins as far as the 1900s. At one point a French naval lieutenant George Herbert noticed that modern people had lost the ability to move efficiently and effectively. They preferred to choose familiar pathways and in case of emergency struggled to come up with alternative routes to make their way through the obstacles, manmade or natural.
So Herbert developed a physical training discipline called “the natural method”. It combined climbing, running, swimming and using tactics to overcome different obstacles. Soon Herbert’s “Natural Method” got accepted for military training in France.
Later parkour was introduced for firefighters’ training as well. And we can understand why. Firefighters needed to move quickly and efficiently in dangerous circumstances to save people’s lives. You can’t get these skills by simply training the muscles. This is where parkour proved to be useful.
Do you see it now? Parkour was originally used by warriors and saviours. It was not the way to escape and hide. It was the way to face the danger well prepared and use your strength and wit to help the others. This is what lies in the core of parkour’s philosophy: “Be strong to be useful”.
Want to read more? Follow our blog to know, who performed parkour tricks in James Bond Casino Royale movie.
https://www.somertonsc.com/article/info/parkour-an-art-of-running-away-
