Post date: Nov 14, 2009 4:22:53 PM
The purpose of this film is to introduce people to parkour, and hopefully to correct many of the misconceptions that you may have as a result of previous introductions to parkour.
It's quite a challenge to introduce parkour to somebody...not only because there are many misconceptions out there, but also because of the logistics of making a film about parkour. A film made by a non-practitioner may quite easily misrepresent ideas by accident through simple misunderstanding. And if practitioners themselves make the film, then they have to weigh the needs of the film against their own need to train, and that can obviously create conflict. If you have to stop training to alter camera angles, then you don't necessarily get a lot of training done in that session. Also, it's intrinsically difficult to portray parkour through the medium of film because the things that you see and hear practitioners do, those things are only the side effects of the sport of parkour. Parkour is in here, it's inside yourself. To show parkour completely, you would have to show someone's entire life. Parkour isn't an escape from life, it's a method for life. It's very difficult to abbreviate a person's way of life into a short film. However, as you'll see later, it's simply not in our nature to put off doing something simply because it's challenging.
"Hi, I'm Dave. Cameraman is Paul. (Hello) And we're going to try to take you through a bit about parkour in this documentary. So, let's go!"
"That was a very spectacular entrance." "Ya, it's quite high. I think when we measured it it was about 11 foot something, about 7 inches...it's pretty high." "How long did it take? I mean, how much training would go into something like that?" "Um, when I first started, I was nowhere near. It took me about 5 or 6 months of training to start getting the top. There's a small ridge you can get, but it's only about that thick...so if you have great finger strength, but don't get as much height, you can still get up."
So, on to the definition. I'm going to do my best to try explain parkour to you, but I'm not going to do it in the same way as other people, and I'm probably not even going to use the same words as other people. I'm going to start from scratch, and I'm going to ask you to do the same with your own understanding.
Parkour is the way of movement. It's a way of using movement not just to increase your capacity to move, but also to increase your capability in lots of things....ultimately, to increase your capacity for life. You may have heard people talk of the 'way of the samurai' or, recently, the 'way of the peaceful warrior' has become quite popular...or any number of different 'ways'. They're describing people who follow a certain philosophy in their lives...and that's just what parkour is, it's a philosophy for life. It's a way of approaching life itself.
There are plenty of ways to get stronger...such as lifting weights, going to a gym, going for a run, or even wider systems, like the natural methods. And they all have their benefits and drawbacks...and we'll speak a bit more later on, when we talk about what training comprises of in a bit more detail.
The main reason people choose parkour is because parkour is fun. Parkour contains great variety, so there will never be any danger of training becoming stagnant or too monotonous. There will always be new movements to experience, new challenges to face, simply because of the huge variety in our environments. When you get right down to it, nobody enjoys doing something that they think they're a failure at. We enjoy succeeding, and the greater the challenge we've had to overcome, the greater our enjoyment. In many activities, you're competing against others...and even putting in 100% effort is no guarantee of success if your opponent is simply better than you. The way that these activities are structured means that there must always be a failure for every success. However, in parkour, it's just you and the obstacle. Whatever success you achieve is entirely down to you, which makes it a hugely rewarding activity for everybody.
Not only is success down to you yourself, but in parkour, you're also in control of your training as a whole. There's no standard to try measure yourself up against. The things that you learn, the ways that you improve, and these choices, are entirely up to you. This is an important aspect for most people. We are happiest when we are in control because then we can tailor things to suit us. We can make sure to do things that we think are useful and avoid doing the things that we think aren't. There are no rules of etiquette that have to be passed on for thousands of years, no formalities that have no practical purpose, no set techniques, no standards...only the practicalities of achieving what you want to achieve. The basis of parkour training is your own life, your own desires. The only rule is the spirit of parkour: the desire to improve and to overcome any obstacle that prevents you from achieving what you want to achieve. We recognize, however, that there are many fundamental skills that would be useful in achieving almost any end. So, there may be many things that we can improve that would be of benefit to us all. The vast majority of parkour training covers these areas.
The most obvious benefit is the physical fitness. Parkour keeps you physically active, and having a good level of fitness is hugely important in your overall health. I think that most people would agree that, whatever you goal in life, actually being alive would go a long ways toward helping you actually achieve it.