Bili l Ph i l

PARKOUR
What is Parkour?
 Parkour is the act of moving from point “a” to point “b” using the obstacles in
your path to increase your efficiency.
 A practitioner of parkour is called “traceur”.
 The word comes from the French “parcours”, which literally means, “the way
through”, or “the path”.
 Parkour emphasizes strength, flexibility, balance, body control, creativity,
fluidity, discipline, and precision.
 Parkour movements include running, jumping, vaulting, climbing, balancing, and
crawling.
 Parkour practitioners value community, humility, sharing of knowledge, and the
importance of play, while demonstrating respect for all people, places, and
spaces.

What equipment do I need?

One beautiful thing about parkour is that you don’t need any equipment to do it.
However, if you practice in an unpredictable and outdoors area, you will need some
athletic clothes and shoes to wear for minor protection.
Conversely, it is not necessary gloves, helmets, or pads in your practice. Even though
parkour will eventually result in blisters and callouses on your hands, over time, your
hands will become tougher. Gloves can reduce hand sensitivity and ultimately make
parkour more dangerous.
Some people wear long pants to protect your knees on a wall and long sleeve shirts to
protect against rough surfaces and arm scratches during some falling and climbing
movements.

Where do I go to practice?
Another amazing thing about parkour is that you can practice it anywhere (natural and
manmade), as long as there are obstacles to interact with.
Don’t go searching for places to do a particular trick you saw in a video; the true spirit
of parkour is to adapt to the obstacles at hand. Even a simple rail can provide plenty of
opportunities for practice

How do I get into shape?

The best way to start getting into shape for parkour is by doing parkour.
Because everyone begins at a different level, there are no pre-requisites for parkour.
You don’t have to start out with anything difficult or high impact. In fact, you should play
it safe at first and stick to simple movements while you build up your levels of fitness
and body awareness.
Balance along curbs, step over benches, or play a rousing game of “Don’t touch the
ground, it’s made out of lava!”

Basic Parkour Movements

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Quadrupedal Movement / Cat walking

The first parkour movement that you should learn is how to
move low to the ground on all four limbs.
In addition, quadrupedal moving has many practical
applications.
Landing
Another movement that is important to learn is how to land.
However, it should be noted that squatting and standing are
prerequisites for good landings. Once you understand proper
standing posture and squatting technique, you are ready to
learn how to land.
Falling / Rolling
Rolls in all directions are important for you to master because
they may be used intentionally as a landing method or
accidentally as a falling technique.
Being familiar with movements such as handstands, dive rolls,
cartwheels, and full turns will further reduce the risk of injury in a
falling scenario.

Balancing
Balance plays a role in nearly every movement in parkour so if
your balance improves, so will everything else.

Jumping
Once you have a basic understanding of balance,
you should learn proper jumping form at ground
level, starting from a stand.

Vaulting
Vaulting typically consists of overcoming low-level obstacles, with the
use of arms and legs.
Broken down into parts, a vault begins with a run up followed by a
jump. As the hands contact the obstacle and you pass over the top,
you are essentially doing a variation of quadrupedal movement.
Wall Running
It includes any technique involving a run up with a foot strike
on a vertical wall.
Wall running techniques, which include wall runs, tic tacs, and
pop vaults, are used to change directions, move over low-
level obstacles, and grab high-level obstacles
Climbing
Climbing should be introduced as a means to conquer the
tallest, most difficult obstacles that other techniques cannot.
There are many types of climbing ranging from cat leaps,
climb ups, and climb downs to crack climbing, laybacks,...

Common English Parkour Terms

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Parkour Roll: The body is rolled across the ground shoulder first, ending at the
opposite hip. Arm placements differ person to person and school to school.
Vault: Any jump that incorporates the use of the arms to overcome the obstacle.
Cat Pass Vault: A vault in which the body passes over the obstacles with the legs
between the arms.
Two-Handed Vault: Two hands are placed on the obstacle and the legs come over to
the side.
Single-Hand Vault: Same as above, but only one hand is placed on the obstacle.
Speed Vault: A variation of the single-hand vault, but as the name implies the key to
the speed vault is speed. The form is similar to a hurdle over an obstacle, but with the
body leaning sideways and the hand tapping the obstacle as you go over.
Cat Jump: A jump were the traceur lands with his hands on the top of an obstacle and
his feet on the obstacle.
Precision Jump: A jump where a traceur lands on a precise surface like a rail, or wall
ledge. Both legs jump together and the arms swing forward to help initiate forward
momentum.
Wall Pass: Technique involving running toward a wall and then converting the forward
momentum into a jump. A wall pass involves taking one or more running steps up a
vertical surface and catching on the top with your hands in order to pull yourself up and
onto or over the obstacle.
Wall Run: A run along the top of wall.
Tic Tac: A technique were the traceur pushes of one object with her foot to gain height
and reverse momentum in order to overcome another obstacle.
Dash vault: A vault were the traceur jumps over the obstacle and puts his hands down
as his legs pass the obstacle to help push him off.

EL PARKOUR
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El parkour o “arte del deslizamiento” surgió en los años 90 en Francia, Raymond Belle Lute, un antiguo
militar y residente en París, inspira a su hijo David Belle, enseñándole el método natural de entrenamiento
que había aprendido en el ejército, combinado con las técnicas de escape que él mismo había utilizado en la
guerra. A partir de esta inspiración, David desarrolla esta actividad en un entorno urbano, sosteniendo el
lema “ser y durar”.

En la década de los años 80, cuando un grupo de jóvenes, entre los que se encontraban David Belle y
Sébastien Foucan, configuran un movimiento que consiste en la aplicación del método natural propuesto
por Hébert en un entorno urbano. En Evry y Lisses (barriadas de París) comienza a surgir esta combinación
debido en gran parte a dos circunstancias: la necesidad de practicar actividad física y la gran riqueza de
“escenarios” que proporcionan los entornos urbanos.

En 1997, David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Yann Hnautra, Charles Perrière, Malik Diouf, Guylain N’Guba-
Boyeke, Châu Belle-Dinh, and Williams Belle forman un grupo que se autodenominan a sí mismos los
“Yamakasi”.

Más tarde David Belle y Sébastien Foucan, deciden coger caminos diferentes, forjando cada uno un
movimiento independiente. Por un lado, David Belle sienta las bases del Parkour y por otro lado, Sébastien
Foucan sienta las bases del Freerunning.

Los practicantes del Parkour se denominan “traceuses” en el caso de las mujeres o “traceurs” en el de los
hombres (palabra de origen francés).

El Parkour es entendido por muchos como una filosofía de vida, en la que la principal premisa reside en no
detenerse nunca ante ningún obstáculo y seguir siempre hacia delante, confiar en sí mismo, y no tener
miedo, pero sin llegar a poner su vida en peligro.

No existe ninguna regla en el Parkour, y normalmente no se realizan competiciones, aunque a veces se

producen reuniones en las que los traceurs enseñan sus progresos a los demás. No obstante, podríamos
decir que a pesar de no existir reglas escritas, un buen traceur nunca molesta a la gente o al entorno en el
que realiza sus recorridos, y por supuesto nunca pone en peligro su propia vida o la de los demás.

Los movimientos de Parkour se caracterizan por su efectividad y fluidez.

No sirve de nada saltar una valla subiendo las piernas al máximo, sino que se busca pasarla rápidamente
dando continuidad al recorrido.