About RTParkour Meetup

Recreational running is popular enough to warrant millions of dollars in advertising every year and more in consumer purchases, yet many people still find it boring. But what if taking a morning jog didn't mean training for a marathon or wearing short shorts? What if it meant creative, individual expression through acrobatic moves like leaping from walls and over gaps, ground rolls and precision jumping? Instead of running laps around the community park, you'd navigate through the city, making the urban landscape your personal obstacle course, a playground for strength, freedom, courage and discipline.

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We're here to introduce people to the art of Parkour. We'll have regular weekly practice sessions at specific local areas, which may include local trails. This is a great opportunity for you to learn new skills while refining and becoming more efficient with your movements. Parkour is a liberating, beneficial activity that challenges the mind and improves the body.

We aim to:

• Educate people about the discipline of parkour, the art of movement
  
• Inspire people to unlock their potential through movement
  
• Help people develop emergency response techniques
  
• Foster collaboration among Parkour communities
  
• Encourage overall fitness and healthy living in our community
  

What is Parkour?

Parkour (par - kor), n. the art of moving effectively through the environment using only the human body to overcome obstacles. It is a natural method to train the human body to be able to move forward quickly, making use of the environment that's around us at any given time. This 'art of displacement' requires neither specific structure nor accessory for its practice. The body is the only tool. It's an athletic discipline accessible to all, because it combines all the natural skills of the human body: running, jumping, climbing, etc. It's a sport that permits exploration of the potential offered by your body. It's about being able to face the obstacles with which you are presented, whether they be in the natural environment or in the urban environment, in a search for movement that combines effectiveness and control. -Paraphrased from parkour.net

While parkour celebrates the individual's journey toward freedom and overcoming fear, it still remains largely an activity practiced in community. This not only provides safety but is instrumental in a traceur's growth. Parkour crews hit the city together and participate in what they call "jams" or "sessions," which consist of different drills or games like follow the leader where each traceur does the same move as the one before. Community learning is vital to parkour because it provides an appropriate context for the ability of non-professional traceurs. This takes away the pressure to perform movements outside of one's abilities and minimizes the possibility of injury.

A characteristic of parkour is efficiency. Practitioners move not only as rapidly as they can, but also in the most direct and efficient way possible. This characteristic distinguishes it from the similar practice of freerunning, which places more emphasis on freedom of movement and creativity. Although, it is not certain whether freerunning was initially intended to be similar to Parkour. Efficiency also involves avoiding injuries, short and long-term, part of why parkour's unofficial motto is être et durer (to be and to last). Those who are skilled at this activity normally have an extremely keen spatial awareness.

Traceurs say that parkour also influences one's thought process by enhancing self-confidence and critical-thinking skills that allow one to overcome everyday physical and mental obstacles. A study by Neuropsychiatrie de l'Enfance et de l'Adolescence in France reflects that traceurs seek more sensation and leadership than gymnastic practitioners.

To understand the philosophy of parkour takes quite a while, because you have to get used to it first. While you still have to try to actually do the movements, you will not feel much about the philosophy. But when you're able to move in your own way, then you start to see how parkour changes other things in your life; and you approach problems — for example in your job — differently, because you have been trained to overcome obstacles. This sudden realization comes at a different time to different people: some get it very early, some get it very late. You can't really say 'it takes two months to realize what parkour is'. So, now, I don't say 'I do parkour', but 'I live parkour', because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.

—Andreas Kalteis

It has a lot to do with feeling good about yourself, setting goals and working on them while enjoying all the camaraderie that goes with it. Many practice for intrinsic reasons, for the excitement and thrills it gives them, for the internal goods to be gained through participating. This problematizes, for some, the nature of these activities as -sport- because of the high levels of commitment, dedication and immersion into the activity (Rinehart, 2000). A number of commentators have also debated whether these activities are more appropriately (or usefully) conceptualized as forms of -play- rather than sports (Stranger, 1999; Howe 2003) and have highlighted the importance of their artistic sensibility (Booth, 2003; Howe, 2003; Humphreys, 2003; Rinehart 1998b; Wheaton, 2003).

‘There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. A man must constantly exceed his level.’ --Bruce Lee


Freerunning

Free running was meant to start out an anglicized term for Parkour. It was first suggested to Sebastien Foucan during the filming of Jump London. Free Running has grown to be descriptive of a sort of "cousin" activity to Parkour - Free Running is more expressive and creative in nature, with moves such as acrobatics, flips, and spins added for flair, creativity, or just because someone wants to. The main difference then between Parkour and Free Running is that Parkour is defined by purpose "get somewhere quickly and efficiently using the human body", and Free Running is defined by the activity or art of moving through your environment however you want, moving your way, following your own path.


"To be ignorant of motion is to be ignorant of nature." Aristotle





Rivalry-free

A campaign was started on May 1, 2007 by Parkour.NET portal to preserve parkour's philosophy against sport competition and rivalry. Defenders argue that competition pushes people to fight against others for the satisfaction of a crowd and/or the benefits of a few business people by changing its mindset. Parkour is unique and cannot be a competitive sport if it ignores its altruistic core to self development. If parkour becomes a sport, it will be hard to seriously teach and spread parkour as a non-competitive activity. And a new sport will be spread that may be called parkour, but that won't hold its philosophy's essence anymore.

There are fewer predefined movements in parkour than gymnastics, in that parkour is not made up of a list of appropriate "moves". Each obstacle a traceur faces presents a unique challenge on how they can overcome it effectively, which depends on their body type, speed and angle of approach, the physical make-up of the obstacle, etc. Parkour is about training the body and mind to be able to react to those obstacles appropriately with a technique that works; many times that technique cannot and need not be classified and given a name. In many cases effective parkour techniques depend upon rapid redistribution of body weight (as the name would suggest) and by utilizing momentum to perform seemingly impossible or difficult body maneuvers at speed. Absorption and redistribution of energy is also an important factor, such as body rolls when landing which reduce impact forces on the legs and spinal column, allowing a traceur to jump from greater heights than those often considered sensible in other forms of acrobatics and gymnastics.

According to David Belle, you want to move in such a way that will help you gain the most ground as if escaping or chasing toward someone/something. Also, wherever you go, you must be able to get back, if you go from A to B, you need to be able to get back from B to A, but not necessarily with the same movements or passements. Despite this, there are many basic techniques that are emphasized to beginners for their versatility and effectiveness.

Most important are good jumping and landing techniques. The roll, used to limit impact after a drop and to carry one's momentum onward, is often stressed as the most important technique to learn. Many traceurs develop joint problems from too many large drops and rolling incorrectly.

What you will need:

There is no equipment required, although practitioners normally train wearing light casual clothing:

Light upper body garment - such as T-shirt, sleeveless shirt or crop top.
Light lower body garment - such as light trousers or light shorts.
The only gear really required is comfortable athletic shoes that are generally light, with good grip. British based company Inov-8 offers a parkour specific line. Some traceurs use sweat-bands for forearm protection, or even thin athletic gloves to protect the hands, but most traceurs advise against this as it reduces grip and feel.

However, since parkour is closely related to méthode naturelle, sometimes practitioners train barefooted to be able to move efficiently without depending on their gear. David Belle has said: "bare feet are the best shoes!"



Donations

If you find that membership is useful or helpful in any way, please consider making a small donation to help cover the cost of the Meetup website. We recommend a donation of $2. You can donate through Paypal (add $0.33 to cover Paypal fees). Or you can give $2 to Mike or Andrew in person at a group event. If most members donate $2, we'll only need to ask for donations once every 4-5 months. If you feel membership is worth more than $2, we'll appreciate any amount you are willing to donate.

Thanks!