Ruslan Dzavadov is quickly gaining recognition as not only an incredible Tracer but also an outstanding Parkour coach. Here is another mix tape featuring him exclusively. With eye popping jumps, drops and other impressive techniques, be warned that Ruslan makes it looks much easier than it really is. Featuring music by Kanye West and extraordinary cinematography, this mix tape includes footage from Ruslan’s Tunisiana edit and continues his tradition of turning out incredible Parkour videos.
Here is another classic Yamaksi video featuring Yann Hnautra, Châu Belle-Dinh, Laurent Piemontesi, Willams Belle and some of the Yamakasi’s students. Most of the performance and movement is directly attributable to the Yamakasi style, in the case of what is showcased in this video most of it would not be considered Parkour. Nevertheless, as a way to enjoy movement and train, this is all very good for developing the physical capability, including the sense of trust and confidence essential to Parkour. This video was edited by William Belle.
The following is an absolutely incredible, dare we say groundbreaking, article from Chris “Blane” Rowat. An expertly written editorial piece, Blane makes some fantastic observations about the difference between modern Tracers and the original practitioners from Lisses while exposing the most predominant oversight for modern Tracers in their training. This article does lack physiological insight into principles behind what makes David so physically capable and resistant to injury. Nevertheless, many of the theoretical principles are there making this a must read for every Tracer bar none. The realizations put forth in this article will, without a doubt, help you to begin understanding how to direct your training in order to improve the safety and longevity of your Parkour career.
___________________________
Dilution
Dilution:
a) The process of making weaker or less concentrated
b) A dilute or weakened condition.
c) A diluted substance.
My mind has been busy for a while and it’s only now that I feel I want to share the outcome of my thoughts. This entry may offend you, it may seem like it’s directed at you and maybe it is.
I can live with being disliked for telling the truth, but I can not continue living with this opinion and not sharing it with the people I think it might help. I know I am not the only one who shares the following opinions and I feel it is worthwhile voicing them if it changes just one person’s mindset and helps them. This is primarily for a friend of mine who I haven’t trained with in a little while. A friend who seems to have become a little down with his training, a little distant, a little worried that he’s not as good as other people. This is for him and all of the other people who feel disheartened watching the people around them do things they cannot… and also for the newcomers to Parkour.
Yesterday was my 1300th day of practicing Parkour. I’m not a big believer in anniversaries but it was on this day that the thoughts of two weeks came together and fused to become solid in my head.
I started training 1301 days ago on September 10, 2003, the day after Jump London aired for the first time on Channel 4 and it’s amazing to think how much has happened and how much my life has changed since then.
I vividly remember the very first training session I had, 185 weeks and 6 days ago. It was with my good friend at the time, Tom, and we were both so excited from watching Jump London and wanted to jump right in and get started! I remember trying some vaults, small jumps through a gap in a moving swing and I remember the first real experience of fear in Parkour as I jumped off the roof of a local gymnastics club and rolled on the grass. It was terrifying at the time and I think it was around 12ft high. I did this because I thought this is what Parkour was, jumping off high things and living to tell the tale the next day. Oh how far we’ve all come since then… or have we?
Now as most people will tell you, the days after your first session are hellish. Who remembers that unspeakable sensation of pain just walking up a flight of stairs in the days following your first real hardcore session? I remember my quads feeling like they had been assaulted by a gang of angry thugs with baseball bats for 2 weeks.
These days there is a wealth of great information available for people starting out in the discipline that I did not have access to in the beginning of my training. It was mostly trial and error, with a large dose of the latter. But despite the benefits that learning from past experiences of veteran traceurs can bring, I can’t help but wonder if there are consequences to this.
I realise how difficult it must have been for David Belle and all of the other original traceurs of Lisses as they plunged forward in darkness over 15 years ago having no idea what they were doing or where it would lead. They slowly carved a path in a new direction and lit it up along the way for people to follow. It took many years for those guys to create the most basic movements and refine them to the extent that almost any obstacle could be overcome using just a handful of varying techniques and it is a truly remarkable accomplishment. An epic journey that a new traceur of today can bypass, almost, as they learn 10 new techniques in 2 months, that would have taken perhaps 5 years worth of training back in Lisses in the early 90′s to achieve.
So at the rate we are developing, progressing and learning, surely we will catch up to them carving in the distance and be able to help them light up the path, right?
No, I don’t think so.
I think we are travelling so quickly along that same path that we are going to run out of fuel before we reach them. They are looking behind them and see us in the distance and I think they are probably hoping we reach them to help the discipline grow, but I don’t think many people of future generations ever will.
To quote Stephane Vigroux, “I think for many people it has to be more personal… everybody’s moving… I’m really happy for them… but too quickly, too fast, too easy, too much show… too much.”
There are guys who have been training for less than a year that are doing bigger and further things than guys who have been training for four years and I believe this is mainly due to the library of knowledge available now. This may sound good in principle, that as the generations go on, we will have new guys able to sidestep the trial and error process and just stick to what has been proven to work, to get to a good level in Parkour. But I’m worried.
I think that the trial and error approach taught the original traceurs of Lisses a vast amount about themselves and injected them with a creativity and passion and courage that is being forgotten today and is being replaced with ‘by the book’ training. Not only do I believe that their mental and physical adeptness is far superior to my own, I believe this will be further diluted as the generations go by and the future traceurs begin their training. People now have lists of movements to learn and tick them off as they do them and quickly move on to something new, something bigger, something more impressive.
The best way to get respected in the Parkour community today seems to be doing the biggest and best things with the minimum amount of training to get there. As long as you do it, it doesn’t matter how sloppy it was, how slow the climb up was, how precise the landing was or how much damage it did to the person. Everybody spreads the word that “X” did “Y” so they must be better than [that person] since they have only been training for [a few] months! This approach can quickly escalate and recently I feel it has been destroying the true nature of Parkour. People are doing things to be recognised by other people and itis tough for the people working hard and progressing steadily to see this going on around them. They feel pressured in to attempting things beyond their level when they see it happening and that is not their fault.
To me, Parkour is a long and worthwhile campaign – not one short, epic battle.
I’m not only worried about the mental progression and creativity of new practitioners being sacrificed, I’m equally concerned about the physical costs of such textbook progression.
Like myself, some of you may have memories of a granddad who was the only one in the family that could open the pickle jar at dinner time, despite his advanced years. This ‘granddad strength’ I speak of was no miracle – it was the product of 60 years of manual labour and a strength produced from many years of repetitive muscle use.
I’m concerned that the shortcuts available to today’s practitioners might rob them of the irreplaceable muscular development that the Lisses traceurs have, the deep rooted neurological pathways and the vast amount of muscle memory that no book, article or spoken word can give to them. The granddad strength.
We all know you can condition your body from the beginning of your training and this will help your technical ability but I still feel people are moving too quickly and progressing too fast. I regularly see things being done by newer traceurs that guys with years of experience haven’t done and sometimes the more experienced guys feel bad… often they find themselves questioning their training and wondering why they aren’t as good, wondering where they got left behind and wondering why everybody seems to be better than them.
People have come to me, literally depressed about their training and looking for advice and asking where they went wrong, wondering what the newer guys have that they don’t. The answer I’ve given to these people is simple. The new practitioners doing the massive jumps, the impressive techniques, the big, the hard, the long, the far etc. have ignited a fuse that will see them burn out years before they might want to, simply because their bodies are not ready for what they are doing. It’s not just a question of knees, what about the damage being done to the shoulders of new guys doing big drops from branch to branch? What about their elbows?
What will be the long-term effects of this?
What will be the long-term effects of doing 12ft level arm jumps when the shoulders haven’t experienced 10,000 smaller ones?
What will be the long-term effects of dropping 15ft to concrete when the legs haven’t experienced 10,000, 5ft drops?
Time will tell.
Look at the best traceurs in the world. Go to Lisses and see them, talk to them, train with them and learn from them. They are not the best because they are genetically gifted or were crazy to try all the new things when they were younger and they are not the best because they progressed quickly. They are the best and the strongest because the progressed steadily. They built layer upon layer of armour on their bodies over years and years, repeating things thousands of times and not rushing the process. They have deep rooted granddad strength and resilience and resistance to injury that comes from gradual progression.
Various interviews with David have all asked about injuries and David has shaken his head and said his knees are fine, his arms are fine, he has no pain. This is after 18 years of training. By contrast, today we have guys with one year of training behind them taking months out with knee problems, shoulder dislocations, tendonitis… surgery to repair the body before 20 years of age. Is this a coincidence? Or is this because we are pushing too hard, too fast, trying to be the best and compare to others?
Parkour is a personal journey and one that is hard work. There are no shortcuts and there are no quick fixes. If you want ‘to be and to last’ then I suggest you take a long hard look at your training and ask yourself if you are doing this for fun, for a few years until you can settle down and get a job, get married, have kids and retire. If so then do what you want, do the massive jumps, do everything you want to do and don’t look back. Just be aware that you are having an effect on the others who are in this for the long haul and working hard to get strong. Try to bear this in mind when you say ‘I did this, so why don’t you?’ to them.
But if you want to truly discipline your body, become strong and last in Parkour then you must not compare yourself to anybody else. It can be too tempting to get talked in to doing something beyond your level when you see less experienced people doing it. Be the bigger man/woman and realise the damage they are doing to themselves and take pride in knowing you didn’t succumb to peer pressure. In 10 years when they’re walking with a cane, you will be able to do that jump a hundred times without generating a bead of sweat.
I’m not sure how we can help the future generations of traceurs and the future of Parkour. By providing them with our experience we can prepare them but it must not become a substitute for trial and error or we will all become clones of our teachers. There must remain an element of trial and error and an element of exploration. They must also be allowed to progress in their own time without feeling the pressure of people around them. I’m going to make it a personal goal of mine to help the people I see feeling pressured in to doing something they don’t want to, it would be great if some people reading this could take the time to join me.
To summarize the two points in the above article…
1) If you’re new to Parkour, research as much as possible and learn from the people who have walked the path before you, but do not lose your creativity and ability to think for yourself. Try new things, explore different methods and progress at your own pace. What you need to remember is that the people before you have more physical experience that has built what I refer to as “granddad strength” and that cannot be taught or passed on. You can rush the theory but you cannot take shortcuts on the practical stage if you want to last in this discipline.
2) If you are more experienced in Parkour and feel like newer people are better than you, do not feel pressured in to pushing yourself too hard or doing things just because they are. Try to warn them of the dangers of trying things beyond their bodies’ conditioned state – even if they can do something, doesn’t mean they should. They are learning faster than you due to the wealth of information before them, due to your hard work.
If you care for the future of Parkour then it is your duty to help them to progress sensibly and remind them that they should slow down when you think they are going too fast. If we do not do this, Parkour will slowly die as its practitioners become weaker and weaker duplicates of past traceurs due to injury, overtraining and joint destruction.
Are you going to help to dilute Parkour and the new traceurs, or are you going help to concentrate it and strengthen them?
“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” – William Butler Yeats
Our partner Revolution Parkour is looking to expand their Parkour Performance Team and they want to consider making you a member! If you are passionate about Parkour, highly skilled in the discipline, and interested in being a part of an internationally marketed Parkour performance team then we encourage you to read their message below and consider applying for their team. Good luck!
____________________________
Message from Revolution Parkour
We are looking to expand our Parkour performance team and we want to consider making you a team member! The opportunities for Parkour teams to perform at corporate meetings, product unveilings, trade shows, and other events are growing daily and we want to expand the Revolution Parkour Performance Team to take advantage of this growing market. If you are interested in being a part of an internationally marketed Parkour performance team then we encourage you to read further about the team and consider applying to be a member.
About the Revolution Parkour Performance Team
At Revolution Parkour we aspire to have one of the most talented, dynamic, and diverse Parkour performance teams on the planet. We already have a core group of guys that are committed to our cause, but we want to expand the group as well as diversify our talents and prominence in the world of Parkour.
Unlike most Parkour teams we are not limited geographically or by any other factors. In fact we want our team to be composed of members that are as geographically, culturally, and athletically diverse as possible! Whether you live in Germany, Australia, Spain, Brazil, Egypt, Korea, Russia, the United States, France, Mexico, or any other country we want you to consider being a part of the team. If you speak other languages besides English this is a huge plus. And if you are good at Parkour but are also talented in other disciplines such as break dancing, martial arts, gymnastics, tricking etc, then we want to consider adding you to the team all the more. We firmly believe that team members working together with diverse backgrounds, training styles, and cultural perspectives will create the best team possible.
How We Select the Team
After we receive all the applications we will review the potential team members and take as many factors as possible into considerations. Six factors that will be of primary importance in our evaluations are:
Years practicing Parkour
Parkour skill as demonstrated in individual’s demo tape
Parkour experience (for example if the Tracer has done other jobs – note: pervious Parkour related jobs and performance experience is not required)
Age
Geographic location
Other disciplines practiced and skill thereof
Other attributes that you must personify to be considered for a spot on the team:
Humility
Respect
Professionalism
Strong Work Ethic
We will not be accepting everyone that applies to the team. However, if you are not accepted don’t worry! We are a dynamic team and we are always open to adding new members. So even if you don’t become apart of the team now, keep training and send us another application in the near future. We always look forward to receiving applications and considering adding new members to the team.
Note: Even if you already have a team we still encourage you to apply for the Revolution Parkour Performance Team. Given the current state of Parkour, there are very few Tracers with enough prestige and exposure to create competing ideals between performance teams if they are on more than one. More than anything companies are just looking for teams that are skilled in Parkour and they are rarely, if ever, concerned if a particular “John Smith” is on one team versus another. It’s like if you are a model or small time actor with agents in Paris and New York. Both companies represent you in different markets so there is no competition to worry about.
How We Choose the Specific Performance Team for a Job
Not every member of the Revolution Parkour Performance Team is expected or asked to perform at every job. Sometimes companies want a 4 member performance team or sometimes they might want an 8, 12, or 2 member team. It all depends on the company and their purpose for the performance. With this in mind, after we contract a performance job and know the size team required, we look through the current members and create the best group possible given the parameters and requirements of the performance. If some team members are not available given scheduling circumstances we ask other members until we have formed the best team for the performance.
Note: Being a part of the Revolution Parkour Performance Team does NOT guarantee work.* If you are accepted as a member of the team you will also NOT be an employee of Revolution Parkour. Like any performance team we make money when companies contract our service and we perform, and you will be paid when you perform as a member of the team. There is no guarantee of this, but at the same time no obligation (see Responsibilities as a Team Member below).
*Although there is no guarantee that you will be contracted for a performance job, we only say this for legal reasons to prevent confusion. In reality we expect the team to be very successful and for you to have ample opportunity to perform internationally.
Responsibilities as a Revolution Parkour Performance Team Member
If you are offered a spot on the team you will be featured on RevolutionParkour.com as a member of the Revolution Parkour Performance Team. But being a part of the team is not a free ride to getting paid to travel and do Parkour (although this is a perk). As a part of the team you will also have responsibilities to Revolution Parkour and your team members. These responsibilities include:
Training in Parkour and your other disciplines in order to constantly maintain and/or improve your level and abilities as you initially demonstrated to the team through your demo tape.
Being professional and timely to respond to performance offers
Willing to accept performance roles (we understand that because of scheduling factors such as work, school, unexpected events, and other Parkour jobs, that it may not always be possible for you to accept a specific performance role.)
Being professional on set and during performances (you must remember that performing, although fun, is a job and it is hard work. You therefore must be professional and carry yourself in that sentiment at all times.)
In addition to the above responsibilities we also want our members to be leaders in their perspective Parkour communities working to expand Parkour in a respectful and accurate manner in the ways they see fit.
Applying for the Team
If you are interested in applying to be a member of the Revolution Parkour Performance Team please submit to us an initial application at team@revolutionparkour.com with the following details and materials:
Name
Age
Years Practicing Parkour
Parkour Experience (List jobs or other noteworthy accomplishments – e.g. founded Parkour.com, sponsored by CompanyX, performed for XYZ event, etc)
Other discipline practiced (e.g. break dancing, gymnastics, martial arts, tricking etc) and years practicing them (if applicable)
Head Shot
Demo Tape
A brief paragraph explaining why you want to be a part of the Revolution Parkour team, and why you’d be a good addition to the squad.
Once you have sent us your application we will send you an initial response to confirm we have received it. After this we will be in contact with you as we narrow down the applicants and finalize the additions to the team. The application deadline is November 7th and if you have any questions you can send us an email at team@revolutionparkour.com.
This is a video from an amateur group named Levity. Although this video demonstrates a much more basic level of Parkour than we typically feature on MisterParkour.com we were drawn to this video because of how it presented the calmer and more artistic side of Parkour.* Too often the beauty of the art is drowned out by the hip-hop music and eye-popping visuals that Tracers choose to showcase in their videos. But to reach those levels it takes dedicated training and a deep focus, which is why we think this film will help others get back to the fundamentals. Featuring music from Apocalyptica, this video turned out great, not because of the advanced levels of the Tracers but rather because of its vision and perspective.
*To read David’s thoughts about the beauty of Parkour movement click here.
Regardless of how many exceptional athletes there are in every sport there is always one that rises above and becomes an icon. Even after these icons retire or fade from the public eye their accomplishments and contributions are forever regarded as the most prestigious. One of the most prominent modern examples is the influence and dominance of basketball great Michael Jordan. For Parkour that athlete is without question the founder himself David Belle.
Indisputably the world’s most capable Tracer both for his physical abilities and mental control, it is not ironic to see David compared to other athletes who have achieved unprecedented and/or dominate levels of function and focus. The inherent problem, however, with comparing David Belle and Michael Jordan is most obviously the difference in their athletic inclinations pursuits. As disciplines and sports, basketball and Parkour can not be equally evaluated for obvious reasons. But with the defining characteristics of Parkour similar in many ways to martial arts it is not uncommon to here the very fitting comparisons made between David and Bruce Lee. Rob Green does just that in this excellent article, “Bruce Lee and the Philosophy of Parkour.”
_____________________
Bruce Lee and the Philosophy of Parkour
By Rob Green
Bruce Lee realized that although steeped in thousands of years of tradition, that’s exactly what martial arts were – traditions.
There were too many rules, too many set moves. There was no freedom of movement, and so, no freedom of thought. He believed that sparring required an individuality in order to be useful, not just mindless, imitative repetition. By doing so, you never learn to truly understand the movement which you are undertaking. Instead, you become like a robot.
The very same thing applies to parkour. People walk from a to b oblivious to the fact that they’re even ‘moving.’ They think about what’s on tv later or what they ate for breakfast. They are completely unaware that they are being ‘traditional.’ Everyone moves like that because everyone else does, and always has. Bruce learned that tradition in such a context was actually wrong. By only following set rules, we immediately lose our freedom. He wanted to develop a martial art that would allow instinctive movement. He believed that the most effective martial art would have an absence of thought as its doctrine, not a rigid pre-set frame of thought.
In essence the aim was not to concentrate on working out a situation, but instead to somehow ‘be in thought yet devoid of thought.’ This is difficult because we are associative, sentient beings. All our perceptions at any one time are based on all those that have gone before. Therefore by ‘assessing’ a situation we immediately relate it to others we have experienced and the whole process can lead to self doubt and negativity. Bruce said of his martial art, ‘Jeet kune Do,’ “can you look at a situation without naming it? Naming it, making it a word, causes fear.”
The concept of trying not to think of the situation you are in, but merely trying to ‘feel’ your way through it, is as fundamental to parkour as it was to Bruce. There is a saying that links the two perfectly, “hesitation causes fear.” Obviously, the moment when you are hesitating, you are thinking unnecessarily. You are assessing the situation, comparing and relating it to previous situations. This is the last thing you should do in parkour. In Bruce’s martial arts, it may mean you get hit, in parkour, it could mean death. Many practitioners of parkour who ‘feel’ this philosophy, even though they may not know it, do indeed practice this method of ‘being in thought, yet without thought.’ It is the concept of ‘freeing the mind.’
The idea that just before a jump, the absolute last thing you should be thinking of really is actually the jump itself. You should in fact be seeing yourself on the other side. You should be feeling the movement that is about to happen, not thinking about what will happen if the movement isn’t executed properly. A Zen belief which inspired Bruce at this point, was the following regarding human movement itself:
“I’m moving and not moving at all. It is not, “I am doing this,” but rather, an inner realization that “this is happening though me,” or “it is doing this for me. The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.”
It is this very understanding that directly links Jeet Kune Do with parkour. The whole point of parkour is to travel from one point to another in the smoothest, most efficient way possible. And in order to this, one must achieve ‘fluidity.’ Any time spent wondering whether or not one can achieve what needs to be done is time where the mind is busy calculating negativity. The second you think, ‘I have to get this jump right or I’m dead,’ you immediately hinder your abilities by causing fear. This in itself may cause the very failure it was intended to seek out. If you can achieve a belief within yourself that you are ‘flowing’ through your course, you will simply wash over the obstacles in your path. You will encounter them and move freely past them. You must be able to reach a oneness between your body and your environment. Bruce learned that in order to execute this effectively, it was not the mastery of maneuvers that was important, but instead the mastery of will. In order to achieve a simplicity of consciousness as opposed to constant thought, it is necessary to forget about the outcome and the situation.
Forget about winning and losing, forget about pride and pain. On this matter he states:
“Jeet Kune Do does not beat around the bush. It does not take winding detours. It follows a straight line to the objective. Simplicity is the shortest distance between two points. The art of Jeet kune Do is simply to simplify.”
He could have been talking about parkour with that very statement. The very point of parkour is, well, imagine being chased by a lion. The aim is to get away as efficiently as possible or you get chomped on. In order to do this effectively, we must simplify things as much as possible. With Bruce the end point was a clean, effective strike, with parkour it is reaching another point in space. That is why such things as flips and somersaults, if used at times when more simplistic solutions are available, are not parkour. If they are performed in this manner, then they are more art than efficiency and hence are not parkour.
The world is seen differently through every pair of eyes, and to follow the right path for you you must view the world through your own. We just accept that someone has decided that a group of walls and railings will determine our route from point a to point b. And, like sheep, we follow. Mindlessly. No longer do we enjoy the freedom of personal expression in finding our own path, and although there are many out there who are happy in this mindset, there are also many who aren’t.
There may be many routes from a to b, and who you are will determine which path you choose and how you follow it. It is this expression of your inner self through the freedom of true, instinctive movement that shows the artistic element of parkour. Not unnecessary moves like ‘palm spins.’ Through parkour we find a more natural, instinctive art. JKD, although martial, is an art all the same due to Bruce’s firm belief in this artistic form of addressing motion. He made the observation that:
“An artist’s expression is his soul made apparent, his schooling, as well as his “cool” being exhibited. Behind every motion, the music of his soul is made visible. Otherwise, his motion is empty and empty motion is like an empty word – no meaning. Art is never decoration, embellishment; instead, it is the work of enlightenment. Art, in other words, is a technique for acquiring liberty.”
Note – ‘art is never decoration, embellishment.’ Here he also mentions ‘schooling.’ This is because before you can talk, you must learn language. Although parkour speaks of passing obstacles smoothly and efficiently without allowing the process of thought, this is in essence the ultimate aim. The never ending pursuit of this ‘oneness’ is what drives parkour as a discipline. It is now that it becomes clear why it is indeed a discipline like JKD. It is not just an art form, but in fact a fully rigorous physical and psychological pursuit. In order to achieve the main aim you must be confident of your ability. But you cannot become confident if you do not train long and hard. Parkour is considered by most to be a sport – but it is not. You will not let anyone else down if you do not perform. There are no rules or time limits you must follow in order to achieve greatness. You will never need to ‘score’ to achieve. As the shoaling say:
“It does not matter how slow you go, as long as you do not stop.”
There are many ways in which the body can naturally move, and it takes a long time and a lot of dedication to find what your own body is capable of. There are certain ways of clearing obstacles that feel comfortable to some and uncomfortable to others, again – another form in which self expression of the soul becomes apparent. You should let the energy of motion ‘move through you,’ instead of pre-deciding how it will flow. When you reach an obstacle, you want your body to already know the way in which it will move. This takes time, effort, discipline, dedication and practice to learn. Bruce trained like this with JKD. He did not want to try to guess before a move which one would be best suited, so he would try to ‘feel’ them out by not predetermining any movement. He described the process as
“Movements with a point. The point is the doing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no actor but the action; there is no experiencer, but the experience….. Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection in the soul.”
And so we come to the inevitable conclusion regarding the comparison of Bruce Lee’s philosophies behind Jeet Kune Do and the fundamental philosophies that drive parkour as a discipline and a way of life. We must become free of set ways and traditions brought down on us by those who came before and we must find ourselves. Within is where we must look in order to truly see the without.
Remember, it is our eyes we were meant to see through, not someone else’s. Do not follow those who choose to take you over like sheep. Do not accept that which is drummed into you; ask instead why they would want to control your thoughts, to take away your freedom. Why do others try to hold us back anyway, hold us down? Do not be gripped by them. Do not move like robots for it cages you inner being. Be instead free and formless.
Like water. Certain people believe parkour can be roughly translated into English as ‘freerunning.’ This, contrary to popular belief, does not describe the notion of running around freely, but instead the idea of water running freely, the idea that you should be like water and flow freely – like the water of a river. When it encounters obstacles, it does not hesitate nor flounder, it simply follows its path freely around, over, under or through. If said water is flowing down a stream, it may crash into a rock with power, or it may flow smoothly past it, for it has no predetermined form and so flows freely. Therefore, as Bruce said:
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.”
And so in my belief, Bruce Lee did indeed have the exact same philosophical beliefs evident at the hard core of parkour thinking.
Bruce Lee quotes from ‘tao of Jeet Kune Do,’ shaolin qoutes from, well, years of training – can’t remember, look ‘em up yourself…
Here is an excellent Parkour video that was submitted to us from New Zealand by members of MisterParkour.com. Unlike the vast majority of Parkour videos which are mix tapes or training videos, this is a short film and it actually has a plot! Take your time to enjoy the pure Parkour action; it’s all in slow motion and the momentous climax is a nice finishing touch.
What are the capabilities of the human body in terms of absorbing impact? In Parkour this is a very important question because it sets the physical limits with which Tracers can perform. Regardless of what you think those limits are, Ruslan Dzavadov has been working hard to redefine the common perception of the human capability, and he shows it off well with this huge jumped he performed in Tai Pei, Taiwan. Members of the international Parkour community will debate whether movements like these can be repeated frequently without injury, however, at MisterParkour.com we firmly believe that with the proper training the necessary physical tools develop to make moves like this very sustainable indeed.
Titled Excelsior, a Latin word for ‘ever upward’ or ‘higher’, this video is an excellent overall Parkour mix tape features Chris “Blane” Rowat. The video showcases impressive athleticism, jumping ability, mental focus, precision and Parkour technique.
We really have come to an unfortunate impasse here at MisterParkour.com. With the worldwide collection of David Belle videos practically used up (because they are all already on this site), we have been unable to find very many new videos to feature that compare well to the content we already have. With that said we are always looking for new “True to Parkour” videos, text, and articles of all kinds to feature so if you know of any feel free to let us know through our contact page.
Even though the new opportunities to feature David on this site are almost gone, a few remain. Here is a video that we thought, in general, was pretty good. It features Team Tracer’s during their 2006 trip to Lisses, and David even shows up for a couple frames. Although this 10 min video features an uncommon and possibly unfitting musical soundtrack, the footage, action, film quality are superb.
