- Article from Parkourpedia.com -

To understand what Parkour is it helps to understand where it came from.

Parkour: Developed by David Belle while finding his own way in life. In turn, it's there to assist those who choose to learn about it to find their own way in life as well.

To observe the physical component of Parkour you would see such things as: people running on foot, moving quadrupedally, jumping, climbing, and other methods of catching yourself, grabbing hold of things, and hanging from things, rolling and balancing. People moving in such a way, with any movement, that will help you gain the most ground on someone/something as if escaping from someone/something or chasing toward someone/something.

But Parkour is much more than a physical pursuit. The activities described above have been practised since the beginning of time. It's the principles behind Parkour combined with the physical aspect that defines it as something unique. Those principles include:

• Seeking to improve ourselves through the practice of Parkour
• Using what you have gained from Parkour to help others, be it by helping someone learn Parkour themselves or to use your skills in a practical situation
• Seek progression in ourselves and to promote it in others

Most importantly, to use Parkour as a tool to find our own way in life. To discover within ourselves what it is we truly wish to achieve, and to achieve it.

The description above barely begins to scratch the surface of the full depth and breadth of Parkour. To gain a deeper understanding of it and all that it involves takes more effort than to watch a few videos and go and copy them.

The roots of Parkour go back over 100 years. It begins with Hébertism. Hébertism was created about 100 years ago by Georges Hébert.

Georges Hébert (1875-1957) exerted a major influence on the development of physical education in France. A former naval officer, he travelled throughout the world before World War 1 and was struck by the physical development and skill of indigenous peoples in Africa and elsewhere;
"Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in Gymnastics but their lives in Nature." - G. Hébert
In 1902,Hébert was stationed in the town of St. Pierre in Martinique when the town fell victim to a catastrophic volcanic eruption. Hébert heroically co-ordinated the escape and rescue of some seven hundred people from this disaster. This experience had a profound effect on him, and reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism. He eventually developed this ethos into his motto, "Etre fort pour être utile" - "To be strong, to be useful."

Returning to France, Hébert became a physical education tutor at the College of Rheims, where he began to define the principles of his own system of physical education and to create apparatus and exercises to teach his "Natural Method". As well as the "natural" training regimens he observed in Africa, he was inspired by classical representations of the human body in Graeco-Roman statuary and by the ideals of the ancient Greek gymnasia. Hébert's system rejected the sclerosis of remedial gymnastics and of the popular Swedish Method of physical culture, which seemed to him unable to develop the human body harmoniously and especially unable to prepare his students with the "moral requirements" of life.

In the same way, Hébert believed, by concentrating on competition and performance, competitive sport diverted physical education both from its physiological ends and its ability to foster sound moral values.

"The final goal of physical education is to make strong beings. In the purely physical sense, the Natural Method promotes the qualities of organic resistance, muscularity and speed, towards being able to walk, run, jump, move quadrupedally, to climb, to walk in balance, to throw, lift, defend yourself and to swim." In the "virile" or energetic sense, the system consists in having sufficient energy, willpower, courage, coolness, and fermeté ("firmness").

In the moral sense, education, by elevating the emotions, directs or maintains the moral fibre in a useful and beneficial way.

The true Natural Method, in its broadest sense, must be considered as the result of these three particular forces; it is a physical, virile and moral synthesis. It resides not only in the muscles and the breath, but above all in the "energy" which is used, the will which directs it and the feeling which guides it."

David Belle's father, Raymond Belle was a Vietnamese teen-soldier in the Indo-Chinese Wars. Raymond Belle and his unit became extremely adept at using the local terrain to their advantage, moving quickly and quietly through the thick jungle, surprising their enemies then quickly withdrawing. It was in these desperate guerrilla tactics that the idea of Parkour as an instinctive, practical and useful tool was first born. The advantage that fast, efficient and controlled movement gave them was the difference between life and death. It would be used to help reach each other for aid, to escape when the need arose, and to survive through improvisation when chaos ensued. Their movement became their life.

After the war as Raymond settled in his new home of France, he joined the Parisian regiment of the sapeurs-pompiers militaries (military firefighters). It was here that he was properly emersed in Georges Hébert's 'Méthode Naturelle'. Raymond's experiences in Vietnam, and his personal understanding of effective and useful movement, now had a base for which they could be developed through disciplined refining of technique.

Over 17 years in the regiment Raymond performed acts of selflessness in countless rescues, and became the embodiment of the sapeurs-pompiers. However more importantly for Parkour, he passed on to his son David his ideals and values borne from his own experiences, with a disciplined platform on which they could be nurtured and taught from.

David Belle's father learnt and practised Hebertism and when he spent time with his son, David, passed on what he knew about it to him. As David grew and learnt, he adapted what he needed from Hebertism to create something unique to him; something that allowed him to pursue his own needs and goals.

And in turn, it is passed on to us to act as an inspiration to help find our own goals and assist in pursuing them.

Some of the references are from articles that can no longer be found. They will be posted on this site at a later date.

• Kungfu magazine interview with David Belle
• Write up of conversations with David Belle by Dan
• Parkour.NET, David belle Biography - article down
• Article written on Hebertism

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