Official Blog
What Is Parkour, Anyway?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
In case you hadn't noticed the athletes sprinting, crawling and vaulting all over our homepage today: we're happy to present videos of the growing sport of parkour, selected by Julie Angel aka
SlamCamSpam
. Julie is a London-based filmmaker who has been documenting the sport for the past four years, mainly with an organization called Parkour Generations -- a team of incredible athletes based in London, including some first- and second-generation parkour practitioners, dedicated to teaching and displaying the sport.
So, what is parkour? Dan Edwardes, a member of Parkour Generations describes it this way:
"Parkour is the art of moving through your environment using only your body and the surroundings to propel yourself. It can include running, jumping, climbing, even crawling, if that is the most suitable movement for the situation. Parkour could be grasped by imagining a race through an obstacle course, the goal is to overcome obstacles quickly and efficiently, without using extraneous movement."
Parkour traces its origins to Lisses, France, and a soldier named Raymond Belle, who worked to develop efficient methods "to reach or escape." He handed down these lessons to his son David Belle, who has spent a majority of his young (34) life working on these principles, and is featured in
one
of Julie's 12 selections. The sport, or discipline, has drawn on myriad sources, been inspired by a number of notable individuals and evolved through several traditions to arrive at the modern iteration known as parkour. The sport's beauty and broad appeal may lie in the fact that it's not that different from what we all did as children: run, jump, roll. Parkour turns our confining concrete landscapes into a big playground.
We couldn't help notice the rising profile of parkour on our site and are proud to play a role in spreading it worldwide. The sport's bounding popularity is growing, in part, thanks to the spread of online video sharing, and, well, YouTube. Parkour may be the first such sport in history to have this symbiotic relationship with online video.
We hope this inspires you to learn more. Before you go running into the street, though, please understand that parkour can be dangerous if not practiced correctly, please seek experienced trainers and practice diligently!
Allez!
Andrew B.
YouTube Sports
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2020
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow