Posted on 06/19/2009 5:37:33 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
The first time he saw David Belle, Mark Toorock knew he had to become a traceur.
Belle's cat-like balancing acts, his eye-popping feats of agility, his sheer strength ... "What I saw, frankly, was a guy with superhuman capabilities," Toorock told FOXNews.com. "[He] was doing all these things without pads or a wire."
That was back in 2002, when parkour — an extreme sport popularized in France during the 1990s in which participants run, jump and flip from Point A to Point B as efficiently as possible — was relatively unknown outside of Europe.
Now the obstacle-based urban sport appears ready to hit the American mainstream, with a new MTV series ("Ultimate Parkour Challenge") set to debut later this year, and with dozens of parkour clubs sprouting up across the country.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Here's a link to the best video demonstration I have seen...
VIDEO LINK
I don’t believe the injuries resulting from jumping from roof to roof will be covered under 0bamacare.
That aside, this is one sport I wish Obama would take up!
On the other hand, you can search youtube for parkour participants who were not as skilled as they thought they were. Some of the accidents are pretty horrific.
Free Climbing in Yosemite can result in tragedy -- but the people who do that stuff mostly know what they are doing, are very cautious, and try hard to use good judgement. Some parkour fans, on the other hand, go down to the local playground, try to do a move they saw on the internet, and knock out all their teeth. Oops.
That guy was in Banlieue 13 (District 13 in the US). Mostly a silly French action film, but the guy has amazing moves.
Maybe it’s lack of sleep but, watching the video, the phrase “no job” keeps coming to mind over and over.
There is a similar movement in mountain biking (particularly by a fellow named Danny Macaskill from Scotland...here's a LINK to a couple of his videos)
- After the attention that was brought to Parkour from Casino Royale, militaries from different countries began looking for ways to incorporate Parkour into training. The British Royal Marines hired Parkour athletes to train their members [51]. Colorado Parkour began a project to introduce parkour into the U.S. military [52] and parkour is slowly being introduced into the USMC [53]
No doubt it takes skill and lots of training. But you’ve gotta wonder if the original pioneers weren’t on the dole and inventing time killers for a living.
These “athletes” are going to sustain what seem like minor injuries now, but in a few years the injuries will start to cripple them. This is very strenuous and body pounding stuff. It is their bodies however and if they wish to do this it is up to them.
Is there any suprise that this sport was invented by a French Naval officer Georges Hébert
Can’t wait for the “Parkour attempts gone wrong” videos.
Yes. Then we can view the results when they shoot the next movie of “JackAss”..
Very interesting information about Georges Hébert! Thx!
More candidates for the Darwin Awards.
It is an amazing sport. I have been working out for the last month trying to get in shape to try this. I haven't even started running yet. Everything I have read says start out slow, learn how to fall/land, don't over do it, and make sure you have good insurance. I don't have a gymnastics background so I am starting really really slow but I am looking forward to this.
BTW, the Mark Toorock interviewed by Fox is in the Crossfit parkour video.
I’ve watched the video and read the responses in this thread and I still don’t know what the point of this so called “sport” is. To me it looks like something you’d see in “Jackass.”
I think it's a combination of cross country running, hurdles, obstacle course and rock climbing. Apparently you can even take training courses in it.
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