What Is Parkour And How Parkour Teams Contribute To Movies, TV, Live Events

Do you know what Parkour is? Have you ever seen a parkour performance? Before getting too much into the detail, let's first begin by discussing a little about how it all started. The word parkour comes from a french word – 'parcour', which translates into English as the path or the way through. The word with a 'k', which is more commonly used than the word from which it originated, was used for a training program designed particularly for French Special Forces – Parcours du combattant: which means the path of the warrior. It then became a sport or a physical discipline, which was also termed as the art of movement. The founders of this discipline were nine young men from France, led by David Belle.

The word 'freerunning' is a substitute of parkour  and was brought to the world by Guillaume Pelletier, a member of the production team of the documentary – Jump London. He used this word to familiarize this great physical discipline English-understanding people.

Now, we need to understand what this physical discipline is all about. The art of movement or parkour or freerunning is a non-competitive training discipline that enables participants to navigate any terrain by using the capabilities of their body – climbing, running, jumping, etc. The objective of this training is to help a person develop attributes to perform these movements properly. These attributes include balance, agility, creative vision, fitness, coordination, and functional strength amongst others.

This physical discipline helps a person improve on all levels, identifying their mental and physical weaknesses and finding ways to conquer them. It is a way of making your mind and body flexible and balanced, which consequently helps you in being free, functional, and effective in everything you do.

While parcour is great for personal development, people often ask whether it can be used professionally. It certainly can be. There are professionally trained parkour and acrobat teams that utilize their skills to give highly visually attractive performances for live events, TV, photographic campaigns, and movies. These can be alternatively described as stunt teams that put their bodies on the line to make things appear more dramatic and adventurous to the audience. In addition to parkour and acrobatics, thee people are good in martial arts as well. So, when you hire them, you can expect a complete package. But, when you need such a team for your next shoot, make sure that they are properly trained and have done enough performances already.