Parkour History
Georges Hebert
at the beginning of the 20th Century, developed a method of mental and physical training in accordance with nature. This also plays a role in today's world, even if today's Parkour is now be practiced more in the urban environment.Raymond Belle
(Father of David Belle) found this method in the Vietnam War, to flee from opponents. He trained this in the forests of northern France and brought them to his son.David Belle
moved into the 80s to Lisses (a Paris suburb), and developed this technique (along with a few friends) to the parkour as we know it today.Sebastien Foucan
was one of those friends of David Belle and was involved in the development of the» Parkour Philosophy.
Sebastien Foucan is also acts in the James Bond film "Casino Royal" b> and was on the side of Daniel Craig showing some real goodies of Parkour and his abilities for good.
Yamakasi
was the name of the very first Parkour group. Yamakasi also was the name of a "Parkour movie" / "Free Running film". David Belle did not agree with this film and even called it a "prostitution of their art."Parkour as a part of youth [Culture]?
Parkour has now (2011) a high level of awareness, especially through music videos (eg. Madonna: Hung Up) and films (eg. Ghettoganz) or computer ganmes (Mirrors Edge, Brink). Also in different (print)media, Parkour is hyped up.Especially among young people is increasing interest in Parkour and related groups, such as parkour-vienna.at - a huge Parkour community in Vienna around Stoklasa Thomas (TOM) and other associations and organizations have a brisk demand.
Remains to be seen whether the trend increases and continues to grow, or rather be a "niche sport".