Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement (English: the art of movement) is a physical art of French origin, founded by David Belle, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment — from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls — so parkour can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Male parkour practitioners are recognized as traceurs and female as traceuses.

On the philosophy of Le Parkour

• "At the physical end, Parkour is getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency situation. You want to move 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. Also, wherever you go, you must be able to get back. If you go from A to B, you need to be able to get back from B to A. You don't need to do the same "move," but just get back."
  • http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16

• "It's about what you can do at that particular moment. If someone is stuck in a fire and you say, "Well, two years ago I could have done something that would have saved you" then you are useless. Parkour is not what you could have done for whatever excuse. If you aren't able to help someone, what use are you?"
  • http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16

• "My thing from the beginning is to have it be useful, and be able to help others. It's about being efficient and getting there as fast as you can. If people want to do it more artistically or in a freestyle way, I have absolutely no problem with it — that's the way it's going to evolve. It's not my style, but if it's other people's [style], that's perfect."
  • http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/680/243/

• The link below leads to a video of David Belle falling on a saut-de-chat. His arm misses or slips off of the wall. It it important piece to view for all traceurs, his attitude and the way he views this accident should be noted.
  • http://parkour-videos.com/david-fall-and-message/

• "All these people here, they come and they want me to do big things, expect me to do big drops so they can sell pictures, put it on their websites, whatever. But what is my motivation then? I could do this jump once and maybe get hurt, but even if I don't get hurt what is the point right here, right now? To make these people happy? If my family was over there and needed me, I wouldn't even hesitate. I would do it for them and that's who I train and do these things for. I'm not a monkey, I can't be treated like one. I don't understand how people want to put themselves into great risk for money. I've trained so long and hard for myself, to save people, to protect my family... People get into Parkour now just train in order to do risks for media, I just can't understand why they would do so. That was never the goal of Parkour. Money changes people, but that money cannot change my goal, my motivation or why I do this. I'm on tour now for you, I'm here talking to you so you can help others and that's how things work, never think its the other way around. Im doing this for you guys, to inspire you, that's it."
  • http://p202.ezboard.com/furbanfreeflowfrm11.showMessage?topicID=12676.topic

• "Parkour belongs to the ones who live it, not the ones who want to live thanks to it"
  • David Belle Communique, Paris July 25th 2006

Other David Belle quotations

• "If someone puts you in front of a 30m high wall, tells you to get over it, and then comes back two years later and you're still there, you've made no progress. You should find another wall.”
  • http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16

• "If you are in front of a wall that you cannot get past, would you just keep banging your head into the wall?... No, you would find a new wall."
  • http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16

• "A little backflip (backflips), but it's not part of Parkour, but i like doing this since i did gym."
  • TFI - French TV

• "Obstacles are found everywhere, and in overcoming them we nourish ourselves."
  • TFI - French TV

• "Down there we know, the streets we know, but up here? Nobody's been here."
  • TFI - French TV

• "First, do it. Second, do it well. Third, do it well and fast — that means you're a professional."
  • http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/680/243/

• "Stop talking and Move"
  • Unsourced

Sebastien Foucan

• "No violence, No competition, No Groups, No Chiefs.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "Nobody ever invents anything You're inspired and sometimes you can improve.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "Without philosophy, action has no meaning.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "No, big is not important!”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "Parkour was never invented by anyone, it's always been here.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "I don't like caricature. I don't like extreme, I don't like that.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "Everything was invented when somebody was alone.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "Practice with the obstacle, always with the obstacle, and seek combinations.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "The way of the parkour is to continue, not to stay here.”
  • http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm

• "You can find the way by yourself naturally, you just need a guide to tell you to be careful, to not do this to impress people, just follow your instincts."
  • Jump Britain

Cyril Raffaeli

• "I check my site sometimes. I look at the first couple things and try to respond but that's all I have the time for. People don't understand that we just don't have the time! We could come online and talk to each person and make sure they know flips aren't Parkour (he laughed) but then we would not be in the place we are now. I had two choices, I could sit at home and eat pizza and pepsi infront of the computer all day, or I could train, I chose to train."
  • http://p202.ezboard.com/furbanfreeflowfrm11.showMessage?topicID=12676.topic

George Hébert

• "Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in Gymnastics but their lives in Nature" (In reference to the physical movement skills developed naturally by indigenous Africans)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H%C3%A9bert

• "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."
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H%C3%A9bert

Yamakasi

• "Strong Body, Strong Mind, Strong Spirit."
  • http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=14:03:2006 - Hot Docs - Yamakasi

• "I saw an exhibition of Miro once. Miro the painter. His very last painting was a dot. I was wondering why everyone says hes a great painter. I can make dots. Yet he is a great painter. I looked at his evolution. First I thought he couldn't draw. Then I saw his early drawings, and they're works of art. His figures are full of detail, his landscapes. Its like looking at a photograph. So I looked at his evolution, and saw that gradually there were fewer details. He was paying less attention to the external, and more to the internal. I thought about it, that little dot, and I understood. Everything else was false, he had just retained the truth."
  • http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=14:03:2006 - Hot Docs - Yamakasi

• "Instinctively, we tend to prefer simplicity and containment. But with time we tend to think that real happiness is outside. That it is external... in money, success, in popularity. But that's not true. Its right here, so close we can't see it. When you move, an important thing to remember is to be serene, simple. Whether you jump or not, you have to feel good."
  • http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=14:03:2006 - Hot Docs - Yamakasi

Other

• "Imagine someone who wakes up in a cosy home, who eats a good and healthy meal, who goes out to do some jumping around until supper time and then watches tv in his couch for the rest of the evening, eating candy. This could describe most of us, even me, but this is not doing Parkour, this is not being strong. Being strong would be waking up after a short, cold night's sleep, with nothing to eat, in a remote area, with bruises all over your body, and having to do the biggest saut de bras in your life if you want to survive." - Thomas-des-bois
  • http://parkour.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5158&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=0

• "Impossible is a word for other people to use when life scares them." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
  • http://www.pkaus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=476

• "What you cannot conquer, circumvent but do not compromise yourself for the sake of the urban jungle, because concrete does not sympathise." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
  • http://www.pkaus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=551

• "There's no real organised body, … so through the internet people have spread their videos, spread photos, and spread word of a new urban movement." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
  • http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s1627257.htm

• "One of the main points of the philosophy behind parkour is being able to help people... To teach them they way themselves, to gain confidence in themselves, building up from simple moves to more complex things, to teach them that they are worthwhile people." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
  • http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s1627257.htm

• "Many ways exist for one direction" - James Patrick Mcardle

• "Fear is your greatest enemy, but yet it's your best friend." Shaun Andrews

• "...The best part of falling is getting back up again. If that phrase doesn't examplify what David showed us all there that day, I don't know what would ever!" -Pk Danno

Unknown

• "In life there is from 'A' to 'B' to 'C'. In parkour there is no 'B'"

• "While you rest, others are out training."

• "You see a car, I see Parkour, you see a bench, some stairs, I see Parkour”

• "Everything you do affects you physically and mentally, and everything you think affects you mentally and physically."

• "We are Traceurs, and we will prevail. Parkour is not just a way of life. Parkour is life."

• "You cannot win against other traceurs in parkour, but you can win over yourself and help others to do the same."

• "Parkour laughs right in the face of discrimination and violence."

• "To succeed the first time is good. To succeed the second time is better."