PK, or Parkour as it is commonly known, is a discipline for holistic training that evolved from the trainings of obstacle course. Parkour includes activities like climbing, vaulting, running, swinging, rolling, Jumping and quadrupedal movement, depending on the situation. Parkour is a sport that was developed in the late 1980s in France by the trio Sébastien Foucan, Raymond Belle and David Belle. This sport gained popularity in the late 1990s to 2000s through media.
Georges Hébert, a French naval officer was a forerunner of Parkour in Western Europe. He promoted athletic skills before World War I based on the tribes he visited in Africa. According to him, “their bodies were flexible, splendid, nimble, enduring and skilful, but still they had no teacher in gymnastics, and yet they live in nature.” During the 192 eruption he did a lot of efforts on the Mount Pelée at Saint-Pierre, Martinique, where he reinforced in believing that athletic skills combined with courage as well as altruism could create wonders.
Parkour has no particular moves for success, by the player’s own way of movement determines the course of the sport. Some moves employed by practitioners are:
Running towards a wall of long height, pushing off it on a foot and reaching the top of it
Hanging from a ledge of the top of a wall and moving from one position to standing upright on top of wall or vaulting above it to go over the other side
Vault over obstacles
Jumping and then landing accurately placing the feet on smaller or narrower obstacles
Jump and catch a ledge with hands and simultaneously landing the feet on a vertical surface placed below
Absorbing large impacts with the use of a rolling motion
There are at present no dedicated locations for the activity of Parkour. However, efforts are on to make places specifically for this sport in spite of being opposed by some traceurs who think of it as a contradiction to the essence of the sport. Parkour is practiced by traceurs in rural as well as urban places like playgrounds, gyms, offices, parks, abandoned structures, etc. The freedom involved in the sport has been raising concerns regarding trespassing, damage to any property and also performance at inappropriate areas.