right, i wasn't sure where abouts to post this on these forums, but Pete told me it was a good idea, so i thought I'd put it in here. last Saturday i showed Pete the way of parkour how it is done in Leeds, and it went very well, it is now clear to me most definitely that someone with a martial arts background will find it easier to progress within these art forms, maybe even more so then someone who has studied gymnastics, because of the rigidness of the movements. also martial artists have above average leg strength, however it seems upper body strength is still an issue. Parkour especially greatly improves upper body strength, as I'm sure Pete will testify, there's more to pulling yourself up and over the top of a wall then what first meats the eye



There is a difference between parkour and free running which I shall go into now, if you really have better things to do, scroll down and i have posted some video's of parkour training in Leeds, and contact details if you are interested. but if you wish to learn more, read on. Parkour itself originated in the outskirts of Paris in the late 1980's, i won't go into too much detail but it was David Belle, influenced by his father who first committed himself to the discipline and he is known as being responsible for the art form we see today, which is looses based upon the principles of George Herbert's 'methode naturelle' and a motto amongst traceurs ( participants of the discipline ) is to be and to last, promoting a sustainable way of training one's body so you can make a fully judged decision on whether or not to fly, or fight. the principle aim of parkour is to be able to travel form A to B, and back again, in the most efficient route possible. Sebastien Foucan then elaborated on this with 'free running' which on the surface is similar to parkour, but takes away the restrictions of efficiency, created complete freedom of movement and self expression.

the following movement feature more heavily upon the freerunning side unfortunately, as it tends to look more impressive to put into a video
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begining with the most recent... it seems i can't embed videos, so never mind ill just have to post the urls
http://www.youtube.com/v/aKI8aNSBezU
http://www.youtube.com/v/82dhA4jP1dQ
http://www.youtube.com/v/Z7zdf7ZiCCg
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30412224
http://www.youtube.com/v/iS8ApWKy-a4
http://www.youtube.com/v/vbTwT31VbPo
http://www.youtube.com/v/p2jxwGlpv1s
http://www.youtube.com/v/Dpl1_pSbV88

i hope you enjoy