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Free running

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The term Freerunning (or free running) was coined during the filming of Wikipedia:Jump London, as a way to present Wikipedia:parkour to the English-speaking world but rather unintentionally became its own form of movement which is incorporates parkour (pk) as a baseline but established its uniqueness separate from Parkour with the focus on self expression, innovation and creativity into movement as opposed to strictly speed and efficiency in parkour. However, the term has come to refer to Sebastien Foucan's method of parkour which again unintentionally makes him the founder of freerunning focusing on creativity, innovation and self-expression(in freerunning) instead of strictly speed and efficiency(in parkour). Many misconceptions have come out of this, such as the idea that it is a form of competitive street-gymnastics or street-acrobatics, when in fact, it was how Wikipedia:Sebastien Foucan described his own Parkour evolution. Its more like an art then a sport.

The founder and creator of freerunning, Wikipedia:Sébastien Foucan, defines freerunning as a discipline to self-development, to "follow your own way",[1] which he developed because he felt that parkour lacked creativity and self-expression as a definition for each freerunner to follow your own way.[2]

In a video on his official Youtube channel he explains freerunning as:


"Freerunning for me is my parkour evolution. I can't say anymore that I doparkour. Because if I want to be free to do flips, or let's say I'm learning breakdancing, and I would like to incorporate it into my parkour expression;

Not to say: I am doing capoeira, breakdancing, parkour and anything else.

Freerunning is the way I choose to name my own expression.
"

[3]

While Sebastien Foucan describes freerunning is his way of naming his expression, it's important to point out that all of the founding members of the former group Yamakasi, including Wikipedia:David Belle, have to a limited extent incorporated both acrobatics their training but never considered it as efficient movement. David Belle is also a martial artist and in many of his videos he can be seen practicing Wikipedia:martial arts with Stephane Vigroux [4] In various videos David Belle can also be seen incorporating acrobatics into his parkour, such as footage from Lisses in the early 90s.[5]. However, David Belle released a statement criticising acrobatics as not useful in "emergency situations. Then you'll know what is parkour and what is not."[6]

According to Dan Edwardes of Parkour Generations, all of the founders in the Yamakasi group incoporated acrobatics and such into their training since day one. However, it was only there for fun and never became the focus because it was never considered useful since their goal was to learn efficient movements to overcome obstacles, and that 90% of their technique was 'the basics', e.i jumps and vault.[7] Many of the founders also deny any differences between parkour and freerunning at their rendezvous meetings,[8] and Sebastien Foucan frequently uses the term parkour.[9]

Freerunning core values[edit]

Sebastien Foucan has said mentions the following as the core values of freerunning:

{{Follow your way; Always practise; Respect others in their practise; Be an inspiration for others; Be positive and look for positive environments; Respect your environment; Feel free to try other disciplines; Don't take it too seriously; The journey is more important than the goal; There is no good or bad, right or wrong but what is important is what you learn from experiences through practise; Freerunning is not an elite discipline, but for people who love and continue to move; Channel your energy in a good way, a way to be better}}[10][11][12].

Wikipedia:Sébastien Foucan, defines freerunning as a discipline for self development, of following your own way [13][14][15]. His dissatisfaction with the limited creativity and self-expression in Parkour was the motivation for Sebastian Foucan to develop a similar yet distinct art of movement that became known as freerunning.[16]

ParkourUK, which was developed by Parkour Generations and some of the members of the Wikipedia:Yamakasi describes the core of parkour, freerunning, and art du déplacement as:

• Parkour / Freerunning / Art du Deplacement is the non-competitive physical discipline of training to move freely over and through any terrain using only the abilities of the body, principally through running, jumping, climbing and quadrupedal movement. In practice it focuses on developing the fundamental attributes required for such movement, which include functional strength and fitness, balance, spatial awareness, agility, coordination, precision, control and creative vision.

• It is a sport that encourages self-improvement on all levels, revealing one’s physical and mental limits while simultaneously offering ways to overcome them. It is a method of training one’s body and mind in order to be as completely functional, effective and liberated as possible in any environment.

• The sport aims to build confidence, determination, self-discipline and self-reliance, and responsibility for one’s actions. It encourages humility, respect for others and for one’s environment, self-expression, community spirit, and the importance of play, discovery and safety at all times.

The description above is to describe Parkour as a sport and does not fully describe the art / discipline / philosophy of Parkour as a whole.

Criticism from Parkour community[edit]

David Belle has criticized freerunning as follows:


"Understand that this form of art(parkour) has been created by few soldiers in Vietnam to escape or reach: and this is the spirit we'd like parkour to keep. You have to make the difference between what is useful and what is not in emergency situations. Then you'll know what is parkour and what is not. So if you do acrobatics things on the street with no other goal than showing off, please don't say it's parkour. Acrobatics existed a long time ago before parkour.[6]"

Other hardcore dedicated parkour enthusiasts such as PAWA(Parkour Worldwide Association) support David Belle's criticism:


"Free Running? A kind of demonstration mixing parkour techniques, and acrobatics to be more spectacular and serve the medias and marketing, but also a sport. The term Parkour has been invented by David Belle and Hubert Koundé in 1998 and the word Free Running has been created much later by Sebastien Foucan for the purpose of spreading Parkour in a marketing fashion (they thought the word "parkour" wasn't international enough and Sebastien Foucan proposed them this word).

The problem is that they fully mixed acrobatics to impress people. This is where Freerunning becomes different from Parkour. To make a comparison, Free Running is like artistic katas in martial arts, the goal is only to be spectacular. So it is related to parkour but doesn't answer to the same philosophy. I mean, when you practice to show how spectacular your jump is gonna be, people aren't focused anymore on the difficulty, on the obstacle but on you.

This showing off attitude isn't the parkour philosophy which preaches for humility. In this, Free Running and Parkour are fundamentally opposite even if the first one is related to the second one. Like the traditional way and the freestyle way.[17]
"

After the above criticisms had been made Sebastien Foucan released the following statement(s) clarifying the origins of freerunning, his philosophy behind the creation of freerunning and its(freerunning) relation to parkour:


"At the beginning the name free running was an idea of a person called Guillaume Pelletier who worked with us at the time of Jump London. Because some people think what I'm doing is not Parkour now I call it "freerunning". Because there is a misunderstanding and people put a definition on what I'm doing! I create freerunning and I'll put my official definition.

What is Freerunning? Everything I'll say it's no more Parkour, it's freerunning! Freerunning it's a lifestyle and an attitude. Freerunning is to see your environment differently and being able to utilize it to develop yourself! My Parkour lifestyle is Freerunning.My way has no name.

Freerunning is the name people have given to my way! "Freerunning is following your own way, and this is my way." [18]
"


"Freerunning for me is my parkour evolution. I can't say anymore that I doparkour. Because if I want to be free to do flips, or let's say I'm learning breakdancing, and I would like to incorporate it into my parkour expression; Not to say: I am doing capoeira, breakdancing, parkour and anything else. Freerunning is the way I choose to name my own expression.[19]"

The above two statements criticise freerunning as simply "showing off" without reason, philosophy or deeper undertaking in their movement(freerunning). The word "freerunning" was coined by Guillaume Pelletier originally to translate parkour to english in d Jump London documentary(2003)however the term was created based on Sebastein Foucan's philososphy of creativity, self-expression and complete freedom of movement(hence the word "free" in "freerunning") in order to "follow your way" of movement which can incorporate any type or manner of movement technique(acrobatics, tricks, etc) as well as from other disciplines("capoeira, breakdancing, parkour and anything else" as said by Sebastien Foucan and stipulated in d core values of freerunning[20][21][22])while in process of motion or movement aimed at self-development.[23]


In a 2011 article and interview, Sebastien Foucan further elucidates more on his philosophy that has become known as freerunning:

{{Free running's philosophy is that each person has their own instinctive approach to different challenges, and Foucan acknowledges the influence of martial arts, as well as parallels with eastern philosophy. He says: "There is a link between everything, like in [the teachings of] martial arts, it's about energy and how we are all connected. Everything we do affects other people negatively or positively. I say, 'your life is a road, your feelings a guide, your body a vehicle'." He adds: "Other people's journeys can influence my own journey – this is my teaching."[24]}}

{{Foucan believes any form of self-expression is important and key to finding balance in life. "Free running is not exclusive, everybody should have something to do that takes them out of their mind, out of the fixed path and social systems," he says. Basically, getting away from the routine of daily life. The ethos also invites play, experimentation and creativity and, in his words, "expressing yourself beautifully in your environment". [25]}}

To put it simply David Belle and other members of the Yamakasi group strictly used acrobatics for fun and in training but never put emphasis on it because they believe Parkour is all about speed and efficient movement around obstacles whereas Sebastien Foucan who himself is among the pioneer practitioners of Parkour found that a little restricting from which he chose the incorporate more focus on creativity, innovation and self-expression(tricks, flips, etc) into his own way of movement coining the belief of "following your own way" through movement which gave birth to Free Running making Sebastien Foucan the founder of Free Running(not parkour).

Overview[edit]

Freerunning was inspired by parkour and developed by Sebastien Foucan. It spread among urban teenagers who sought to find their "own way" through creativity of movement many of whom have posted videos on Wikipedia:YouTube showing their different techniques in pursuit and practice of free running. Freerunning is considered by the parkour practicants to be inefficient and not parkour. They may jump from building to building, scale walls, etc. Initially, the term was used by Wikipedia:Channel 4 in their documentaries called 'Wikipedia:Jump London' and 'Wikipedia:Jump Britain' in an attempt to "translate" the word parkour to the English-speaking population.

While Freerunning and parkour share many common techniques, their fundamental difference is in philosophy and intention. The main aim of parkour is the ability to quickly access areas that would otherwise be inaccessible and the ability to escape pursuers, which means clearing obstacles as efficiently as they can.

Basic movements[edit]

See also: List of flips

Please note that technically "basic movements" does not apply to the philosophy of free running since it(freerunning) is based on "follow your way" methodology of movement created by Sebastien Foucan meaning that each individual free runner can move in any manner or apply any technique of their choosing to their movement while in motion hence the emphasis on creativity, innovation and self-expression. This therefore means that there are not any "basic movements" since each individual free runner can create his/her own movements in other to "follow their(your) way".

Moves specific to freerunning are not easy to define, as most freerunners use a combination of Wikipedia:street stunts, parkour and techniques from other disciplines(capoeira, breakdancing, etc). One's own method of freerunning can focus on freedom and beauty of movements, so many parkour techniques, such as vaults, may be carried out in a more aesthetically pleasing way, despite the fact that it may decrease the efficiency of the move.

Street stunts tend to be performed in space , whereas freerunning movements tend to involve the use of obstacles or the general idea of movement from one place to another.

Due to the nature of freerunning, moves can be subject to the environment as well as ones own interpretation. Because of this there is virtually a limitless amount of "moves" one can perform. Some basic examples of movements which are more likely to be classed as freerunning moves than parkour or street stunts include:

For the list of Parkour Basic Movements see:

Main article: Parkour
Name Description
Dash Vault Vaulting your body over a platform with your legs out in front of you, using your arms for forward momentum.
Diving Frontflip/Eagle Flip/Superman Flip A frontflip is executed over a wall or other obstacle, usually with a large drop on the other side. It is referred to as a diving frontflip (or dive front) because the athlete is required to dive over the obstacle before initiating the tuck.
Dive Roll When jumping, dive body forward landing into a roll on ground.
Kong Vault/Monkey Vault Vaulting your body over a railing or platform using your palms for momentum to push off.
Reverse Kong Vault Instead of vaulting over a railing with a Monkey Vault, which may be the most efficient way, the athlete adds a 360 degree spin along the horizontal axis to make the movement more aesthetically pleasing, as well as increasing their coordination.
Turn Vault Vaulting over a wall or platform while turning your body 180 degrees to jump down.
Wikipedia:Wall Flip The traceur runs to a wall, takes one or more steps up the wall and does a backflip off of the wall.
Wall Spin The traceur runs to a wall, jumps, places both hands on the wall, and vertically rotates 360 degrees while remaining in contact with the wall. Pushing off with one hand helps the rotation.

Freerunning and parkour[edit]

Another contentious issue that continues to either rift or strengthen the bond between the parkour and the freerunning communities is the idea of professional and amateur competition. From the start the parkour community has been always against the idea of serious competition as it violates the foundations of the philosophy of parkour. Sebastien Foucan mentions in an interview that although they do hold competitions, he doesn't like competition, and it's not "his way", but it may be someone else's "way".[26]

The perceived conflict between freerunning and parkour occurred when the term parkour was translated as freerunning for the English-speaking public, and the perception arose that they were separate disciplines. Some state that freerunning is a variation on parkour, and that the definitions are interchangeable. This argument has validity due to the fact that the creators never specifically defined the disciplines as "separate". Another issue with the competition aspect in parkour or freerunning is its focus on not only your physical ability, but also your mental. The focus in parkour or freerunning is not only your physical ability, but as well your mental strength. The word Yamakasi is roughly translated as 'strong man, strong spirit, strong invidual', and this is the core of parkour or freerunning. A part from physical part, which consist of strength, balance, dynamism, endurance, precision, spatial awareness, and creativity and so on, it is also a spirit of being healthy, honest, sincere, helping other people, and doing any sort of challenges whenever It's in your training or in your daily life. Due this mental aspect it is extremely hard to measure how good someone is in parkour or freerunning simply because most of it can't really be measured.

When the Wikipedia:Yamakasi, a group consisting of nine original members, Yann Hnautra, Chau Belle, David Belle, Laurent Piemontesi, Sébastien Foucan, Guylain N'Guba Boyeke, Charles Perriere, Malik Diouf and Williams Belle. All of these guys had different backgrounds in both martial arts, dance, and gymnastics. In the beginning, the only name for the discipline was Wikipedia:art du déplacement which in English roughly is translated as The art of displacement. The name Wikipedia:Yamakasi, which is a Lingala word, loosely means 'Strong man, strong spirit, strong individual: physically, mentally, and ethically' which summed up the philosophy of their discipline. However, art du déplacement was not originally about movements. Physically, it included all sorts of challenges; lifting up heavy objects, throwing objects, crawling on all fours (monkeywalk) for a long period of time and so on.

As they kept on training, they started to involve movements, mainly jumps and vaults. According to Chaü Belle Dinh, in 'Generation Yamakasi' they used to play volleyball with rocks and hang each other out of Dame Du Lac by simply letting one person hang in mid air while two other people held his feet. It was never a real method of training in the beginning but soon it evolved and the media got interested.

Later on, David and Sebastien split from the group, and David called his discipline parkour, and Sebastien called his freerunning. Internet debates and wars about the names started and it became very unclear about the real difference between the three names and/or if there was any difference between them at all. Some people claimed that parkour was about efficient movements while freerunning was about self-expression.

However, In the beginning, many of the founding members - Including David Belle - had a background in gymnastics, martial arts, and dancing, and used movements such as Wikipedia:Palm spin since day one, but this was, however, only for fun, and their focus in their training was on useful movements. One of the misconceptions is that freerunning is street acrobatics. In various Rendevouz meetings with Parkour Generations the founders have stated various times that they do not care about the names and definitions and that the focus should rather be the training itself, and most importantly the spirit of parkour, (strong man strong spirit, strong individual: physically, mentally, and ethically') rather than wasting time and energy on debates about names and definitions.

Moves[edit]

  • Stress Flip * Sideflip * Wall flip * Cat Leap * Double Kong * Kong * Triple Cork * Double Cork * Back Handspring * Front Handspring * Arabian * Frontflip * Double Backflip * Btwist / Butterfly Twist * Double Leg * Aerial / No Handed Cartwheel * Backflip * Flash Kick * Cheat Gainer * Gainer * Corkscrew [27]


Stress flip[edit]

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Stress flip

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A Stress Flip is a Wikipedia:flip or kick where the individual leaps into the air and then rotates sideways while the entire right or left side of his body remains parallel to the floor. The individual doing the Stress Flip should rotate 180-360 degrees without breaking their relation to the floor. right|Stress Flip

History[edit]

The Stress Flip was first created by bboy Stress Boogie (Benito J. Gallardo) from the Knucklehead Zoo/Super Cr3w in 2000[28]. Stress described the flip as mimicking the movement of a skater’s board while doing a pop shove-it.

Variations[edit]

The flip is primarily used in bboying[29] but has also migrated into free running[30] and tricking[31].

Frisbee[edit]

The hand is used to perform a quick hop. In this style the person lands back on their hand instead of their feet and usually continues with their momentum into a power-move e.g. flair or windmill. This variation was first created by Steve Corral from the Knucklehead Zoo in 2004

In popular culture[edit]

Template:Unreferenced section

Film

Listed by year of release.

Television

Listed by year of release.

Video games

Listed by year of release.

Music videos
  • Wikipedia:Bon Jovi has a teenager using elements of parkour and freerunning to get to a party in the video "It's My Life."
  • Wikipedia:Eric Prydz has released a video for his song "Proper Education", which features freerunner Daniel Ilabaca from Team Dragon.
  • Madonna has released a video for her song "Jump", which features parkour and freerunning extensively throughout.[35] Also her music video "Wikipedia:Hung Up" contains some clips of freerunning. For Madonna's Confessions tour, freerunning is heavily used for the choreography of the single "Jump". Freerunner Levi Meeuwenberg has stated on Jump City: Seattle that he started out as one of the freerunners on Madonna's tour.
  • Wikipedia:3 Doors Down has Gabriel Nunez, a freerunner from Wikipedia:Team Tempest, preventing a car accident in the video "It's Not My Time."
  • Die Trying's 2003 debut single "Oxygen's Gone" was accompanied by a music video that chronicles a group of freerunners.
  • Wikipedia:Since October's 2010 single "The Way You Move" features Texas-based traceur Matthew Lee Willis.
  • Wikipedia:The Blackout's single "Higher and Higher" features a free-runner trying to save the band from a hi-jacked lorry.
Literature

References[edit]

Notes
  1. Sébastien Foucan. FREERUNNING. worldwidejam.tv. URL accessed on 2007-07-29.
  2. [www.freerunningtv.com/films/history-how-it-all-began/ History: How It All Began | Freerunning TV]. Freerunningtv.com. URL accessed on 2010-09-16. Template:Dead link
  3. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0IdTZHOic&
  4. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY615yuUgmQ
  5. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QsvFptvy1k&
  6. 6.0 6.1 David Belle or PAWA Team, or both. English welcome â€” Parkour Worldwide Association. Archived from source 2005-05-08. URL accessed on 2007-05-12.
  7. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBe5Zv1WhMI
  8. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuEXwRXqfQ0&
  9. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv0nqnkA71c&
  10. www.worldwidejam.tv/Foucan/Foucan.1.parkour.html
  11. www.foucan.com
  12. www.amazon.co.uk/Freerunning-Find-Your-Sebastien-Foucan/dp/1843173301
  13. www.worldwidejam.tv/Foucan/Foucan.1.parkour.html
  14. www.foucan.com
  15. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freerunning-Find-Your-Sebastien-Foucan/dp/1843173301
  16. [www.foucan.com/ Foucan]
  17. www.worldwidejam.tv/foucan.jam.parkour.html
  18. www.worldwidejam.tv/foucan.jam.parkour.html
  19. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0IdTZHOic&
  20. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0IdTZHOic&
  21. www.worldwidejam.tv/Foucan/Foucan.1.parkour.html
  22. www.foucan.com
  23. www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/20/sebastien-foucan-founder-free-running
  24. www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/20/sebastien-foucan-founder-free-running
  25. www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jul/20/sebastien-foucan-founder-free-running
  26. "ez". Sébastien Foucan interview. urbanfreeflow.com. Archived from source 2007-07-13. URL accessed on 2007-07-29.
  27. List of Moves UK
  28. http://www.listofmoves.co.uk/2012/06/26/stress-flip/
  29. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bboying
  30. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_running#Free_running
  31. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_martial_arts#Extreme_martial_arts
  32. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_%28acrobatic%29#Tucks
  33. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_%28acrobatic%29#Layouts
  34. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_%28acrobatic%29#Layouts
  35. Madonna's video for "Jump". YouTube. URL accessed on 2010-09-16.

See also[edit]

External Links[edit]