|
My Parkour Philosophy My philosophy about le parkour assumes that parkour is a sport, but more importantly that it is an art. It is a discipline. The focus of le parkour is fluidity and flow, not how high you can jump or how far you can fall. As Sebastien Foucan put it - 'anybody can do a depth jump. But the difference is in the landing. Some will hurt themselves landing badly. Others will not feel any shock because they have practiced the 'softness'. The aim of the traceur is to be the latter. Le parkour is not just an art, it's a philosophy, a way of life. "The world is your cage, the world is my playground". The traceur aims not to reach his limit, but to discover his limit, and in doing so build a new limit. Parkour is not about doing stupid and uncalculated things, there are some risks but everything is carefully calculated. Parkour is about discovering yourself - your body, your mind, your spirit. Through parkour we aim to become better by truly knowing ourselves: strengths and weaknesses. Only by learning ourselves and knowing our weaknesses can we improve ourselves. Through parkour, a true traceur trains himself to acheive physical feats; strength, endurance, fluidity, balance and control. Through vigorous exercise and training you strengthen your body. While practising parkour, a traceur also learns to face his fears, remove anxiety, release stress, build character and confidence, and finally to isolate himself from the world. A traceur does an impressive vault on for spectators nearby but to know in his own mind that he can accomplish that particular move flawlessly. In this society the human body is underused. We sit all day at desks, on couches, in cars, never working out bodies to full potential. The academic trains his mind. The athlete trains his body. The priest trains his soul. The traceur trains all of the above. The only other people who train with such intensity and variety are dedicated martial artists, such as the Shaolin monks. My thoughts about the use of the camera in parkour: There is no other way to observe yourself in a single instant of time where you have such focus, such will, exerting so much effort in a single movement as with a camera. For the camera to truly be effective, you have to forget about the camera altogether, you must concentrate entirely on your movements. The same observation of focus and concentration cannot be observed in your reflection using a mirror, because even then you are trying to focus on both your movements and your reflection, taking a factor of concentration from your movement. The camera captures you in a moment of total concentration and focus - in the zone. When you start to try see yourself from another person's perspective, you lose sight of your own actions. The camera places you in another perspective that can be viewed after you complete your movement, allowing you total dedication to the movement. The traceur should blend, assimilate into, be in harmony with the environment around him. We are not vandals, not criminals; respect peoples property and people might start respecting you. If you knock over a vase, pick it up. If you break a roof tile, ring the doorbell or leave a note. Explain to people what you are doing, most are understanding. If you break something and don't explain, expect to be chased off by police or home owners with brooms the next time you're on the property. By being in 'harmony' with the world around us we can be respected for what we do. I am not anti-authoritarian, authority keeps order. But authority is sometimes ignorant, and intolerant to the parkour philosophy. By not causing trouble with authority, we can hope that they in turn will refrain from causing us trouble. It is our responsibility as traceurs to educate the ignorant, or else we are at risk of having the physical aspect of parkour outlawed. By making spectacles of ourselves we only single ourselves out to be picked on by authority. This is the reason to keep the parkour way of life 'underground'. Le parkour is an art, a way of life, a philosophy, a way to further understanding of ourselves. This is my philosophy. Hawken |