Overflux traceur, Westfury, takes us on a journey to define the constituent parts of parkour. In this in-depth article, he discusses the notion that parkour can be separated into five key elements. These elements are safety, tricking, flow, community and philosophy.

This is a long article, at over 2000 words, so it has been broken up into several pages which have been split at convenient breaks.

Introduction

Most definitions of parkour are immediately lacking in two regards. Firstly, they are exclusive and describe a mere brand or branch of parkour which a few traceurs practice, rather than the totipotent parkour which all traceurs experience. The second shortcoming is that they are intended for the non-practitioner "the voyeurs of parkour," rather than the traceur.

When asked "What is parkour"? we compromise ourselves, and claim "the Art of Movement." That is a fine pitch to throw at hack reporters, friendly TV producers, or suspicious figures of authority: anything to escape the label of "skateboarding without the board." However, "the Art of Movement" is simply chief in the tribe of shallow and voyeuristic definitions of parkour. Its lease is expired and it is time we returned it to the true and worthy artists of movement, dancers, and reconciled our own way.

Certainly being so new makes the difficulty in defining parkour understandable. All parkour is tentative knowledge, on and above the streets. And so all traceurs are participants on, and in, the research stage of parkour. But now the importance and urgency of the task of definition is becoming clearer. How can we explain parkour if we do not understand it? Of what use is a definition of parkour if it does not help the traceur to advance? And of what use is a definition that cannot celebrate and unify our multifaceted and greatly splintered game?

For two thousand words let's abandon hear say, as well as personal and clannish bias, and examine what our very own senses have told us about parkour.

The game of parkour is traveling from point A to point B by means of traditional running influenced by five elements - each of which can dominate the participants' movement at different times. The term "elements" has been chosen as a starting point because of its familiarity. Each of us has some experience with them whether they be the literal Four Elements of Ancient Greece (Earth, Water, Fire, Air) or the hypermodern Four Elements of Hip Hop (Breaking, MC'ing, Dj'ing, Graffiti). Those metaphors were used because they helped describe complex interacting systems. Parkour it seems demands an even subtler representation, one more akin to the Ancient Chinese elemental system "Wu Xing" wherein the Five Elements represent five properties whose relationship is constantly changing. Each property dominating at different times. Parkour's Five Elements operate in a similar manner, in constant flux, each with its opportunity to support, resist, generate, and dominate during the course of a traceur's running and overall progression.

There is contradiction within the system of parkour's Five Elements - by necessity, not chance. This should not be considered extraordinary. On the contrary, what is amazing is that traceurs who are eager to accept the physical contradiction of using obstacles to move, are vehemently opposed to and frustrated by semantic contradictions!

The indispensable and evolving properties of parkour and the Five Element traceur are: Safety, Tricking, Flow, Community, and Philosophy.

Next Page: The Element of Safety

article index
page 1 - current : Overview
page 2 : Element of Safety
page 3 : Element of Tricking
page 4 : The Element of Flow
page 5 : Element of Community
page 6 : Element of Philosophy
page 7 : Conclusion