by Ashley Stevens

Created on: February 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 03, 2007

Parkour, or freerunning, is the art of movement'. Although this kind of movement had been executed for many years before, David Belle was the first person to apply a philosophy to it. Essentially, Parkour is finding and taking the most efficient route from A to B and utilizes vaults, leaps and general innovative motion.

Let's take a look at some of the moves you might see a traceur (practitioner of Parkour) executing:

Vaults:
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(King)Kong Traceur leaps hands forward, planting palms on obstacle and extending body horizontally whilst pushing backwards with hands to increase bodies forward motion and spontaneously swinging legs through position where hands where initially planted.

Dash Traceur runs at obstacle to gain momentum and leaps feet first above the object, extending legs in front of themselves and bringing thighs as close to abdomen as possible without bending knees creating a sitting stance above the object. Hands are planted on obstacle below traceur and pushed backwards to propel him/her forwards over the obstacle.

Lazy Traceur runs or stands close to obstacle, leaps in air leaning to one side, places one hand on obstacle and flicks legs over the side of the obstacle to clear it and then releases hand.

Two handed Exactly like the lazy, with two hands planted instead of one.

Thief Like the dash, but the traceur approaches the obstacle almost parallel to it, plants a hand before the leap, swings legs through and shifts weight to other hand, pushing off whilst removing the first.

Pop Traceur runs at obstacle which is taller than normal, leaps, plants a foot on it (sometimes more in a running motion if obstacle is substantially high see wall run), pops vertically off of the foot plant whilst placing hands on top of wall and flicking over.

360 Traceur runs at obstacle, places two hands on it and pushes of whilst conducting a 180 degree spin, then completes the other 180 rotation when clear of the obstacle.

360 one handed As above, but with one hand.

360 Reverse Like a normal 360, but instead of the front of the traceur leading into the rotation, their back does.

One hand 360 reverse- As above, but with one hand.

Turn Vault Traceur runs at obstacle, plants hands and flicks over it conducting a 180 degree turn and landing on the other side in a cat leap position (see cat leap).

Pops and wall runs:
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Wall run vertical Traceur runs at wall and leaps, planting a foot and pushing vertically up whilst planting second foot and/or first foot again several times to scale wall. Heights of up to fifteen feet have been achieved with this method!

Tic Tac Like its vertical cousin, but traceur runs towards wall at an angle and plants feet several times to propel him/herself horizontally along wall, usually over an obstacle perpendicular to wall.

Leaps and jumps:
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Cat leap Traceur runs at wall, leaps feet first plants feet at top of wall nanoseconds before grabbing ledge or top of wall with hands.

Precision- Traceur jumps from a wall to a rail, rail to rail, rail to wall etc. and stays balance on landing.

Misc
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Under bar Traceur runs, leaps and grabs a bar and swings legs followed by body through, releases hands and lands.

But Parkour is not about set moves, and there are many combinations and variations invented all the time.

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