Parkour and Freerunning, Whats the difference?

Author: Drew Taylor

Parkour - the art of displacement is an art with the aim of
moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as
possible, but is Freerunning the same thing?

Parkour and Freerunning are different but not entirely. Parkour
was developed prior to freerunning by David Belle. It consists
of vaults and jumps. The deep philosophy behind parkour is not
be controlled by your surroundings, which most people are. The
have to walk along certain designated paths to get from A to B,
but by using parkour there are no architectural boundaries and
your path is free for you to choose.

It is not certain whether freerunning was initially supposed to
be different to Parkour. The word 'freerunning' was first
developed by Sebastein Foucan in order to make the word
'parkour' more accessible to an English-speaking audience. But
freerunning now does differ slightly from parkour; the freerun
philosophy is less about choosing your own path but more about
fun and creativity. Freerunning involves somersaulting, flipping
and flaring.

Some people say that Parkour and Freerunning are the same
thing, and that parkour is a way of thinking and training, which
helps you get from A to B as quickly and efficiently as
possible, the vaults and jumps used are only by-products of this
way of thinking and method to develop one's spirit and inner
strength.

Now the differences between the two are getting even more
confusing with the input of wushu, street stunts, grass
gymnastics and tricking. Generally though, all these sports are
being incorporated with freerunning more than parkour because of
the more creative and open to change nature and philosophy of
Freerunning.

Parkour and freerunning are very young sports and are still
developing. The philosophy and difference between parkour and
freerunning have many schools of thought surrounding them and
all of which are valid.

There is one thing for sure; Parkour and Freerunning are
extremely different to any other sport before them.

Visit http://www.parkour-online.c
om for more information
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About the author:
I am a freerunner/Traceur and I have been since the end of 2006
which doesn't seem very long but I have improved quickly thanks
to my history of professional trampolining since 2004 and i had
been the south east regional champion in my category in my first
year.