WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

[hillexallen]

What is the difference between parkour, freerunning, and other branches of the art of movement?

Just write down your thoughts here!

[Just Steve]

Seems to me that Free Running uses Parkour techniques.

Free Running has an emphasis on freedom of movement (tricks, flips, whatever you feel like doing, etc.) which includes Parkour techniques/movements.
Parkour emphasizes efficiency of movement.
Free Runners may be efficient at times... Traceurs/Traceuses concerned with being efficient all the time. oh heck...It is just a label. Don't worry about it. Go have fun!

[hillexallen]

Well, I've been thinking about this a lot in the past couple of weeks.

Of course there are some minor differences between parkour and freerunning. Parkour focuses on efficiency, while freerunning focuses on flare.

But I think we have forgotten that we are all practitioners of the same art- the art of movement.

We all have the same goals: to accomplish strength in the body, mind, and spirit.

We all strive to achieve fluid movement, we all work on coordination and agility, we all practice overcoming obstacles, we all strive to conquer our fears.

So, as an art, it is all one thing. The only difference is the mindset.

I think that parkour and freerunning have become too divided. We should all remember that we are all trying to acheive a common goal, we just choose different ways of getting there.

[SafeNSure]

Sebastien Foucan, founder (or should we say "inventor"?) of Freerunning knows the difference: in his famous 007-Casino Royal foot chase he's not fooling around with pretty/inefficient "moves".
In fact that scene has been nominated one of the 10 best Bond's moments ever as...

...THE PARKOUR CHASE
After Bond earned his 007 licence with a couple of cold-blooded kills, Casino Royale really took off with the helter-skelter parkour chase - an acrobatic relative of free running - in Madagascar. Daniel Craig's Bond chased a bomb maker into a construction site, up a building, onto a crane then back to the ground again. As in the best Bond scenes, there is time for a sly joke when the bomb maker slides niftily through a high window and, instead of following, 007 just smashes through a wall.

After the villain reaches his embassy, Bond coolly kills him and blows up half the building to escape. "In the old days, if an agent did something that embarrassing, he'd have the good sense to defect," says a furious M. "Christ, I miss the Cold War."

[check the other 9 best moments on The Sidney Morning Herald... for Bond fans: Quantum of Solace debuting 11/14...]

[Pyromatic]

I have had trouble deciphering the two definitions until I read this article.

http://www.bworldonline.com/BW102808/content.php?id=162

Freerunning, or parkour, — "the art of expressing yourself in your environment without limitations," according to Foucan — involves jaw-dropping, adrenaline-fuelled leaps, flying through the air and hurtling around urban obstacles at breakneck speed.

Im not sure about other pk groups, but Baparkour certainly does not support adrenaline fuelled,jaw dropping leaps, nor hurtling around urban obstacles at breakneck speed. I can see why this group puts special emphasis on defining what parkour is and how it should be practiced safely.

[Philosofist]

Parkour: A language of movement developed for efficiency not able to be defined by words but more by the actions, thoughts, and emotions of traceurs. To know what it is, you become what it is.

Freerunning: Running Free. Free(style)running "Freedom of movement."

[Philosofist]

Alex, it doesn't matter the definition or differences, so long as you are practicing an art of movement, and you enjoy it, then the name is no more important than the art. You should post your reply in your discussion prompt, it will for one, lower conflicts, two better understanding, and three, bridge the gaps between these three specific forms. (Parkour's philosophies remain my favourite, but the art of displacement's goal and purpose appeal to me more.)

[Philosofist]

P.S. Good post, maybe a video should be made on this, so tracuers respect freerunners, and artists, vice versa.