Parkour

Parkour (French pronunciation: ​[paʁˈkuʁ]) (abbreviated PK) is a training discipline that developed out of military obstacle course training.
Practitioners aim to move from one place to another, negotiating the obstacles in between. The discipline uses no equipment and is non-competitive. A male practitioner is generally called a "traceur", a female a "traceuse".
Developed by Raymond Belle,David Belle, Sébastien Foucan and other members of the original Yamakasi group, parkour became popular in the 1990s and 2000s through a series of documentaries and films featuring these practitioners and others.
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Etymology
"Le parcours" was the original word passed down to David Belle from his father Raymond Belle. This was the term Raymond used when speaking to David about the training hehad done. The term derives from "parcours du combattant", the classic obstacle course method of military training proposed by Georges Hébert, but the term "le parcours" was used by Raymond to encompass all of his training including climbing, jumping, running, balancing, and the other methods he undertook in his personal athletic advancement. One day when David Belle was on a film set he showedhis 'Speed Air Man' video to Hubert Koundé, who suggested to change the "c" of "parcours" to a "k" because it was more dynamic and stronger, and to remove the silent "s" for the same reason. Belle liked the idea and officially changed the name of his discipline to "parkour".
A practitioner of parkour is called a "traceur", with the feminine form being "traceuse". The original term was simply"tracer" without the 'u' but the word has evolved and now is accepted as having a 'u.' They are nouns derived from the French verb "tracer", which normally means "trace", or "trail", as in "he escaped without a trace". When asked recently, David Belle said he prefers not using the 'u' because it is more efficient. This term was the name of a parkour group headed by David Belle which included StephaneVigroux.

History
Though Sébastien Foucan states in Jump London that "le parkour has always existed, freerunning has always been there, the thing is that no one gave it a name, we didn't put it in the box," the roots of the modern discipline can be traced.
In Western Europe, a forerunner of parkour was French naval officer Georges Hébert, who before World War I promoted athletic skill based onthe models of indigenous tribes he had met in Africa. He noted, "their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant but yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature." His rescue efforts during the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on Saint-Pierre, Martinique, reinforced his belief that athletic skill must be combined with courage and altruism. Hébertbecame a physical education tutor at the college of Reims in France. Hébert set up a "méthode naturelle" (natural method) session consisting of ten fundamental groups: walking, running, jumping, quadrupedal movement, climbing, balancing, throwing, lifting, self-defense, swimming, which are part of three main forces: During World War I and World War II, Hébert's teaching continued to expand,becoming the standard system of French military education and training. Thus, Hébert was one of the proponents of "parcours", an obstacle course, which is now standard in the military training and led to the development of civilian fitness trails and confidence courses.
Born in what is now Vietnam in 1939, Raymond Belle was the son of a French doctor and Vietnamese mother. He was cut off from hisparents by the struggle for independence and sent to a military orphanage at the age of 7. Isolated there, he had to become stronger in order to survive. He took it upon himself to train harder and longer than everyone else in order to never be a victim. He would do extra training at night when everyone else was asleep, go for runs, climb trees. He would use the military obstacle courses in secret,...