A l i c j a C h y ł a
LE PARKOUR – SPORT, FASHION
OR A SUBCULTURE?
In various areas of social life we encounter young people whose behaviour seem unexplainable, strange or weird. In this text I would like to describe the relatively new in Poland, but already popular in Western Europe, youth social phenomena, such as le parkour and free running (with more attention to parkour). Parkour is an art of moving, which aims at reaching one point from another, possibly in a straight line, the fastest possible and in a most eff ective way, using the possibilities of hu-man body and the surrounding objects1. Freerun is a similar discipline, coming from parkour, which adds spectacular acrobatic tricks. In the streets of Polish cit-ies it is an increasingly popular phenomena to see people running and fl uently going past any obstacles – rails, walls and stairs. In this text, I will try to defi ne what parkour and free run are – sports, a fashion, a subculture or a social movement. I will also try to present a specifi c philosophy which is unbreakably connected with parkour and constitutes its integral part, as well as the members’ values and norms coming from the philosophy.
1. Short history
As an eff ect of my eff orts in recognising the state of the matter comes a picture of parkour which, simultaneously, shows evidently how many studies or short texts (mainly on the Internet) have already been published on the subject. In the
ning, I will present the history of parkour. It came into being in 1988, in Lisses, France, on the outskirts of Paris. Its creators are David Belle and Sebastien Foucan, who accompanied by seven friends founded a group called “Yamakasi” (the word supposedly comes from the Lingala language and means a tough spirit, tough will)2 and the name parkour, which is a transformation of the word parcours, which in French means a trail, a passage, and in free translation “free running”. Th e one that practices parcour is called a traceur (male) or a traceuse (female). Th e word denotes a person that sets trails3. Nevertheless, the creation of the “Yamakasi” group was not the direct beginning of the sport. We should start from a person important for parkour, even mythologised – the father of David Bell – Raymond, an Euroasian, who was born in 1939 in Indochina. His father was murdered, and he was sepa-rated from his mother in riots. He was incorposepa-rated by the French Army into the group of children in the Dalat formation, where he was given military education. In the country at war, he exercised his physical fi tness, which began to sore beyond the norm. Having been repatriated to France, he joined the Fire Brigade in Paris, where he was rewarded for courage numerous times4. David Belle took example from his father and from the kind of movements exercised by him, “You must understand that this art was created by a few soldiers in Vietnam. To run away or to understand: In parkour there is a spirit worth sustaining. You must diff erentiate between what is useful and what isn’t in emergency”5. Apart from that, parkour was based on the “natural method” by Georges Hebert, who in the twenties of the twentieth century defi ned the rules to follow when teaching children physical education. It is about using the “human machine” by doing only such movements that it has been designed for. Herbert claims that “running is for a human the fi rst and the most important exercise (…) It is a basic exercise, even a fundamental one”. Other movements add up to a sequence – marching, jumping, walking “on all fours”, climbing and balance exercises. Herbert also believed that such exercises should take place outside6.
2 M. Wasilewska, Parkour, czyli sztuka przemieszczania się – wywiad z Robertem Grzanką “Belką”, http://miasta.gazeta.pl/lodz/1,35153,4663078.html.
3 P. Kalina, Słownik francusko-polski, Warszawa 1949.
4 Inicjator Raymond Belle, J. Belle (ed.), http://www.sportmediaconcept.com/parkourPL/index. phpsubaction=categorie&id_categorie=76666; Sierżant Belle, W. Semczuk (ed.), http://www.sport-mediaconcept.com/parkourPL/index.phpsubaction=categorie&id_categorie=76801.
5 M. Wasilewska, op.cit.
6 Metoda naturalna (Charakterystyka przedstawionej pracy), W. Semczuk (ed.), http://www.spor-tmediaconcept.com/parkourPL/index.php?subaction=categorie&id_categorie=76801.
Th e friends from the “Yamakasi” group began in time to appear in television programmes and in shows7. A few years later, they were noticed by the director Luc Besson, and he decided to make a fi lm with their appearance, showing their phys-ical possibilities. (“Yamakasi: Th e Samurai of the Modern Age”, 2001). however, due to a misunderstanding concerning the fi lm, the group fell apart. Th e fi lm tells the story of the “Yamakasi” stealing from the rich and dishonest doctors to help an ill boy. Bell, though, did not want to promote stealing. Nevertheless, the fi lm was a breakthrough for the popularity of parkour in the world. In England, documen-taries such as “Jump London” and “Jump Britain” appeared, as well as another French fi lm “Th e Sons of the Wind”8. Presently, it is possible to fi nd hundreds of pages devoted to parkour on the Internet, as well as topic forums or short fi lms.
At some moment, though, the paths of the fathers of parkour wandered apart. Initially, the words free run and parkour were synonyms. However, Foucan added to the movements spectacular elements, creating free running, and Belle found it pointless. Foucan stated then that Belle wants to monopolise the truth, “I don’t want to be tied with some Boss or with people that know the Truth”9. As an example of such monopolising can serve the quote from Jean Francois Belle (David’s brother): “We are going to integrate Parkour (…) so that every one of us and all together could talk about one and the same Parkour”10.
Th e phenomenon has already been an object of research. Claire Calogirou, from the Centre of French Ethnology, got interested in parkour as a part of her work concerned with the social use of public space. She claims that it was created from the strength of will and personal search of Belle, which were based on the strong image of his father, connected with the desire to continue his creation, as well as from school boredom. David, who had exercised in school gyms since childhood, wanted to fulfi ll his passion everywhere, in all its might. Calogirou thinks that parkour has numerous followers since they have been spellbound by the move-ments that stretch beyond the norm11.
Parkour has also began to institutionalise. Th e team surrounding Belle started to organise courses, they cooperate, among others, with the French Ministry of
7 David Belle i le Parkour, historia rodzinna, W. Semczuk (ed.), http://www.sportmediaconcept. com/parkourPL/index.php?subaction=categorie&id_categorie=76801.
8 Arvind Junejo, op.cit.
9 A. Zuljevic, Wywiad z twórcą Freerunningu, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=art&id=35. 10 Zeric, Wywiad z bratem Davida Belle’a, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=art&id=37. 11 PK- akrobatyczny podbój przestrzeni miejskiej, W. Semczuk (ed.), http://www.sportmediacon-cept.com/parkourPL/index.php?subaction=categorie&id_categorie=76801.
Sports12. An international organisation, Parkour Worldwide Association (PAWA), has been created, which, since October 2006, is also present in Poland13.
Parkour has not remained “untouched”, popular culture has began to “vacuum” it inside, just like all the fresh and new elements that appear in the youth culture. Belle has taken part in music videos, and in fi lms (“Th e 13th District”)14. Foucan starred in a recent Bond production (“Casino Royale”), and accompanied Ma-donna on her last concert road15. Moreover, sponsors appeared, companies that launched clothes for the ones that practice the sport16. Accompanying the phenom-ena, inevitable confl icts arose, accusations of commerce and losing the initial val-ues connected with parkour17.
2. Parkour in Poland
Now I would like to refer to the situation in Poland. Th e fi rst teams of traceurs started to appear in 2001, once the fi lm “Yamakasi” reached Polish market18. Pres-ently, parkour has become more popular, nevertheless, it remains a marginal phe-nomenon. Its popularity can be illustrated by national meetings and workshops. Th is year, in Wrocław, the Polish Parkour Meeting was held for the third time (11.07.2008)19. Polish traceurs can also take part in free workshops in France20. Moreover, an Internet paper, e-parkour21, was created. Th e ones that do parkour and free run are mainly school and university students, usually aged from fi ft een to over twenty. Some of them have also got their sponsors22. A traceur character has been used in a television commercial (Era – Blue Connect). Additionally, the phenomenon makes its presence into the media, press articles can be noticed23 and 12 Powstaje Krajowy Związek Parkour, J. Belle (ed.), http://www.sportmediaconcept.com/parko-urPL/index.php?subaction=categorie&id_categorie=76675.
13 http://www.overground.com.pl/.
14 Philipek, Recenzja fi lmu “13. Dzielnica”, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=art&id=22. 15 A. Zuljevic, op.cit.
16 http://www.overground.com.pl/. 17 Arvind Junejo, op.cit.
18 http://muzyka.onet.pl/dosdedos/1257966,2648,artykul.html. 19 http://ozp.parkour.wroclaw.pl.
20 Philipek, Ruszyły zapisy na ADD Academy, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=new-s&id=631.
21 www.e-parkour.pl.
22 http://raptor.powernet.pl/~arvind/v2.0/indexx.php. 23 http://lodz.naszemiasto.pl/wydarzenia/790490.html
television features24, which results in confl icts whether it causes is commercialisa-tion.
In Poland, a discussion is also alive on the confl ict between Belle and Foucan, parkour and free run, “Belle (…) emphasised that acrobatics and showing off do not belong to parkour. Th ey only slow the run down (…). Presently, it is common to believe that we can freely interpret and modify the ideology”25. Th e opponents criticise treating Belle as a kind of “consortium that defi nes the standards of park-our. Everyone of us (…) is able to create an entirely own (…) view concerning what Parkour is”26, “… in parkour I am limited by the philosophy of the sport and by its founder (…). Freerunning has remained what it was before, whereas I have noticed negative changes in parkour, which could be compared to the process of setting up a company and creating its image. David (…) has made himself the boss of the whole phenomenon and reserved the name parkour for himself. Freerunning is an art in which we move among sports and we learn what we want”27. An Internet action was even initiated, called “Know Parkour and 3run”, which is aimed at ex-plaining the diff erences to the practitioners28.
It is diffi cult for me to specify how many traceurs there are in Poland. Over six thousand users are registered to the biggest Internet forum29. Understandingly, not all the forum users must be active practitioners. Apart from that, a considerable turnover can be noticed here, since a lot of people practice only for some time, usually in the summer, and then quits. In the Wrocław forum about four hundred people are registered30, in the Bydgoszcz one31 – almost three hundred. Yet, from what I have found, the ones practicing “for real” are about thirty in Bydgoszcz, including only about ten considerably advanced. Moreover, parkour teams are present both in all big cities (Warsaw, Łodź, Cracow)32 and smaller towns. To
il-24 Philipek, Opolski Meeting Parkour in Teleexpress, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co-=new-s&id=620, wero, Parkour i Freerun ponownie w “Pytaniu na śniadanie”, http://www.overground.com. pl/?co=news&id=615.
25 kupcyc, Manifest, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=art&id=48.
26 thaACTEone, Fenomen Davida Belle‘a, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=art&id=15. 27 M. Janikowska, Le parkour – wbrew ziemskiemu przyciąganiu, http://www.ipewu.pw.edu.pl/ index.php?d=6&art=20070429181450.
28 http://akcjaparkour.prv.pl/. 29 http://www.leparkour.pl 30 http://forum.parkour.wroclaw.pl 31 http://pk.bydgo.com
lustrate, the Tczew Internet forum includes forty registered members33, and a strong place in Poland seems to belong to the team from Augustów34.
3. An endeavour to operationalise
In the beginning I have generally defi ned what parkour is, now I would like to specify the information, although a common understanding is hardly possible to be found in this “environment”, and a lot of practitioners are against confi ning the sport to any defi nition. A famous British photographer of traceurs, Andy “Kiell” Day, claims that creating a defi nition means limiting to it, which results in lack of freedom, “We won’t tell you what Parkour is, hey, we will tell you more: no one will tell you that. Why? Everyone has their own PK, we are connected only by the com-mon basis. Consider what people say as clues and don’t expect a closed defi nition from us, cause you’ll never get one…” 35.
Nevertheless, I would like to venture into such an eff ort. Firstly, I will consider whether parkour cold be called a sport. It is a questionable matter and there is no common consent about it. A lot of people claim it is impossible because it is art, and what is most important, there is no competition in it, “In parkour, the only person you can compete with is yourself. Everyone is diff erent, even if you were the same hight, if you looked the same, you are still a diff erent person. When you manage to do some evolution it does not mean that someone else is worse. You are simply unique. If you want to be compared, compare yourself to you as you were yesterday. If you are better than yesterday, it means you are developing mentally and physically. Whereas, if you notice that you become weaker, more lazy – it means you are losing. You are losing what nature has given you”36. Nevertheless, the institutionalised attitude is diff erent. Jocelyn Demoniere, the chairman of the PAWA, claims, “Th e truth is among the two, or even three options. It is a philoso-phy, an art, and a sport. When taking competition into consideration, then no, parkour is more about cooperation than rivalry. (…) Le parkour serves you to see what are the limits you can cross. To overcome yourself. You must concentrate on yourself and work not only with your body but with your mind as well”37. ”Parkour
33 http://pk.cba.pl/.
34 www.justkeepwalking.prv.pl.
35 R. Tyczny, Le parkour, http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1394100,2679,1,1,kioskart.html. 36 Ibidem.
against competition” is a very popular slogan. Whereas free run can undoubtedly be called a sport since there are competitions held in the discipline38.
Th e encyclopedia defi nes sports as “by the rule peaceful competition, which is realised in individual or team rivalry (…) and a desire to achieve the best possible results, undertaken also for recreation and improving our own physical features”39. Of course it its one of the many possible defi nitions, it is worth noticing, though, that of the elements enumerated in the defi nition, the one that is provided as the nature of sports – competition – is not present in parkour, but in the phenomenon there is an element omitted in the defi nition – mental and spiritual self impro-vement.
Th is characteristic is connected with the aforementioned “philosophy of park-our”, the central element of which is a lack of separation between the body and the soul, which division has been preserved in Europe since Descartes40. “Parkour exercises not only body, but soul as well (…). it allows us to look wider at the world around us”41. It has been emphasised that the understanding of parkour is something more than the ability to move around, it infl uences everyday life42 and can give a new perspective on the surrounding reality: “An average person can see their path as a means of reaching the destination, and for a traceur it is a place of individual expression as a human. Looking at the world around you can see ob-stacles that can be overcome in many diff erent ways, depending on your skills. In Parkour, we do not desire to be better than others, it is about personal develop-ment. It must be understood that everyone moves in a diff erent way, so everyone will create a new defi nition of the word Parkour. (…) Stop seeing the world as a collection of obstacles, look at it as on an unlimited space”43. In addition, what seems valid here is the improvement of an individual self, setting consecutive goals and realising them in small steps. It is also connected with paying attention to health, thus it is not recommended to force yourself to competition or to check-ing your abilities44.
38 Lazarus, Mistrzostwa we freerunningu już niedługo, www.overground.com.pl/?co=new-s&id=671.
39 Wielka encyklopedia PWN, Warszawa 2005, v. 25, p. 454. 40 W. Tatarkiewicz, Historia fi lozofi i, v. 2, Warszawa 1949, pp. 70–71. 41 R. Tyczny, op.cit.
42 cAin, Filozofi a Parkouru wg Sebastiena Foucana, http://www.overground.com.pl/?co=ar-t&id=6.
43 kazz, Miejscy akrobaci, http://www.wici.info/modules.php?name=News&file=prin-t&sid=4580.
Its another feature are numerous references to the philosophy of the East. To illustrate, Foucan refers to Taoism and its concept of mutual infl uence of two con-tradictory and complementary elements yin – yang45. In this respect, it means that parkour should be a union of two movements: a fl uent one and an energetic one, between which a traceur should fi nd balance. When practicing, he should also focus more on intuition and on himself than on the surroundings. Plus, he should share his skill with others46.
It must be emphasised that among the traceurs opinions there are oft en ones talking about freedom. Th e most popular Belle’s sentence quoted by the net surfers is “We create moments of true freedom, fl ying over the obstacles that you usually go round”47. As other examples could serve: “parkour is all challenge and no limitations”48, “Parkour for me is something that allows me to live unconstrained… ”49. It seems that for many, parkour is a means of rebellion against “confi ning peo-ple to the imposed paths they are supposed to follow” 50.
It also seems important to me that you do not need a lot of money to do park-our, or expensive equipment and charged lessons. Resultantly, it expresses a kind of “economical” egalitarianism, on the other hand, though, parkour might seem an elitist sport, “ Th e fi rst contact with parkour is usually accompanied by the feeling (…) of respect towards its practitioners – it seems so original, beyond reach…”51. Th us, although the more advanced help the less skillful, a degree of exclusiveness can well serve a group and add to the feeling of uniqueness to its members. It is possible to defi ne it by an “inside” category, whose aim is to emphasise its position in a mysterious, impenetrable group contrary to the ignorants that remain “outside”52.
In the circles of parkour it is possible to notice clear divisions. It is possible to distinguish such groups that gather round the following:
− authenticity of involvement (the active and constructive vs. the ones that want to show off ,
45 M. Eliade, Historia wierzeń i idei religijnych, v. 2, Warszawa 1994, pp. 23–24. 46 cAin, op.cit.
47 Parkour – nowy sport ekstremalny, http://www.freerunning.pl/index.php?id=artykuly&arty-kul=2.
48 R. Tyczny, op.cit.
49 http://muzyka.onet.pl/dosdedos/1257966,2648,artykul.html. 50 Tash, Fanatyzm w Parkour, http://zin.e-parkour.info/13/txt/09.html.
51 M. Trzeciecka, Parkour – sztuka ciała na ulicach polskich miast (wywiad z Robertem Laskusem
– LCN), http://www.wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/parkour_sztuka_ciala_na_ulicach_polskich_
miast_11951.html.
− age or experience (the older ones vs. “kids”, so called “parkowcy”),
− expertise (the ones that understand the philosophy vs. the accidental, sea-sonal ones),
− obeying Belle’s rules (the orthodox vs. the unorthodox, free interpretation). In spite of that, I think that the phenomenon constitutes a specifi c whole, in my opinion, due to the common values of its practitioners. More oft en than not, traceu-rs talk about self improvement, creativity, imagination, which help not only in the exercises, but infl uences the whole life, as well. Th e most important, aforemen-tioned value would be freedom. Th is freedom is understood not in the negative sense – from any obligation, but in the positive sense – as creativity, a change of behaviour, and thus, an indirect, subjective change of reality. Th e movement itself is also an important value, since it makes it possible to cross the limits of a city and the body, it has a liberating meaning. Such values are connected with self expres-sion, and with fi nding one’s own “I” from social norms of expectancies. It is not about changing the world, but more about organising our own life in a meaningful way, which I would compare to the well known and worn slogan, “when changing the world start from yourself ”. What is valuable is active self fulfi llment and inter-nal life – individual creation in a city – a creation in which there are numerous forced rules. Th us, it is important to live intensively and to render it the sense of life, i.e. a signifi cant category which Barbara Fatyga called “To do something”53
I believe that it is also possible to distinguish specifi c norms of behaviour. To illustrate, when the Police or passers by react negatively to the behaviour of traceu-rs, they should politely explain to them what parkour is. Th e rules can be: friendli-ness, individual culture, helping each other. It is possible, then to see the autodi-dactism – self education of the youth.
Another interesting issue for me is whether traceurs constitute a subculture? According to Foucan54 and numerous traceurs, they do not. Th ey do not gather because of the same views, faith, material status or aesthetics (music, fashion). Such a lack of belonging is not characteristic only of this group and appears to be a wid-er phenomenon among the contemporary youth. It can be explained , among oth-ers, by the fact that today young people know more about social processes, they are more conscious of the diversity, and it is what they pay attention to. It can also result from their knowledge of previous generations, which were united by a fi ght for something, and there is no such connection now. Or maybe, what is the most important is the fact that they focus mainly on their own lives, and not on
a com-53 B. Fatyga, Dzicy z naszej ulicy. Antropologia kultury młodzieżowej, Warszawa 1999, p. 139. 54 A. Zuljevic, op.cit.
munity55. Probably, to meet today a young person that would be willing to put a label on is getting increasingly diffi cult. It is in accordance with the postmodern thinking, which puts individual values higher than the collective ones. Resultantly, an identifi cation with a group is not obvious, and the members of subcultures do not look at themselves as parts of a whole56. However, I have not defi ned the term “subculture”, yet, but trauceurs themselves might not know the scientifi c defi nition and understand subculture in a popular way. Nevertheless, is seems especially sig-nifi cant to me that a lot of them refuse such an identifi cation.
According Jerzy Wernstein-Żuławski, a subculture can be defi ned by a charac-teristic collection of cultural models that diff erentiate a particular group in soci-ety. However, the models do not regulate all activities of the group, they refer only to some instances of the activity, and they must be completed by the models of the dominant culture57. In this understanding, traceurs can be called a subculture, but they are not a counterculture, since they do not oppose the dominant culture, and they take “handfuls” from the popular culture.
Parkour seems to me a new phenomenon in the area of youth culture because it cannot be included in any of the systems of values of the subculture members diff erentiated by Barbara Fatyga. Th e fi rst system was represented by an anarchy – punk orientation and the counterculture values that belong to it – opposind the state, offi cial religion. Th ough it would share with parkour the main value of the system – freedom, and the “To do something” category, parkour does not share the counterculture values. Th e second system was represented by strictly rightist sub-cultures – the skinheads. Th e third type are entertaining values – here fun is the value, not repairing the world (skate, hip-hop)58. Nevertheless, Parkour has wider ambitions, it puts emphasis on development and self perfection. My thesis states that parkour can go “across” the systems. It is possible to say that the members of other subcultures meet here (hip-hop, punk, techno). It is also worth noticing that once subcultures were more oft en understood as integrally unifi ed wholes with clearly defi ned limits, and now it is possible to fi nd approaches that pay attention to the fl uency and changeability of subcultures, which do not necessarily have clear boundaries59.
55 H. Świda-Ziemba, Młodzież końca tysiąclecia. Obraz świata i bycia w świecie, Warszawa 2000, pp. 64–65.
56 D. Muggleton, op.cit., pp. 64–69.
57 J. Wertenstein-Żuławski, To tylko rock`n roll!, Warszawa 1990, p. 9.
58 B. Fatyga, Polska młodzież w okresie przemian [in:] Wymiary życia społecznego. Polska na
przełomie XX i XXI wieku, M. Marody (ed.), Warszawa 2002, pp. 310–311.
Parkour can also be defi ned as “a social world”. Th e members of a social world deal with a specifi c activity, have similar interests and a hermetic language (e.g. the names of techniques). Th e premises of an activity also bind it with the social world; here, it is a city and its best “spots”, technology (the Internet via which they can communicate) as well as the organisation60. Obviously, parkour is also a fashion, which will be probably increasingly popularised by the media or producers that can profi t from it.
Th e last question analysed by me is whether parkour is a social movement. Generally, a social movement is a type of a collective behaviour organised on a higher level than a crowd, for example. It is based on interaction – mainly collec-tive – and exists in accollec-tive relation to a social change. Th e existence of such an in-tense interaction (among the members, with society) characterises the described phenomenon61. However, the second issue seems problematic. In a social move-ment, the pursuit of a change should be coming from the gassroots and should be deliberate. Th e deliberate factor is not present here, it is rather a fulfi llment of a dif-ferent lifestyle. However, Piotr Gliński believes that a change does not have to be deliberate since some movements do not plan changes, it is the activity itself that matters to them. In a social movement there are also such salient elements as: the self consciousness of membership, the existence of an organisation and the unity of thoughts and aims62. Th e unity of thoughts would be a doubtful issue since traceurs fi nd some norms and values common which refer only to a part of life, whereas they do not have one ideology – a specifi c problem that wants to change, or a clearly defi ned vision of the future. Besides, it is diffi cult to call parkour a col-lective desire since it is a predominantly individual activity, and the change should take place mainly in the minds of the individuals. In spite of the fact, then, that parkour agrees with some of the above characteristics, I believe that it cannot be called a social movement.
Th is text has an introductory character. It describes a particular fragment of youth culture, but it needs development. Th e topic will become in time the subject of serious studies and research. Th e issues that interest me the most are the ap-proach to the body and perceiving it as “untied” with the mind, as well as the social usage of space. Th e both spheres can be studied from the point of view of
human-60 T. Szlendak, Techno-dzieci końca ery industrialnej, “Studia Socjologiczne” 1994, no. 1, pp. 128– –129.
61 P. Gliński, Polscy Zieloni: ruch społeczny w okresie przemian, Warszawa 1996, pp. 18–19. 62 Ibidem, pp. 21–25.
istics, it is worth remembering that the models of body and space management are socially sanctioned.
Namely, the space can be understood not only geometrically, but studied includ-ing the humanistic factor. Th e city of traceurs does not limit, but it constitutes a challenge. Th ey break the old social believes as to the proper usage of various objects, thus they are sometimes called vandals. Th is is how new cultural models of some behaviour come into being. Th e issue of the body is neither just an em-pirical fact. I would like to emphasise the existent, to my mind, connection of parkour with celebrity, with the sphere of sacrum, as well as the fact that it is a means to realise goals outside sports. I am interested here in the complete, undi-vided and multidimensional approach to a human. It would be worth comparing parkour to other activities that take humanity as a whole. It is possible to enumer-ate here some Eastern martial arts, in which, like in parkour, it is the spiritual side, intuition and overcoming personal weaknesses that count. To illustrate, in the Japanese samurai martial art of Budo, or in the Buddhist tradition the aim is to experience satori – i.e. to overcome dualism. Karate is supposed to be a path where elements of yoga and Zen meditation are used, whereas sumo makes the contact of a human with the spirit possible63. I would also like to consider whether sport activity infl uences the shaping of traceurs’ attitudes, since such an activity is oft en understood as an educational means, one that develops personality, shapes positive attitudes, persistence, the ability to overcome diffi culties, one that develops active-ness and responsibility64.
Additionally, it would be worth checking whether the declared philosophy is refl ected in the actual attitudes of traceurs. It is also possible to deal with the atti-tude of the practitioners to some specifi ed categories, such as religion, patriotism, money, family and politics, and to study whether, due to the shared activity, similar values are born or if the activity is chosen by people of similar evaluation criteria. Will this category create in time a system of related convictions that cover most areas of life? Parkour is a phenomenon imported from the West by popular culture. It evokes a consideration, then, whether there is its Polish specifi city, which ele-ments have been saved, and which ones have been “lost”.
63 J. Sieradzan, Sport między sacrum a szaleństwem [in:] Edukacja poprzez sport, Z. Dziubdziński (ed.), Warszawa 2004, pp. 127–129.
64 H. Zdebska, Edukacja przez grę – edukacją społeczną [in:] Edukacja poprzez sport, Z. Dziub-dziński (ed.), Warszawa 2004, pp. 127–129.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y :
Eliade M., Historia wierzeń i idei religijnych, v. 2, Warszawa 1994.
Fatyga B., Dzicy z naszej ulicy. Antropologia kultury młodzieżowej, Warszawa 1999. Fatyga B., Polska młodzież w okresie przemian [in:] Wymiary życia społecznego. Polska na
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SUMMARY
Th is article describes the relatively new in Poland but already widespread in Western Eu-rope, youth social phenomena – le parkour and free running (with emphasis on parkour).
Parkour is the art of movement whose aim is to reach one point from another, possibly in
a straight line as fast and eff ective as possible, using the body and the surrounding objects.
Freerun, however, is a derivative discipline, which adds spectacular , acrobatic tricks to parkour. In this text I will describe the origin of this discipline, I will present the situation
of Poland and I will try to defi ne what parkour and free run are – a sport, a fashion, a sub-culture or a social movement. I will also try to present the specifi c philosophy which is an integral part of parkour, and the values and norms resulting from this philosophy.
