Browse through the comments of any viral parkour video and you'll likely find heated reactions from people outside the sport. The comments often ask, bewildered, why anyone would spend time and risk their safety performing these feats. Speculating about what might happen if something went wrong, or assuming some superficial desire to be the motivation.
While some comments express genuine curiosity and amazement, others reveal judgment, insecurity, and might accuse practitioners of needlessly risking their safety and the safety of others. Yet those familiar with established parkour communities — or anyone who has thought and read deeply about the practice — know there's far more depth to parkour’s what and why.
From its earliest days, even before the sport was formally defined, practitioners explored their profound connection to challenge. The community has evolved through distinct eras and approaches, with ongoing debates about the motivations and principles that should guide them. But it has always galvanised around building a culture of effort, creativity, and connection to surroundings. Celebrating sound judgement, discouraging recklessness, but also encouraging the pushing of boundaries.
Parkour is about overcoming mental and physical obstacles, seeing challenges as opportunities for growth, and developing one’s environment as a space of potential rather than limitation.
It’s generally agreed that the origins of parkour and its philosophy are born out of the works on physical education written by French naval officer Georges Hébert. The story goes that Georges was stationed on the island of Martinique during the 1902 eruption of its volcano, Mont Pelée. Around 30,000 people were killed during this disaster, but Georges observed that the native Martiniquans were much better able to escape danger than the French colonial settlers. He then set about establishing a “natural method” of training focused on building an individual’s ability to navigate environments and defend themselves — by modelling the movements demanded by manual labour or a life within a state of nature.
1. Physical component: marching, running, leaping, climbing, carrying, throwing, balancing, self-defence, and movement on all fours (quadrupédie).
2. Energetic component: endurance, rapidity, strength, resistance.
3. Moral component: courage, helpfulness.
Beyond the function of his methodology, Georges thought about its reasons and intentions. In a famous quote, he states that a person should seek to be strong to be useful — not only for themselves, but also for others. This conveys a fundamental altruistic motivation that was adopted early on by the first generations of practitioners.
David Belle and the other founding members of the group The Yamakasi — a number of whom were his cousins — began their training due to the influence of Raymond Belle, David’s father. Raymond was a French military fireman and celebrated hero. He embodied the values and physical qualities described in Hébert’s methods and passed them down to the next generation.
Additionally, popular media around the late 1980s and early 1990s — especially martial arts — had a powerful influence. Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Dragon Ball Z, and others formed a particular cultural moment. These stories of heroism, movement, and transformation combined with real-life training philosophies to inspire early practitioners.
One major influence on the formation of more contemporary thought within the sport came from Sébastien Foucan. His involvement in several documentaries introduced a new interpretation of parkour, presented under a more accessible name for English speakers: freerunning. Foucan’s training was more focused on experience and expression than on physical challenge and emergency functionality. This led to a rift in the community at the time. Many debates took place around the legitimacy of both the approach and the name itself. Some opted to differentiate the two separate focuses by name: parkour being more functional, and freerunning being more about form and style.
After the 2000s, this rift largely closed. The vast majority of contemporary practitioners now use the terms interchangeably, with “parkour” functioning as a catch-all.
So what motivates today’s practitioners? While many are still driven by the expansion of physical ability — challenging themselves both mentally and physically through precise and dynamic movement — there’s also a clear desire for expression, creativity, and the experience of progress.
Practitioners look at environments and seek to traverse them in ways they weren’t designed for, or in ways that are novel or personally intimidating. The altruism and serious contemplation of emergency scenarios has become less central. Instead, community and mutual support have taken its place. Parkour is a sport without strict prescribed boundaries. It is open and democratic. Practitioners train together and engage in collaborative creative processes. Mutual, non-competitive, and supportive practice is at its heart. Within any group out training — and even within formalised competitions — you will see athletes cheering each other on. Successes are shared. Everyone involved is invested in seeing a particular challenge, movement, or string of movements performed with mastery.
This has now led to more avant-garde approaches, where some challenge even the established norms within the sport — experimenting with movements and axes of rotation that were previously dismissed. It continues the legacy of boundary- pushing and creativity.
Parkour is notoriously hard to define. But what’s undeniable is that the motivations and philosophies behind it carry intellectual and emotional weight for everyone involved — from beginners to the most elite. It challenges the way we view urban space, the way we understand risk and fear, and the way we relate to one another. At its core, parkour is not just about movement — it’s about intent, agency, and transformation.
Written by Tom Taylor - @movementpower
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