/ As for the basic movements, a detailed explanation can be found here
On this page there are other articles too. Note that this is writtten by parkour-source.nl

Parkour comes from le parcours d’obstacles, a discipline which started at the obstacle course. This means to clear the obstacles as fast and efficient as possible. The main goal of parkour is to escape from particular dangerous or special situations, with great speed and efficiency, and without much trouble. Without putting much time in parkour you won't come far, physical training, "conditioning" your body is an important thing to do while doing parkour, you need to be strong and in a good shape. Parkour can also be seen as a lifestyle, because it affects you in every day life. Everything you learn from doing parkour, will be fitted in normal life, even when you don't know it. For example, you will be less frightened of speaking in public, or will be more helpful to other people because you have learned to be more respectful for your enviroment.

History  

Parkour was formed in France, 1987,  in the small village of Lisses, by David Belle. The inspiration to train these movements came from his father, raymond belle, who had been in vietnam in the french army. He learned to use his body to escape from danger, or save others in danger. The philosophy that lay behind it interested david, and made him train some movements when he was 15 years old. Along the way he found other people to train with, some of them still training, some of them already stopped again. They devoloped themselves for a long time, on speed, techniques, and overall control of the body. From then on, it was called parkour.

use

So, the goal is to move trough an enviroment as efficient and fast as possible. It can be used when one needs to be somewhere in time, or to save friends or relatives, or to be able to flee when in danger. With efficientcy is meant that you move with as less energy as possible, in your fastest way, depending on the situation. Focus on yourself and your movements, and try not to deal to much with the aspect of people around you, but keep in mind to have respect for them and their properties. People who practice parkour are called tracers, from which one can extract 'to trace'. Tracers look for the best ways to move, or, to escape.

Movement

The physical side of parkour stands for all the possible movements with the obstacles in your surroundings, for example rails, walls, gaps, in all different heights lengths and withs or trees and rocks in every different sizes when you are in a natural enviroment. 

The types of movement that are used have been named by the french tracers, altough names are not very important, they are only there to enlighten the movements when speaking about them. For a wider explanation about the techniques in parkour, check training and practice and browse the links.

The basic moves usually are the saut de chat, passe murraille, saut de bras, passement and the roullade. These are key movements in parkour, and should be well controlled. It's is not a strict rule to do these or to be able to do them but when you have them you have a good basis of parkour.

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