In the 1980’s, a French firefighter and special forces veteran named Raymond Belle would return to his home in Lisses, France. Belle had trained extensively during his career in the practice of “la méthode naturelle” (the natural method), a disciplinary training practice developed by Georges Hébert prior to the first world war with a key philosophy, “Etre fort pour être utile” (be strong, to be useful). This method of training had been adopted and developed further by the French military after the second world war, forming what would become known as “parcours du combattant” (the path of the warrior). Using these techniques and training methods, Belle was able to become an elite athlete, scaling and traversing buildings with no use of equipment.

Once Raymond returned home, he would introduce his son David and a number of friends to the training methods he had used. Fascinated by this, young David and his friends began developing these methods and adapting them to their environment. This would become the foundation of parkour as we know it.

In the late 90’s, David Belle, Sebastian Foucan and several friends and family members would form a group known as The Yamakasi, training together in an evolved form of parcours du combattant, now known as l'art du déplacement (the art of movement), they implemented acrobatic movements inspired by east asian martial arts films and culture from the likes of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Developing and respecting one’s own physical and mental wellbeing was at the core of their training philosophy, often taking this to extreme lengths to test their capabilities. The term Yamakasi is taken from the Lingala language and can mean “strong body, strong spirit, strong person”. Soon after David Belle and Sebastion Foucan would leave the group due to disagreements over various elements of the training philosophy.

The early 2000’s brought several influential pieces of media and events that would shape parkour’s history. Firstly in 2001, “Yamakasi”, a French film featuring the remaining members of The Yamakasi would release further pushing the group’s notoriety in France. 2003 saw the release of “Jump London”, a documentary featuring Sebastian Foucan and other athletes which introduced parkour to the UK and saw a release to a global audience. Jump London introduced the style of freerunning, a term created to describe a style of parkour based on creative movement and style rather than effectiveness and efficiency. Jump London would receive a sequel in 2005 called “Jump Britain”, the two films were immensely influential, introducing parkour to a global audience and are both cited as major influences by countless prominent practitioners in the sport. In 2006, “Casino Royale” would feature Sebastian Foucan in a major chase scene pushing parkour to its largest audience yet, this also had a major impact on media leading to elements of the sport appearing in film, television and video games regularly.

Several important figures and groups would begin their journey during this second generation of parkour such as Urban Freeflow (later Urban Free Flow), the second major parkour group and first dedicated parkour company, they were responsible for the freerunning world cup sponsored by Barclays, featuring in Jump Britain as well as laying the blueprint for the parkour industry. Parkour Generations were another major contributor to the parkour industry, providing the first coaching sessions in the sport. Prominent figures during this time were Tim Shieff, Daniel Illabaca, Phil Doyle and Kie Willis.

This decade saw the explosion of social media and with it parkour grew to much larger heights, in 2010 a group of friends who had trained together for years would form the most influential group since The Yamakasi, STORROR. STORROR would go on to become the number one parkour team and company in the world, creating engaging media and a clothing brand that would help carry the sport further into the future. During the 2010’s many major figures and events took place, newer companies would begin to pop up more regularly such as The Motus Projects and several coaching clubs. In 2016, parkour also became officially recognised as a sport for the first time in the UK, thanks to organisations such as our national governing body ParkourUK. Several other teams would push the boundaries of parkour such as Team Farang, featuring the likes of DomTomato and PashaTheBoss.

During this time, parkour itself also began to change and develop further, thanks to social media local and individual styles of parkour became easily accessible to inspire athletes in different parts of the world allowing the community to push parkour beyond what anyone thought possible, generating new styles and combining styles to create new and unique ways to practice parkour. The 2010’s brought us athletes such as Toby Segar, Callum Powell, DomTomato, PashaTheBoss, Joe Schandrett, Verky and countless more.

So far this decade has largely been a continuation of the last with movements being progressed and one upped, while the industry continues to grow, particularly in the coaching sphere introducing parkour to a fourth generation…