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The history of parkour and Tracers

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In 2002, the Tracers team was founded, and in 2003 Oleg Krasnyansky traveled to France in search of a parkour mecca - the Dame Du Lac training wall in the suburbs of Paris, where he met with the founder of parkour David Belle and his team. Based on the materials brought from the trip, a plot was edited and shown in the "Namedni" program on the NTV channel, which gathered an audience of 10 million viewers, so they first learned about parkour in Russia.

Despite the fact that the "art of displacement" existed in the world since ancient times, the first prerequisites for the formation of parkour as a discipline date back to the beginning of the 20th century and are associated with the name of the French naval officer George Gebert. In 1902, during the eruption of the volcano on the island of Saint Pierre, where George Hebert was in military service, he directly participates in the organization of evacuation and rescue of more than seven hundred people. This event had a strong influence on Hebert and strengthened in him the belief that the sporting skill should be united in a person with courage and altruism.

Returning to his homeland later in France, Hebert, also inspired by the physical development of the Aborigines of Africa and other countries, creates his own training system which is called "La méthode naturelle" (Natural method), and the main principles of which he concludes in the phrase "être fort pour être Utile. " In Russian, it can be translated as "be strong to be useful". Training on this system included exercises from ten fundamental groups, among them: walking, running, jumping, movement on four limbs, climbing, working on balance and balance, throwing technique, lifting objects, self-defense and swimming. Part of the training process also included a streak of obstacles, and the modern band used in military training is the fruit of this system. "Natural method" or "Hebertism" developed during the first and second world wars, becoming the standard of the physical training system in the French army and having a significant impact on the development of sports in other countries.

Videos George Gebert:




It was during the special popularity of the training system of George Hebert that Raymond Belle was born and grows, and later his son David. Raymond Belle, the father of the future founder of parkour, was born in 1939 in Vietnam, which at that time was called Indochina. As a child, Raymond was separated from his parents. The army became his savior - he was recruited in Dalat, where he was given the opportunity to receive military education. Later Raymond Belle goes to France to finish his military training. However, he decides not to join the regiment, and at 19 summer age due to his exceptional physical form and desire to help people go to the fire brigade of Paris. Thanks to his brilliant athletic skills, Raymond becomes the regiment's champion in lifting the rope and joins an elite team that was formed only from the most agile fire fighters and took part in the most complex and risky rescue operations.

In 1973, his son, David Belle, is born. He grows up surrounded by strong people, you can say, heroes, and this in a special way shapes his character. The future founder of parkour was impressed by stories of heroism and courage heard from his grandfather, Gilbreth Kitten, a senior sergeant who once served in the firefighters of Paris. David's father, Raymond Belle, a highly qualified rescuer, who was already called "the force of nature", was an example for many young people of that time. Naturally, he had a strong influence on life and his son, David Bell.

In David woke up early interest in everything that implies a movement and activity. He achieves success in many sports disciplines and know the basics of "natural method". To some extent obeying desire to be like Raymond, David imagines a situation in which he could use his physical abilities and show courage. Thus, he trains to eventually become more agile and strong. Under the influence of his father and his own aspirations, David creates something that allows him to express himself, meets its goals and needs, and allows you to be free from all fears. The idea of ​​moving without physical limitations, a sense of freedom and life - here are some of the components of the discipline, which will later will be called "parkour".

After a while, David moved with his parents in a suburb of Paris, a town called Lisse, leaves school at 15 years. At the same time he meets people who subsequently formed a team with him "Yamakasi". Parkour popularity increases with time. "Yamakasi" begin to recognize and Luc Besson in 2001 year removes the eponymous film, which, however, is not the David - by the time he left the team. David Belle appears on the big screen later - in the year 2004 Besson shoots a film titled «13-th district," where David gets a key role.

The very word "parkour" comes from the French word "parcours", which can be translated as "mileage", "route" or "sports distance". This term was chosen by David along with his friend and actor Hubert Kunde, who helped David in the early stages of his acting career. Kunde replaced in the word "parcours" the letter "c" with "k" for original and more aggressive sounding, and the unpronounceable "s" at the end of the word was removed according to the philosophy of discipline, which implies effectiveness. The person who deals with parkour is usually referred to as the French word "traceur" ("tracer"). In the transition from the French "traceur", the "draftsman", the "tracer", the "cursor", and in other cases the "mountain sinker" and "laying the ski track" are ill.

Today, parkour is a phenomenon that is very popular all over the world and is extremely popular in film and television. Parkour is developing most actively in Russia and England, and France, especially the town of Liss, remains a cult place - the birthplace of parkour.

The starting point of the beginning of the development of parkour in Russia is considered to be the opening of the site the team «The Tracers» (1 2002 October of the year), followed by a trip to the homeland of parkour in France, undertaken Oleg Krasnyansky and during which a meeting with David Belle in 2003 year. After returning to Moscow, web-resource "The Tracers" the team added a lot of information about parkour.

Some time later team appeard in article in russian "Hooligan" magazine. Huge publication appeared in august release of the magazine and quickly attracted a lot of attention among young people. We received numerous e-mails. New parkour teams began to emerge in cities such as St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, as well as on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus.

In the summer of 2004 years, already formed part of the team led by Oleg making a second trip to the homeland of parkour, in a suburb of Liss. In addition to the lessons learned from the exercise, the result of this trip is becoming the material of the film was subsequently mounted "3 border" won in the category "Best sport videos" at the festival of extreme films, which took place in early November 2004 years.

In the same year 2004 Tracers went to premiere of «13-th district" movie in Paris and returned to Moscow with plan to organize premiere here. Finally Tracers made possible to hold "B13" premiere in Moscow 3 months earlier scheduled date. David Belle visited Moscow premiere together with Joss Demonier - President of PAWA. On the eve of the premiere party was organized where anyone had the opportunity to ask a question to the founder of parkour.

At a press conference related to the premiere, David Belle makes a statement about foundation of PAWA (Parkour Worldwide Association) - International Association of parkour and first brach - PAWA Russia. Oleg Krasnyansky founder of «The Tracers» became a head of PAWA Russia. The emergence of PAWA was to give impetus to the development of parkour around the world and reflect the true essence of the discipline. However, shortly after the founding of the association, in the autumn of 2006, David Belle announces its withdrawal from PAWA explaining it so that he can no longer control the activities of all branches of the association and is not ready to put his sign under the activities PAWA in each case.

Job done by «The Tracers» web site, David Belle arrival in Moscow, creation of videos and other projects dedicated to the story of parkour, organization of festivals and events in the world of parkour and other activities of team seriously influenced on increasing popularity of parkour in Russia. The development of the first russian parkour team becomes inextricably linked to the development of parkour in Russia which became much faster than in many other countries, as repeatedly stated by David himself.

Since 2005 till today «The Tracers» organized many activities as arrival in Moscow of Alain Robert, the establishment of a training program for those who want to try themselves in parkour, organization of two festivals of parkour (including the very first in Russia), both of which were held at the Luzhniki Stadium in summer and winter of 2007.

Today (at the time of this writing in 2007 - author annotation), 5 years after the first trip to the homeland of the Russian parkour team, parkour as a discipline continues to actively develop in the country, and The Tracers team and its activities continue to have a significant impact on the development of the “art of rational movement”.

Andrey Nikiforov
2007