Parkour Moves – Parkour Training, Is This Martial Art?
Parkour Moves come from Parkour Training with the goal of obstacle avoidance in the natural environment. Can you apply Parkour as a Martial Art? What unique abilities does a Parkour expert bring to the martial arts?
Will a Parkour athlete beat a Kung Fu Martial Artist? Can Bruce Lee beat Muhammad Ali in a fight? These are tough questions. When you have two distinct martial arts fighting styles, you have to look at the elements of each, and determine how they apply to each other.
What is Parkour? Parkour is an athletic style with involving movements through an environment by free style running, jumping, climbing, rolling and vaulting. When mixed with fighting techniques, it then becomes a martial art.
Where Capoeira comes from hidden movements in a dancing background, Parkour comes from man’s natural abilities as an athlete in a natural environment. You can call it freeform. You can call it natural form. You can call it the mixed martial arts of nature.
There is a good similarity between Parkour and Ninjutsu. Ninjutsu involves unconventional warfare, of which athleticism is a large part. A Parkour expert would have a good background to perform ninja activities, along with some martial arts training. Ninjutsu is also similar to Parkour, given the benefit of it not having a specific standard style.
Bruce Lee first learned Kung Fu, and went on to learn many different forms and styles. At one point, Bruce Lee formed a style he called Jeet Kune. This style is a style without a style. There are no rules, except to be true to yourself. The martial art comes from within and is an expression of the person. A style, without a style. Sound familiar. Bruce Lee would have had fun performing Parkour moves. When you see Jackie Chan, you can also see Parkour moves.
Parkour has many similarities with Jeet Kune Do. If you go to a number of Parkour instructors, you will learn a variety of elements of the sport. The bottom line, Parkour is based on your abilities and your creativity in how you use it.
Light Kung Fu has its origins in Qigong. Qigong is one of the basic elements of Kung Fu. There is outer Kung Fu, which is expressed in the physical activities of Kung Fu techniques. Qigong is more involved in the inner strength of a Kung Fu martial artist. This involves breathing techniques, control and direction of Chi. A Light Kung Fu martial artist employs both inner and outer Kung Fu to achieve to power, form, and finesse to initiate his moves. You can call this a more well-rounded approach to fighting.
Parkour is more animal in its approach. You are letting your body dictate what it inherently knows it can do, and perform. Now we have a dynamic that alternates between conscious and subconscious actions. In Light Kung Fu you have an inner part that allows you to perform some amazing movements, which you would not be able to do, based solely on conscious thought. There are a number of Parkour movements that would not be possible with only the conscious mind at work. There must be some inner subconscious activity which allows the Parkour martial artist to achieve these incredible movements.
A very good argument can be made that the Kung Fu martial artist would beat a Parkour athlete, based on the development of Kung Fu fighting skills. This raises even more interesting questions. What kind of martial artist do you get when a Parkour expert trains in Mixed Martial Arts or Jeet Kune Do? What do you think?
