Parkour-Extreme Sport

Nowadays extreme sports are becoming more and more popular. More and more people take up Xtreme sport. Why do they do it? They say life today is too comfortable and easy. Doing extreme sport helps people feel the rush of adrenalin in their blood and get diffrent range of emotions from fear to excitment. Shortly, doing extreme sport makes people feel alive.
Today I would like to tell you about extreme sport called parkour. I have been doing parkour for 3 years and I really enjoy it.
I am afraid most of you don`t know what parkour is. So Parkour is an international discipline, sport and hobby at the same time. Parkour is a French word and it is translated into English as the art of movement. The concept of parkour is to get from point A to point B as fast and efficient as possible using only your body and your surroundings. On your way you may overcome different obstacles from brunches and rocks to rails and concrete walls.
People doing parkour are called traceurs for male and traceuses for female. These are French words and for English people they are quite difficult to pronounce. So the English call them parkourists.
The philosophy of parkour is the freedom. It is often said that parkour can be practiced by anyone, at anytime, anywhere in the world. This freedom has made it a powerful cultural force in Europe, and oll over the world.
The main goal of Parkour is to overcome obstacles not only in sport but also in the everyday life. People doing parkour are more successful at work or at school because they are trained to overcome obstacles. Parkour is not only a physical exercise, it is a way of life. That`s why devoted parkourists don`t say: “ I do parkour” they say: “ I live parkour”.

The founder of parkour is David Belle. Belle comes from France so parkour comes from France as well. David Belle developed his skill into extraordinary levels. However David himself has said that there is no secrets to parkour, just training and dedication Actually, parkour has quite long history but officially it was founded in 1997 when David Belle and some of his friends created the group called Yamakasi. Yamakasi is not a French word. It is from Lingala language of Congo and it means strong spirit, strong body, strong man..
Parcour became popular all over the world as the film Yamakasi was produced in 2001 by famous director Luc Besson where David Belle appears as one of the main characters. The film Yamakasi was followed by the film District 13 which was released in 2004 and where David Belle stars as well. The popularity of parkour keeps growing and new and new films with parkour are being made.
A lot of advertising companies use parkour to advertise products for young people.

Andrey Koltsov
Parnu Vene Gymnasium
Estonia
Teacher: Tamara Gordina