By Alex Lawson  

Tall trees and grazed knees tend to be the extent of most kids' careers in the curious world of parkour, not that they know that’s what they’re doing. This September will see the first parkour or ‘freerunning’ world championships as contestants from five continents will descend upon London and then ascend to its rooftops.

Parkour is a moderately new sport, although most would (as with some martial arts) deem it a form of expression rather than a sport. Its basic premise is to move with style and efficiency: to take the inside track, to cut the corner with neat footwork and an eye for the aesthetic. It is undoubtedly born from the sphere of young men looking for a way to involve themselves in the world, albeit by essentially walking fast in a rather bizarre manner.

Freerunning was created on the crest of an Internet wave by original traceur (freerunner) Sébastien Foucan in Lisses, just outside Paris, at the turn of the 21st century. The athletic Frenchman scaled multi-storey apartment blocks, public sculptures and bizarrely-designed rooftops for personal pleasure and fitness. However, its roots may be much older. Former US President Theodore Roosevelt was noted for his peculiar "point-to-point walks" which were conducted in as straight line as possible, over obstacles and even swimming where necessary.

Foucan described it as “a discipline in self development (and) following your own way”, taking the original elements of parkour – efficiency and perpetual forward motion - and adding visual splendour, flips, turns and twists. Showmanship and acrobatics underlie the dividing line between free running and parkour, which is perhaps why the former is often synonymous with small gangs of runners practicing together whilst the latter is a much more solitary art.

It has become a movement dedicated to movement all across the globe, especially in Britain where a television programme, Jump London (2003), inspired thousands to use rooftops as playgrounds after seeing its participants contort their bodies against iconic backdrops such as Big Ben. With a massive community online, freerunning already has a video game and an appearance in a James Bond movie to its name.

However, the distinction between parkour and freerunning is a subject of much debate. Online Parkour magazine Worldwide Jam caused controversy when it condemned the British free-running collective Urban Freeflow in 2006, for creating new English terms for some moves and introducing additional moves of their own. It’s thought that the world championships could bring this issue to a head.

Closer to home, it’s worth ruminating on some of the best routes through Prague. Hypothetically, there’s a course starting from the Rudolfinum up through Josefov, while the tricky traverse of Dlouhá’s skyline could guide you to Náměstí Republiky without touching the ground. Or why not take on Hradčany with its weaving architecture and its multitude of steps. Perhaps you could even try using those tiresome tourists as stepping stones in your newly-elevated world. There’s no doubt that parkour is a remarkably elegant practice. Look out for us zipping to work through Žižkov in the near future.

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