Parkour : ( pronounced as 'PAR-KOOR' ) In the strictest sense as defined by David Belle, Parkour is the art of moving through your environment as swiftly and effectively as possible using only the human body. More broadly it might be defined as the discipline of developing the physical and mental capacity of the human being while through training to overcome obstacles. In practice Parkour is essentially the same as L’art Du Deplacement and most Freerunning. The difference in name has to do with David Belle’s focus specifically on the utility part of training. L’art Du Deplacement : Literally, the art of displacement/forward movement. This is the term originally used for the training done by David Belle and his peersin Lisses, France before the term Parkour was invented. The practice is essentially identical to Parkour but the philosophy is more about developing the strength, courage, and capacity of the human being; utility and aesthetic movements are both important. Tricking : In general, any sort of acrobatic stunts. In particular tricking refers to the discipline of martial arts tricking which takes the acrobatic elements of various martial arts, most prominently WuShu, Tae Kwon Do, and Capoiera, and combines them with elements of gymnastics and break-dancing. Freerunning : Another term used for Parkour and L’art du Deplacement. Invented by Sebastien Foucan, the name follows from Foucan’s focus on the aspect of freedom offered by the training of this discipline. For many, the practice is not really different from Parkour or L’art du Deplacement, though some focus very much on aesthetic movements which is a departure from the core Parkour principle of utility.
