PARKOUR PIPBy Tom Carpenter

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PARKOURPIPPhotography by Tom Carpenter

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PIPANDERSEN

Parkour Pip is a short photo feature on young free runner from Taunton in Devon. Pip Andersen got involved in parkour in 2005. Pip’s fascina-tion with parkour began when he watched a programme on television called ‘Jump Britain’. The show followed a group of French Free Runners who set out to scale some of the UK’s biggest landmarks, from HMS Belfast to the Royal Albert Hall. The programme was created by free runner Sebastien Founcan, one of the world renowned free runners. Foucan see’s free run-ning more as a spectacle, a way of life allowing an escape from everyday reality. Since watching ‘Jump Brit-ain’ in 2005, Pip hasn’t looked back, he practices his own moves and has developed other moves off of fellow free runners.

Since starting parkour, Pip has been keen to teach anyone who had an interest in extreme sport, so he com-pleted a Community Sports Leader-ship Award, he has since received funding from the Somerset Youth Bank fund to carry on his training of others in the local area. As well as training others Pip has managed to forge a proffessional career for himself in the world of free running. He is currently a mem-ber of the World Free running & Parkour Federation, considered one of the top free runners, not only in the country but in the world. Pip has worked on both film and television, he has been featured in magazines and he has done commercial work for Nike, Addidas, MTV and Plain Lazy.

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(Above) Pip and Chris weren’t put off by the bad weather, instead they continued practising in a multi storey spiral carpark in Taunton town centre.

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WHAT IS PARKOUR?

Parkour is a movement philosophy which was developed in twentieth Century France. It is difficult to de-fine parkour, since it involves several disciplines, it could be said to be a sport, a hobby and a philosophy. Es-sentially, parkour is about learning to navigate obstacles, and rethinking the use of one’s body and the use of public spaces. Some practitioners of parkour believe that the techniques they learn in the practice of this sport also carry over into their daily lives. The earliest form of parkour was developed by George Herbert, a French naval officer who served during the First and Second World Wars. During his service he travelled widely and was struck by the effi-cient, flowing gymnastic movements of some of the African tribes he visited. Upon his return to France

he started to develop a method of natural movement for members of the military. The methode naturelle began to be reguarly taught, setting the stage for the development of Parkour. One of the founding figures of Parkour is David Belle who was taught the methode naturelle by his father in the 1980’s. Belle coined the term ‘Parkour,’ which is derived from parcours du combattant, an obstacle course which is used to train members of the French mili-tary. Parkour is also known as l’art du deplacement, which translates as ‘the art of displacement.’ Someone who practices parkour is known as a traceur, or a traceuse for a female. The art of parkour is about get-ting from place to place in the most efficient way. (Continued p10)

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the discipline within several inner-city schools and community sports centres. In 2008 Parkour Genera-tions and the Yamakasi founders collaborated to create the A.D.A.P.T Qualification programme for those people who wanted to become recognised coaches of parkour. Parkour as a movement is still relatively young, it has now been involved in several big budget movies, most recently the lastest James Bond film. It is being used in every form of media from television commer-cials and idents to documentaries, billboard cam-paigns, fashion shoots and live stage-shows. There is an active and growing communitie of free runners and traceurs have appeared all over the world, from Brazil to Japan, from Finland to Australia and from Russia to Canada.

In short, Parkour is here to stay.

In theory, parkour is about learning to quickly navi-gate obstacles in an emergency situation. Training in parkour allows people to assess obstacles on an individual basis and decide on the best way for getting around them, based on the obstacle, the physical abili-ties of the practitioner, and the situation. There is an emphasis on smooth, limber movements, and training sometimes includes education in martial arts. The sport began to be popularized in the 1990’s, when several films were made about parkour. In it’s fairly short public lifespan to date there has been enormous interest from a host of large organisations. Parkour has eased itself stealthily from the under-ground shadows of Paris to the gritty streets of London and from there on to the glamourous world stage itself. It is even starting to filter into that most mainstream of institutions, Education. In early 2006 Westminster Council enlisted the services of two parkour instruc-tors from The Parkour Generations Academy to teach

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A TO B‘‘Logic will take you from A to B

but imagination and creativity in this discipline, will take you

wherever you want to go’’

(Above) Pip and Chris practiced for hours, constantly trying to out do each other in the

process.

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A massive thanks to Pip Andersen for his time. Without him none of this would have been possible.

tom.carpenter16@hotmail.co.uk

07917383023

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All images are © Tom Carpenter

‘‘CHOOSE YOUR PATH, THEN PURSUE IT

RELENTLESSLY’’