BRUCE LEE AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF PARKOUR

By Rob Green

Bruce Lee realised that although steeped in bags of years of tradition, that's absolutely what aggressive arts were - traditions.

There were too abounding rules, too abounding set moves. There was no abandon of movement, and so, no abandon of thought. He believed that battle appropriate an individuality in adjustment to be useful, not aloof mindless, artful repetition. By accomplishing so, you never apprentice to truely acquire the movement which you are undertaking. Instead, you become like a robot.

The actual aforementioned affair applies to parkour. Bodies airing from a to b absent to the actuality that they're alike 'moving.' They anticipate about what's on tv after or what they ate for breakfast. They are absolutely blind that they are actuality 'traditional.' Anybody moves like that because anybody abroad does, and consistently has. Bruce abstruse that attitude in such a ambience was absolutely wrong. By alone afterward set rules, we anon lose our freedom. He capital to advance a aggressive art that would acquiesce accustomed movement. He believed that the best able aggressive art would acquire an absence of anticipation as it's doctrine, not a adamant pre-set anatomy of thought.

In aspect the aim was not to apply on alive out a situation, but instead to somehow 'be in anticipation yet bare of thought.' This is difficult because we are associative, acquainted beings. All our perceptions at any one time are based on all those that acquire gone before. Therefore by 'assessing' a bearings we immediatley chronicle it to others we acquire accomplished and the accomplished activity can advance to cocky agnosticism and negativity. Bruce said of his aggressive art, 'Jeet kune Do,' "can you attending at a bearings after allotment it? Allotment it, authoritative it a word, causes fear."

The abstraction of aggravating not to anticipate of the bearings you are in, but alone aggravating to 'feel' your way through it, is as axiological to parkour as it was to Bruce. There is a adage that links the two perfectly, "hesitation causes fear." Obviously, the moment aback you are hesitating, you are cerebration unneccessarily. You are assessing the situation, comparing and apropos it to antecedent situations. This is the aftermost affair you should do in parkour. In Bruce's aggressive arts, it may beggarly you get hit, in parkour, it could beggarly death. Abounding practitioners of parkour who 'feel' this philosophy, alike admitting they may not apperceive it, do absolutely convenance this adjustment of 'being in thought, yet after thought.' It is the abstraction of 'freeing the mind.'

The abstraction that aloof afore a jump, the complete aftermost affair you should be cerebration of absolutely is absolutely the jump itself. You should in actuality be seeing yourself on the added side. You should be activity the movement that is about to happen, not cerebration about what will appear if the movement isn't accomplished properly. A Zen acceptance which aggressive Bruce at this point, was the afterward apropos animal movement itself:

"I'm affective and not affective at all. It is not, "I am accomplishing this," but rather, an close adeptness that "this is accident admitting me," or "it is accomplishing this for me. The alertness of cocky is the greatest albatross to the able beheading of all concrete action."

It is this actual compassionate that anon links Jeet Kune Do with parkour. The accomplished point of parkour is to biking from one point to addition in the smoothest, best able way possible. And in adjustment to this, one charge accomplish 'fluidity.' Any time spent apprehensive whether or not one can accomplish what needs to be done is time area the apperception is active artful negativity. The additional you think, 'I acquire to get this jump appropriate or I'm dead,' you anon arrest your abilities by causing fear. This in itself may account the actual abortion it was advised to seek out. If you can accomplish a acceptance aural yourself that you are 'flowing' through your course, you will artlessly ablution over the obstacles in your path. You will appointment them and move advisedly accomplished them. You charge be able to adeptness a absoluteness amid your anatomy and your environment. Bruce abstruse that in adjustment to assassinate this effectively, it was not the adeptness of manouvres that was important, but instead the adeptness of will. In adjustment to accomplish a artlessness of consiousness as oppposed to connected thought, it is all-important to balloon about the aftereffect and the situation.

Forget about acceptable and losing, balloon about pride and pain. On this amount he states:

"Jeet Kune Do does not exhausted about the bush. It does not booty ambagious detours. It follows a beeline band to the objective. Artlessness is the beeline ambit amid two points. The art of Jeet kune Do is artlessly to simplify."

He could acquire been talking about parkour with that actual statement. The actual point of parkour is, well, brainstorm actuality chased by a lion. The aim is to get abroad as calmly as accessible or you get chomped on. In adjustment to do this effectively, we charge abridge things as abundant as possible. With Bruce the end point was a clean, able strike, with parkour it is extensive addition point in space. That is why such things as flips and somersaults, if acclimated at times aback added simplistic solutions are available, are not parkour. If they are performed in this manner, afresh they are added art than adeptness and appropriately are not parkour.

The apple is credible abnormally through every brace of eyes, and to chase the appropriate aisle for you you charge appearance the apple through your own. We aloof acquire that addition has absitively that a accumulation of walls and railings will actuate our avenue from point a to point b. And, like sheep, we follow. Mindlessly. No best do we get pleasure the abandon of claimed announcement in award our own path, and although there are abounding out there who are blessed in this mindset, there are additionally abounding who aren't.

There may be abounding routes from a to b, and who you are will detemine which aisle you acquire and how you chase it. It is this announcement of your close cocky through the abandon of true, accustomed movement that shows the aesthetic aspect of parkour. Not unneccessary moves like 'palmspins.' Through parkour we acquisition a added natural, accustomed art. JKD, although martial, is an art all the aforementioned due to Bruce's close acceptance in this aesthetic anatomy of acclamation motion. He fabricated the ascertainment that:

"An artist's announcement is his anatomy fabricated apparent, his schooling, as able-bodied as his "cool" actuality exhibited. Abaft every motion, the music of his anatomy is fabricated visible. Otherwise, his motion is abandoned and abandoned motion is like an abandoned chat - no meaning. Art is never decoration, embellishment; instead, it is the assignment of enlightenment. Art, in added words, is a address for accepting liberty."

Note - 'art is never decoration, embellishment.' Here he additionally mentions 'schooling.' This is because afore you can talk, you charge apprentice language. Although parkour speaks of casual obstacles calmly and calmly after acceptance the activity of thought, this is in aspect the ultimate aim. The never catastrophe following of this 'oneness' is what drives parkour as a discipline. It is now that it becomes bright why it is absolutely a conduct like JKD. It is not aloof an art form, but in actuality a absolutely accurate concrete and cerebral pursuit. In adjustment to accomplish the capital aim you charge be assured of your ability. But you cannot become assured if you do not alternation continued and hard. Parkour is advised by best to be a action - but it is not. You will not let anyone abroad bottomward if you do not perform. There are no rules or time banned you charge chase in adjustment to accomplish greatness. You will never charge to 'score' to achieve. As the shaolin say:

"It does not amount how apathetic you go, as continued as you do not stop."

There are abounding means in which the anatomy can artlessly move, and it takes a continued time and a lot of adherence to acquisition what your own anatomy is able of. There are absolute means of allowance obstacles that feel adequate to some and afflictive to others, afresh - addition anatomy in which cocky announcement of the anatomy becomes apparent. You should let the activity of motion 'move through you,' instead of predeciding how it will flow. Aback you adeptness an obstacle, you appetite your anatomy to already apperceive the way in which it will move. This takes time, effort, discipline, adherence and convenance to learn. Bruce accomplished like this with JKD. He did not appetite to try to assumption afore a move which one would be best suited, so he would try to 'feel' them out by not predetermining any movement. He declared the activity as

"Movements with a point. The point is the accomplishing of them rather than the accomplishments. There is no amateur but the action; there is no experiencer, but the experience..... Art calls for complete adeptness of techniques, developed by absorption in the soul."

And so we appear to the assured cessation apropos the allegory of Bruce Lee's philosophies abaft Jeet Kune Do and the axiological philosophies that drive parkour as a conduct and a way of life. We charge become chargeless of set means and traditions brought bottomward on us by those who came afore and we charge acquisition ourselves. Aural is area we charge attending in adjustment to truely see the without.

Remember, it is our eyes we were meant to see through, not addition elses. Do not chase those who acquire to booty you over like sheep. Do not acquire that which is drummed into you, ask instead why they would appetite to to ascendancy your thoughts, to booty abroad your freedom. Why do others try to authority us aback anyway, authority us down? Do not be absorbed by them. Do not move like robots for it cages you close being. Be instead chargeless and formless.

Like water. Absolute bodies accept parkour can be almost translated into english as 'freerunning.' This, adverse to accepted belief, does not call the angle of active about freely, but instead the abstraction of baptize active freely, the abstraction that you should be like baptize and breeze advisedly - like the baptize of a river. Aback it encounters obstacles, it does not alternate nor flounder, it artlessly follows it's aisle advisedly around, over, beneath or through. If said baptize is abounding bottomward a stream, it may blast into a bedrock with power, or it may breeze calmly accomplished it, for it has no agreed anatomy and so flows freely. Therefore, as Bruce said,

"Be like baptize authoritative it's way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but acclimatize to the object, and you shall acquisition a way annular or through it. If annihilation aural you stays rigid, apparent things will acknowledge themselves. Abandoned your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put baptize into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put baptize into a canteen and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, baptize can breeze or it can crash. Be baptize my friend."

And so in my belief, Bruce Lee did absolutely acquire the exact aforementioned philisophical behavior axiomatic at the adamantine amount of parkour thinking.

Bruce Lee quotes from 'tao of Jeet Kune Do,' shaolin qoutes from, well, years of training - can't remember, attending 'em up yourself...