Free running is a variant of parkour, an urban movement mode that consists of moving through any environment as efficiently and quickly as possible, avoiding obstacles such as fences and walls.
Parkour was born in France at the end of the 80s of the last century from military training methods , and responds to a philosophy of life of overcoming difficulties that connects it with martial arts.
The difference between this discipline and free running is ambiguous for laymen, who are often unable to distinguish between one modality and the other.
The most common explanation holds that parkour practitioners intend to move as quickly as possible, while free runners worry about performing pirouettes and aesthetic movements during their journey , leaving traffic speed and its mere efficiency as a secondary element.
The term free running was first used in the 2003 documentary Jump London, where it was used simply as the English translation of the term parkour, which comes from the French parcours.
The creator of the word was the Frenchman Sébastien Foucan, who has developed the concept to define it as a “form of self-development” that offers its followers more possibilities of expression than parkour.
