This is a David Belle quote from the Wikipedia article on "Parkour":


David Belle and/or PAWA team emphasized the division between parkour and free running by stating:

“ Understand that this art has been created by few soldiers in Vietnam to escape or reach: and this is the spirit I'd like parkour to keep. You have to make the difference between what is useful and what is not in emergency situations. Then you'll know what is parkour and what is not. So if you do acrobatics things on the street with no other goal than showing off, please don't say it's parkour. Acrobatics existed long time ago before parkour. ”

—David Belle and/or PAWA team


There is subsection on "Free running" that links to a full article.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_running

Nice to hear a voice of reason around here.

In reply to your comment:
“Tony Jaa would be the first guy to say that what he does in the movies isn't 'real' Muay Thai - I've seen a couple of interviews with him where he's pointed it out. Some of it is a reasonably fair representation, but the acrobatics and the jumping kicks are much more akin to wushu, capoeira, free running, or tricking.

The guy has an undeniable talent, and I really loved Ong Bak. The Protector (aka. Ong Bak 2) had some great fights, particularly the 5-6min one-shot scene that southblvd mentioned. The problem with The Protector was that it was seriously malnourished on plot - even by the (not high) standards of martial arts movies.”

Tony Jaa would be the first guy to say that what he does in the movies isn't 'real' Muay Thai - I've seen a couple of interviews with him where he's pointed it out. Some of it is a reasonably fair representation, but the acrobatics and the jumping kicks are much more akin to wushu, capoeira, free running, or tricking.

The guy has an undeniable talent, and I really loved Ong Bak. The Protector (aka. Ong Bak 2) had some great fights, particularly the 5-6min one-shot scene that southblvd mentioned. The problem with The Protector was that it was seriously malnourished on plot - even by the (not high) standards of martial arts movies.

This is on VideoSift under that name "Urban Gymnastics". I had a hard time finding it. I had to go to the “Top Rated Videos” list.


On Google Video it has been titled "Russian Climbing". It is one of a number of videos that can be tagged "parkour" or "free running".



http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=112