Parkour is a sport that grew out of military obstacle course training- the word parkour actually derives from the phrase parcours du combattant, or obstacle course. It was invented by David Belle in the 1980s, but its origins go much further back, to George Hébert, who developed a physical training regimen he called his "Natural Method" in the early 1900s.
More than a century later, the training discipline Hébert developed has become the standard system of physical education in modern militaries around the world and it’s even been suggested that we can trace modern adventure playground equipment back to his original obstacle designs in the early 1900s.
Hébert himself was influenced by the observations he made untrained native tribes in Africa while travelling the world pre-WWI: “Their bodies were splendid, flexible, nimble, skilful, enduring, resistant and yet they had no other tutor in gymnastics but their lives in nature”, he wrote.
Learn how Hébert's philosophy led directly to the development of parkour, and later the artistic variation called freerunning, at Messy Nessy Chic. The story contains plenty of impressive videos.