Research for Documentary

WHAT IS FREE RUNNING?

Free Running is a form of urban acrobatics that is performed outside. Free runners use structures in the city or rural landscapes to create their movements. through combining moves from Parkour and other acrobatics and stunts, an energetic and pleasing way of moving is created. It can be practiced either in gyms or outside in urban areas where there are many obstacles that can be used. Although there are some similarities between Free Running and Parkour, they are two separate sports with Parkour being heavily disciplined and Free Running explores the freedom of movement. However, it is obvious that free running was inspired by Parkour. The object of Free Running or Parkour is to aim for speed and efficieny. A practitioner of Parkour, a Traceur for a male or a Traceuse for a female, will train to develop skills that will allow them to move efficiently to overcome obstacles whether they are urban or rural. Their goal is to be able move in any situation so Free Running could be applied in life-thretening situations. It becomes a natural movement to them that they want to perform everywhere without thinking about it.



WHO CREATED FREE RUNNING?

Sébastien Foucan was the creator of Free Running. He defines Free Running as "discipline to self development, following your own way." He created Free Running as he felt that Parkour was too disciplined lacking creativity and self expression. He has appeared in the James Bond film, Casino Royale, performing Free Running stunts at the beginning of the film.

WHAT MOVEMENTS ARE INCLUDED?

Specific Free Running movements are difficult to identify as they are a combination of Parkour movements and street stunts. Street stunts are performed off a high level building or wall or on flat surfaces depending on where it is being practiced. Free Running focuses on the freedom to move and make it look graceful involving movements off obstacles, moving from one place to another. There is no limit to the moves that a Free Runner can perform and the interpretation of the movement can change too depending on the person who is observing.
Some basic movements which are associated with Free Running rather than Parkour include:

- Reverse Kong Vault - Instead of vaulting over a railing with a Monkey Vault, which may be the most efficient way, the athlete adds a 360 degree spin along the horizontal axis to make the movement more aesthetically pleasing, as well as increasing their coordination.

- Diving Frontflip/ Eagle Flip - A frontflip is executed over a wall or other obstacle, usually with a large drop on the other side. It is referred to as a diving frontflip (or dive front) because the athlete is required to dive over the obstacle before initiation the tuck.

- 360 Wallrun - This is similar to the Wallrun in Parkour, in which the athlete runs at a tall wall and pushes against the wall with their foot to propel themselves up the wall. The only difference between this movement and the 360 Wallrun is that the 360 degree spin is carried out after kicking opp the wall and before grabbing the top of the wall.

- Wall Spin - This is an advanced form of the Palm Spin. The athlete runs to a wall, jumps places both hands on the wall, and vertically rotates 360 degrees while remaining in contact with the wall. Pushing off with one hand helps the rotation.

- Wing Spin - This is basically a one handed wall spin. The non-contact hand and arm is spread away from the wall, much like a wing.

- Wall Flip - The athlete runs to a wall, places a foot on it, and does a back flip off the wall.

- Broken Arm Spin - This is a wall spin in which the athlete rotates around the top arm, or arm closest to the wall. Essentially a Wing Spin done with the opposite arm rotating in a backwards motion rather than a forward one.

For videos of the above movements and more information, visit http://www.urbanfreeflow.com/

http://www.msn.co.uk/

The image below was taken from the MSN Homepage when they had an article on dangerous things to do.

POSSIBLE ARCHIVE MATERIAL

Source: http://www.youtube.com/

FREE RUNNING GONE WRONG:



This archive shot shows that Free Running can go wrong and if it does then it can be seriously dangerous. This clip is not very good quality however, so we will probably not be able to use it.

BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT FREE RUNNERS:


This clip from the ITV show, Britain's Got Talent, was filmed in 2007. Programmes like this as well as films, are contributing to the rise in popularity for Free Running.

TOP GEAR FREE RUNNING RACE:



The BBC programme, Top Gear, is another example of Free Running becoming more popular, especially in the world of media. This extract from a 2006 episode and sees two Free Runners, Danial Ilabaca and John 'Kerbie' Kerr, racing through Liverpool to reach the Liver Building first. The programme shows the Free Runners winning the race, however, according to Free Running Wiki (www.streetstunts.net/wiki), the race did not actually take part and was filmed in sections with the use of crash mats for the Ilabaca and Kerr.

DAMIEN WALTERS FOOTAGE:











Damien Walters is a stuntman, gymnastics coach and free runner from Derby. He has been ranked as 4th best in the world at one point and won the World Championships with the Great Britain tumbling team as well as the European Championships. He first became interested in gymnastic at the age of 4 or 5 meaning he has had about 25 years training. It is suggested that he is currently training for up to 4 hours a day to stay at this high standard. As described in the news report above, it was Walters' 2007 showreel which Jackie Chan's agent saw which started his career as a stuntman.

SEBASTIEN FOUCAN:



This is the clip from Casino Royale, as mentioned before.



This is video is an interview in a documentary style with Sebastien Foucan that is off the UrbanFreeflow.com channel on YouTube. It explains what Free Running/Parkour is and talks to Foucan about what he feels when he performs the movements and teaching people to get into th sport. It is based in Paris where it first began so is very relevant for our topic for the documentary.