Parkour

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Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK), is commonly confused with l'art du déplacement (English: the art of displacement) or sometimes freerunning. Parkour is a utilitarian discipline based upon the successful, swift and energy-efficient traversing of one's surrounding environment via the practical application of self-taught techniques, based around the concept of self-preservation and the ability to help others.^[1] It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as jumping, climbing, vaulting, rolling and swinging are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable, and it is most commonly practiced in urban areas. The usage and employment of flips into the named route does not constitute parkour.

The term freerunning is sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably with l'art du déplacement. While l'art du déplacement aims to enable the practitioner to be able to move quickly and creatively past obstacles, freerunning is a competition sport, with Urban FreeFlow being credited with this change of definition. Freerunning includes the use of tricking moves such as aerial rotations and spins, while the definition of parkour founder David Belle does not consider these part of parkour because the moves are merely for show, not efficient, can't help to assist anyone and do not help the participant to get from place to place. Although Sébastien Foucan is considered a co-founder of parkour, his philosophy later turned out to be different to that of parkour and grew to become known as freerunning (see below).
A practitioner of parkour is called a traceur if it's a man, or traceuse if it's a woman. The word is most likely derived from Parisian slang "tracer" which means "to hurry" or "to move quickly". In proper French "traceur" is an adjective qualifying something that leaves a trace or a trail behind it.