is parkour a martial art

[Jay]

Is running a martial art?

sojobo

Interesting when you look at it this way, is punching any more a martial art? What makes a martial art? Now this is a very individual thing the word we are describing, maybe running could be part of someones individual art if involved in the self defense aspect of it all.

I can go on forever with philosophical points of view, I think most would agree that for it to be a martial art it would have to involve combat, but for an individual a definition of a non physical thing, can never really be a fact, unlike say water which we know is hydrogen and oxygen.

For me personally I would say no, but if someone thinks martial art is how they live and embody it everyday then I can't argue otherwise.

I have always said parkour and martial art are like cousins, I think for self defense they compliment each other very nicely. There are certain times you may have to fight and certain times you may have to run.

[mikeb87]

parkour is getting from point a to point b as quickly and efficiently as possible in case you either need to get to or away from and emergency situation. it was originally practiced by the french military.

[Kuma]

This is also freerunning, there aren't any gymnast moves in parkour.

Parkour is different from free-running and does include a variety of acrobatic moves to get over and around obstacles.

[sensei8]

Imho...NO!!

But, that's my opinion, and a student of Parkour might feel differently.

[Kodiak]

Imho...NO!!

But, that's my opinion, and a student of Parkour might feel differently.

Why?

[sensei8]

Imho...NO!!

But, that's my opinion, and a student of Parkour might feel differently.

Why?

Why what?

[Kodiak]

Why don't you think its a martial art?

[tallgeese]

Martial denotes some form of combat. Either it's directly designed for fighting, or it's derived from fighting. The line gets blurry and we can put oriental suffexes around it all day long, but most people with broadly define "martial arts" as one of the two situations above.

Free running and such is an impressive athletic event. It's cool to see done well. But it does not seem to be direclty related to combat or derived from combat anymore than cross country or track is. Now, it is more fun to watch than either of those two, but that does not make it "martial".

A stonger argument would probibly be for it to fall in somewhere as an "art".

[Dobbersky]

If this is a martial art then competitive cheer is a martial art.

My niece was a competitive cheerleader, and she's tougher than me.

I think you need to train harder then MP

*running out the door*

Are you using Parkour to run out of the door with?

I would say Parkour is as close to Martial Arts as Scateboarding or BMX'ing is

[sensei8]

Why don't you think its a martial art?

There's nothing martial about it, imho. I will surrender to the fact that it's more of an art, and that alone is something to be proud of. Not everything can be a martial art!!