Interview for Urban Runners

I was recently asked by Ixek from the Urban Runners team in Mexico to do a written interview for their website, so i thought i'd post it here too, here it is :



Introduce yourself (name, age and how long have you been practising Parkour).
My name is Thomas Couetdic, i'm 24 and i'm from France. I've been into Parkour for about 8 years.


How did you find Parkour?
At the time when Yamaksi was coming out in the cinemas, i saw by chance a short documentary about Parkour on television (stade 2) and was hooked by it ! I new from that moment on that Parkour would play a major role in my life. In those days, Parkour was nonexistant on the internet and it took me a few months to find more information about it. I managed to get in contact with some of the guys training in Lisses (the only experienced practicioners at that time) and they invited me to come over and train with them. They told me in advance that it would be hard, and it was, but that's exactly what i was expecting. I would have been very disappointed if they had been just a bunch of guys randomly jumping around, with no discipline and no objectives, but it wasn't that and my motivation to get stronger grew as i discovered their incredible abilities.

My first training sessions in Lisses opened my eyes and gave me some guidance for my training. I would then go back home (in Tours) and apply what i had learned, so most of my training was done alone, which was hard at times but well worth it in the long run. And just every now and then, i went back to Lisses to boost my progress a little bit. If i didn't have money to pay for the travel, i would cycle the 250 km to there, Parkour was my biggest priority in those years and nothing would stop me from training.


What does Parkour mean to you?
My definition of Parkour is "utilitarian displacement" : efficient techniques of movement. My training with the guys from Lisses and the hours of conversation with each of them has made me realise the purpose of Parkour, and i've seen how it was created, the state of mind that triggered this whole discipline. I think that many traceurs nowadays forget to think about all this, they discover the visual aspect of Parkour and want to be able to do the same things, but that's only one dimension of Parkour, they don't try to grasp the original meaning of it, and i feel they miss out on the whole essence of Parkour.
I believe strongly in the idea that intention affects action : knowing why you do something determines how you will do it.
It's been said before, but practitioners should think deeply about why they train, what they search for in the end.

For my part, i've always been interested in outdoor life and adventure, which demand pure efficiency... You can't adventure yourself in remote areas or face critical situations if you're not efficient. You can't be strong, in the broad sense of the word, if you're not efficient. This is why i entirely agree with and follow the original spirit of Parkour, it has a depth that many young traceurs/freerunners completely miss out on.


What do you think about Parkour being related to the medias?
In the eyes of the modern world, Parkour is very stylish and fun, just what the media and advertising companies love, but that is not what Parkour was ever intended to be. Parkour is intended to be trained, not to be shown. Even though i personally take part in such things, because it's a good way to make a living using something i love doing, i'm very aware that it does not take me anywhere as a human being and therefore i never take it too seriously, my life is not there...


In which point do you think Parkour is and where do you think it will go?
The Parkour i've been describing, the one i practice, is not the one that most people train. It's like this now and i think it will always remain like that. It's not necessarily a bad thing as long as the original form of Parkour stays alive so that those who seek it may find it. That's the whole point of Parkour Generations (the people i work with), keeping it alive and accessible. On a personal level, i'd like to see Parkour applied in the field, by people who face critical situations on a regular basis, like firefighters for example. This would also be a good way to maintain the practice of efficient Parkour.



Which advice would you give to people who want to start practicing parkour?
Take your time and never give up. No fortress is impregnable, it all depends on the tenacity of the assailant. No matter where you start from, you'll always reach your goal if you keep trying. Some times are harder than others, but "is lost only he who gives himself up for lost", so never give up.


What do you think about separating parkour from free running or art du deplacement?
I've never really worried about how to call something. I use the word Parkour but it's just for the purpose of conversation. But if we can't even figure out the precise definition of a simple random object such as a chair or a car, then i think we can forget about defining Parkour ! This is because words will never grasp the pure essence of the very things they define. So Parkour, Freerunning, Art du Deplacement etc... these 3 things are different to eachother but the name you give them is irrelevant. Gandhi said : "In reality, there's as many religions as there are individuals" and in the same way, there's as many Parkours as there are traceurs, not two people in the world practice exactly the same thing. Names are only symbolic.
As long as people express themselves in what they do and find peace in it, that's all that matters.



What do you think about body and mind balance?
I think that both work in conjunction with eachother, but i would still give priority to the mind. The reason is simple, the state of the body fluctuates over time, one can be physicaly strong now and weak in one month or less, performance is a very temporary feat, but a strong mind lives on, even in a weakened body. What we learn through experience (and i make a distinction here with knowledge, which is merely the memorisation of information), we keep to the end and perhaps even after, and it affects us in a much deeper and durable way than what is only physical.
Over the years, i've come to focus more and more on the mind, adapting my training to it's development. For example, i try not to keep for later a jump i feel i can do now, because most of the time, keeping for later means waiting for the jump to be easier, and the easier it gets, the less the mind is solicited. This also explains why i never train in gyms : having obstacles that adapt to you only offers training for your body, not your mind, which is close to pointless in my opinion.



How is Thomas (appart from parkour what do you do, hobbies, what do you like doing, etc)?
He says he's fine haha ! I do a lot of travels at the moment (and as i speak, i am in the middle of one). I still love Parkour very much and i train it very often, but i think i've learned what it had to teach me spiritually. I've grown so much thanks to it and i am completely transformed compared to when i started, so now i broaden my horizons, i search for the next step in my growth, and i think i've found it in travels. I also try to share what i've learned with others who may find my experience of use, and i think i'll be doing this more and more in the future, i realise more and more the importance of sharing and giving.
On another level, i've also found a big interest in magic with coins and i spend many hours training it. It feels funny to start from zero again in a new discipline, but it allows me to measure the tremendous effects Parkour has had on me. I was saying earlier that what the mind has learned, it keeps, and this is a perfect example of it. I don't feel overwhelmed by the enormous difficulty of learning coin magic, instead i take it slowly and patiently, through trial and error until i manage to do things properly. It takes a very long time to learn but i know i'll get there in the end if i don't give up, smooth sailing on a big ocean i suppose...


Do you have any specific training routine?
No, i don't believe in routines though i did spend my first training years doing some. There's something reassuring about routines, because you can visualise precisely what you're doing and in which amounts, and everyone enjoys that kind of classification, it's very "academic", the brain likes it, but the human body is not meant to follow a schedule.
So instead i try to ask myself what my body and mind want to do and i go for it. I also often change my plans during the training itself, i really stay away from strict training programmes, it's much better in terms of motivation.
I do have a few exercises that i like to do every now and then, but that's about it, the rest is all spontaneous.


Anything, comments, ideas or advice you would like to share.
Nothing really, i just want to say thank you to you (Ixek) and your group for giving me this opportunity to express my vision of Parkour. Good luck to you and all the traceurs in Mexico !

Erwan Le Corre's Movnat

My good friend Erwan aka "Hebertiste" on the internet, is just being featured in the current Men's Health magazine in the USA, in a lengthy article regarding his new/ancestral method of training called Movnat (short for "mouvement naturel").
Many of you might have discovered it in this video :




For those like me unable to catch a copy of the whole article, a short version can be found on the magazine's website here .

Be sure not to miss it as it's absolutely brilliant !

The woman's way

I recently wrote an article for www.girlparkour.com about my experience teaching women during the 6 months i spent in London.
In order to share it with as many people as possible, i'm posting it here too.

This is it :

Parkour has been spreading like the wind to all the corners of the world - in a worryingly uncontrolled way some would say - but bringing together nonetheless more and more practitioners. Among them, a community has started to emerge, rapidly growing in numbers and talent to the point that it must now be seriously taken into account if mentioning the global community, I speak of course about the female Parkour scene.

I've spent several months in London and have taught at nearly every Parkour Generations Women's Jam and Class, thus getting a good idea of what the ladies are up to. I've also trained with very dedicated women from England but also different parts of the world such as Canada, Brasil and other places, and I hope to train with a lot more in the future. In many regards, I found out that my evolution through Parkour has been very similar to that of many women I've encountered : I started out with a huge motivation, but also a great lack of confidence that I had to fight through. I've seen this in beginners as well as more experienced traceuses but I can say from my own experience that self-doubt is no more than a phase in one's progress, with practice and dedication, one's mind becomes clearer. As Antoine de-St Exupery would have put it : "He who confronts himself to the obstacle discovers himself", and who more than Parkour practitioners confront themselves to obstacles? Just in the same way that where there is light there can be no darkness, where there is awareness there can be no doubt, therefore there will be confidence.

Absolutely everyone has a potential waiting to be unleashed. Male or female, tall or small, weak or strong, etc... all this is irrelevant. What matters is not where you start from but how far you want to go.

I understand that many women still feel ill-at-ease in an environment that was exclusively populated by males just a few years ago, and that although several traceuses have started to show the path by expressing the women's potential through Parkour, the female "way" remains a big mystery: traceuses have bodies built in different ways than those of their male counterparts, therefore they must move differently.

Some inspiration could be drawn from the women practicing rock climbing, by adapting to their morphology they've developed their own way of climbing, which is less powerful but extremely technical, and they can now rival with men in what was a seemingly "male-reserved" discipline...

It has happened many times while I was climbing in Fontainebleau (a bouldering heaven in France) that I was completely outleveled by women, though I had the big advantage of superior physical power, and I'm not a total beginner in terms of technique either...

In the same way, I know that there will be a women's way of doing Parkour and it will be develloped in the upcoming years. It must be very exciting to be a traceuse in this particular time, drawing a path that so many will follow after them!

If, based on my observations, I had to list the main things that traceuses have a hard time dealing with (in general of course, these are not universal laws), it would go like this (in no particular order):

• They think too much and too rationnally, and forget to trust their sensations.

  As human beings, we have instincts, and Parkour being based on natural human movements, our instincts are perfectly adapted to Parkour training. This is why it is very important to be aware of the sensations that our body gives us, it's the way it communicates and closing our eyes on it would be (with a little bit of exaggeration) like putting our hand in fire and not realizing it's hurting us! This is a subtle notion and is much easier to explain in the field, but to summarize: our body will tell us if it is ready for a particular move or physical exercise by making these moves/exercises "feel" right or wrong. Too much rational thinking at this stage would just blur that signal and could lead to the traceuse hurting herself, or not trying anything at all.

• They tend to be overwhelmed by their emotions.

  Because of the lack of confidence that i metioned before, many women tend to become very emotional when training Parkour, either when they bail or when they don't manage to overcome a mental barrier. Parkour is bound to be emotional because it makes us face our own fears and weaknesses, it's like this for everyone, from the complete newbie to David Belle or others. Very few people have never shed tears because of Parkour... You could very well stay at home and do something easy and comfortable, but you go outside and deliberately place yourself in challenging situations, it's a very brave thing to do and really not everyone does it, precisely because it is hard. Nothing worth doing is easy, and Parkour, because of the many great things it can bring you, is worth doing. So express your emotions : cry, scream, get angry if you need to, but don't let them conquer you and turn you down, ever... Giving up is never a solution. In the long run, efforts are always rewarded.

• They have trouble trusting themselves and tend to underestimate their capabilities.

  I've already explained this, but i will never insist enough : all human beings have an enormous potential that unfortunately, most don't use to the fullest. I'm sure it has happened during your training or in other areas of your life, that you found yourself facing an obstacle that seemed so imposing that you thought maybe it wasn't for you, and that you ended up overcoming only to find out it wasn't that bad.

  Well that's what happens 99.9% of the time, we build our own demons, we mentally transform the obstacles that we face, the limit is one's imagination! But in the end, it is only an illusion, like those fake facades on buildings in old cowboy films that make a rundown tavern look like the Playboy mansion. Very few people make the effort of seeing things as they actually are.

  So next time you are in such a situation, ask yourself: am I really trying to see what is rather than what my mind wants to see? And am I confronting this obstacle with my most positive state of mind, or have I given up before really trying?

  If you still can't overcome the difficulty, it's fine, take a step down, go for something easier and work your way up step by step. There is no wrong or right, no win or lose, only feedback. Don't think that because you are a woman, you are less capable than men, not only because it's not true, but also because by doing so, you would be subconsciously building a barrier in your mind to your own progress. Don't set yourself limits, because no one (including you) really knows where they are...

These 3 points are linked to each other, so if you experience one of them, there's a good chance you also experience the other two. And the other way around : solving one is not far from solving all of them!

I see some very good spirits and very good energies among the female community which has convinced me since a long time that women can bring to Parkour at least as much as men have. One of my dearest wishes at the moment would be to train a very motivated traceuse on a regular basis, but because of my travelling plans, this is a project that is on standby for now.

Though the real point in parkour is not be able to do incredible things, but rather to explore ourself and conquer our demons on the our way to pure inner peace, I hope to see the female scene express itself and shine ever more among the Parkour world.

To all the traceuses in the world, I give you my best wishes and hopes!

© Parkour Generations Ltd.

Night missions

Since i moved in London, my life has become busier compared to what it was for the past several years. I can't say that i'm buried under endless amounts of work, far from it, but i do have a certain rhythm that i must set myself to. One would say that life can't always be the way we want, but that's the biggest lie lazy people have come up with to avoid facing their deeper aspirations. Life is made of the decisions we take and he who wants to move a mountain has nothing more to do than to move each stone one at a time.
Therefore, my life in London is a chosen one, a new direction on the improvised trail i prolong daily. This doesn't mean that it satisfies all of my needs, indeed my desires for outdoor adventure and life on the move have never been so strong !

As i find myself waiting to hit the road again as soon as possible, there are a few schemes i have come up with in the meantime to deceive my impulses. One of them is the solo nocturnal parkour adventure, or night mission.

Yesterday night i found myself facing the fortress i had been planning on conquering, an old abandoned factory in the vicinity of a busy street. It was in sight of many cctv cameras, but like many others in London, i suspect they are only monitored if a problem is reported. Anyway, i was going around towards a dark stinky alley leading to the first part of the challenge when i noticed 3 police officers standing there, apparently making sure everything was in order. I turned and innocently walked in the opposite direction. But because i was in a hurry to start the mission, and also since i didn't have anything bad to be found guilty of, i came back into their field of vision, sat down, and pretended to write an sms. As expected, they found my behaviour suspicious and came to question me :

_ Evenin' sir, what are you doing here ?
_ Just wanted to take a leak but thought it wouldn't be wise to do it near you.
_ Haha yeah that's an 80 pound fine !
I laughed back and explained that i needed to finish the sms i was writing.

_ Ok sir, but be careful, there's a lot of bad boys around here, not a great place to stay...

Little did they know that one of them was about to climb the building just behind them.
As they left, i traced them a bit just to make sure they wouldn't come back, and proceeded to begin the first climb.

Along the factory runs a thin yellow gas pipe that strangely is held at about half a meter away from the old brick walls instead of being right against them. I jumped to reach the first section, which climbs vertically to a first small roof, about 5 meters off the ground. Once there, the pipe then turns at a 90 degrees angle and strolls along the wall, over the first seriously scary part, a massive 15 meter drop. At that point, my only safety is the pipe itself, as i must walk along it with my hands against the nearby wall, which offers nothing close to a hand hold in case the pipe breaks under my weight. Before risking my life on it, i jumped on the pipe a few times to make sure it would hold me. It wobbled a lot but seemed strong so i braced myself and walked the scariest 10 meters ever, breathing hesitantly in and out, as if the weight of my full lungs was enough to fracture my life line.
With silent calculated moves, i then hanged and traversed across the next portion of the same length, which offered a hold for my feet, and reached a second roof. I could see people in their homes on the opposite side, too busy with their everyday boring house chores to look up and notice me. As i looked back towards where i came from, i realised that the portion of pipe i had walked on had slightly bent under my weight, it wouldn't be safe to use it as an exit route so i had no choice but to continue forward.

I monkey-walked across the roof and ended up traversing along the pipe again, but at a reasonable height this time. At this point, i could have continued like this to find a way to safe ground around the next corner of the building, but i spotted two metallic drain pipes running together all the way to the top of the factory, over 30 meters high. I had set myself to reach the top so after a few moments of mentally studying my climb, i commenced my ascent. Though i had two of them that i could use, drain pipes are nothing close to gas pipes when it comes to strength. They are not, by far, built with the same quality standards and they tend to dislocate if not handled properly. As i moved a hand towards the first hold, a loud noise burst out of a tiny sealed window next to me, it was a little squirrel running off through a small hole which had scared me probably as much as i had frightened it. Fair enough i thought, and continued the climb.

I soon realise that apart from being wobbly, old, and weak, my drain pipes are also lacking many of the screws linking them to the run-down wall they are seemingly attached to ! I make sure to push myself up along them rather than to pull, as it is precisely a horizontal pull that would risk dislocating them, thus abruptly precipitating me to safer ground at free fall speed.
The last section, which is composed of only one pipe not attached to the wall at all, is the trickiest. I think for a second about coming back down, but figure it might not be any safer, so i squeeze my feet around it and stretch out to grab the top of it. That's when a thought comes to my mind : i remember reading about 2 mountain climbers who had fallen off the mountain cliff they were ascending. As they were falling, they passed close to another group of climbers. One of them later said that they had not screamed during their fall, they had silently let gravity pull them down towards their inevitable deaths.
I thought about it and looked down at the far away ground, would i remain silent if i was to fall right now ? Imagining myself suddenly plunge down scared me a lot.
I've found myself in similar situations many times, feeling death's frozen breath along my spine and promising myself each time : "never again". Far from being a fascination with death, i believe it is a love of life that draws me to do such things, for never do i measure better the essence of life than when i come out safe and sound from one of these moments !

I hold my breath and pull carefully on the pipe as one would handle a new born baby, and reach with my hand the top of the wall ! I bring myself up and breathe out with great relief. I know that going down from the other side will not be of any problem, i can finally relax !


I explored the factory's silent rooftops -populated with an infinity of pigeons that would fly off all at the same time when i approached- and spent a moment looking at the view over nocturnal London. I even found a way inside the building, but having no more than a keychain flashlight to illuminate my way, i decided not to venture too far into the rusting entrails of my fortress and made my way back down to the relative safety of the busy streets, in the direction of home.


I wish to conclude this account by specifying that such missions require for one to have a lot of experience and practice before attempting them. For my part, i have been training Parkour for about 8 years now and still seldom find myself in such heights or on such old and dangerous buildings. It is necessary to be highly attentive and in perfect physical condition in order to limit the risks to no more than simple bad luck. So don't do anything stupid...

Some news perhaps ?

It's been a while since i gave some news, probably because i didn't know what to speak about (though it's really not like nothing has been going on).

After completing a really cool 3 weeks long trip to Italy (photos HERE) with Blane and Kiell (another HUGE thanks to all the Italian traceurs who trained and helped us out !), i moved to London and have been living there for a few months, teaching classes with ParkourGenerations.
I enjoy this new life a lot, earning a living with my passion is something really great, and helping people discover their hidden potential is so even more...

Although i enjoy each class i teach for different reasons (regular class, advance, and girls'), i must admit i have a slight preference for the girls' class i teach with Tracey (of course you do, which guy wouldn't ? Smart ass...). Before that, i had only trained with less than a handful of (talented) girls (like Silex, Hollie or Liv), nevermind teaching them, and i thought i would have to learn so much about their psychology before being able to teach them anything, but it turns out i find a lot of similarities between their approach to Parkour, and the one i had during my first years as a traceur (same fears, doubts, etc.), which helps me to identify myself to them a great deal.
Some of the girls over here are very dedicated and i find that women are nothing close to being weak, they can be in fact damn efficient (I'll always remember how scared, yet impressively focused and determined Lauren was when she climbed with Kaz and i to the top of the Dame du Lac in Lisses) !
The female Parkour scene is still making its first steps thanks to the efforts of a few pioneering girls in different areas of the globe, and i'd be very proud if i could be responsible for at least a fraction of its development and the expression of the traceuses' potential, women have not yet shown all that they are capable of.


Apart from that, I'm starting to go over my travel photos nostalgically, which is a good hint that it's time to hit the road again. I've already got a clear idea of what my next trip will be, it will take me back to certain places i haven't seen enough but also to many new ones, and it should be longer and more intense than anything i've done before (though i will not limit myself to cycling this time).
For weather reasons, i won't be leaving before the beginning of 2009, which leaves me time to prepare things comfortably, and to enjoy moments with my friends/students.

I'd like to add that i still plan on writing Parkour related articles on this blog, but it's just a matter of finding the time at the moment.
Thanks for the support and nice comments !

Babylon AD out soon !

EDIT 7th September :

Just saw the film yesterday, piece of shit, don't watch it...

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At the end of this month (august), Babylon AD will finally be released. As a reminder, a team of traceurs including me worked on a short scene of this film. The french official website can be found here : www.babylonadmovie.com and has a few nice videos on it (though lamely dubbed in french).

I am working in London with Parkourgenerations at the moment, but whenever i'll be back in France, i'll post more of the photos that were taken during the shooting of the film (the others can be found on another topic of this blog).

Although our scene is very short, i'm really wondering what it's going to look like and i'm getting very excited. The bits of rushes that i had seen were quite promising but i can't wait to see the final edit in a cinema ! No incredible jumps are to be expected, it's more of a chase type of scene with quick, simple and efficient stuff.

Some nice stuff on the official french website : http://www.bad-lefilm.com/

Operation "PizzaNinjas"

EDIT June 22nd :

After 3 great weeks in Italy, the team has made it back safely home. The car, although losing part of a headlight has proved to be worth its reputation of invincibility and offered us many hours of happy travelling in various beautiful landscapes, despite being even slower than planned (barely 90km/h in the best cases).

We quickly realised that we wouldn't have time to do all that was planned and had to improvise according to that. Nonetheless, we managed to train in 5 different cities (Torino, Genova, Firenze, Roma, Milano) and we visited a few other places such as the dolomites, enjoying very memorable moments as we went.

Kiell will soon publish some great photos of the trip that i will also add to my blog, and we are expecting a video from Blane too, so stick around.

A huge thanks to all the traceurs and people who trained with us, hosted us, or helped us in any sort of way, you will always be welcome in our homes.

I also wish to apologise to all the people that we couldn't visit. you have been very kind to invite us but we just couldn't make it, but there will be more trips like this and sooner or later we will train together. I'm sorry if we forgot to contact some people that we said we would, but for our defence, the closing of Parkour.net brought a lot of complications as it was the only way we had of contacting certain persons.


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At the very end of this month (May), Operation PizzaNinjas will be launched : a commando of 3 traceurs will be assembled in the secret location of Tours, France (47"25'13 N / 0"42'08 E). Their high risk top secret mission will consist on advancing strategically south all across France, over the Alps and through the frontlines of Italy in order to infiltrate their main designated targets (in order : Torino, Genova, Florence, Roma, Napoli and Milano).

Their objectives will be as follows :

_ Establish contact with local traceurs
_ Train their asses off and enjoy their time
_ Gather video and photographic intelligence for further analysis
_ Still undercover, return safely to their HQ in Tours a.k.a. "Thomas' place", which is also the extraction point for 2 of them.

To help them with their task, they will be equipped with leading-edge technology in terms of tactical autopropelled rapid-maneuvering conveying systems, in the form of a brand new ultralight 1976 Citroen 2cv car that will carry them and their gear at the science-defying speed of 110 km/h or 70 mph (given that the road is flat with little to no wind).

The three men commando will operate under highly extreme conditions (sunny weather, tasty food, enjoyable scenery, beautiful ladies, etc.). This is why Parkour's finest and most prestigious traceurs have been carefully selected for this mission.
Unfortunately they refused, so the task has been cast upon 3 random guys :

Thomas "des-bois" Couetdic
Distinctive trait : Occasionally eats frozen food, posesses Bart Simpson socks and wears them.

Chris "Blane" Rowat
Distinctive trait : Enjoys wearing a beanie under any weather condition, believes he draws his strength from eating Weetabix.

Andy "Kiell" Day
Distinctive trait : People on crack find him a ressemblance to Harry Potter.


These men do not know the meaning of fear, or of apocatastasis, or of paraskevidekatriaphobia, but we trust they will carry out their orders with great rigor.
In the case of a successful outcome, a debriefing will be made and intelligence will be shared on this very top secret and restricted internet page.