Beginnings of parkour in Serbia

Abstract

Parkour is a discipline of movement and the skill of efficient movement from one place to another, in which a person chooses his own path. During movement in the most varied conditions traceur encounters natural or urban obstacles that he overcomes as quickly and efficiently as possible using his own body. The movie Yamakasi was the inspiration for many to train this skill around the world. Bogdan Cvetković is considered the founder of parkour in Serbia. In 2004, he founded a parkour forum through which "traceurs" from cities all over Serbia communicated. In the same year, the first gathering was held in Čačak. The first workshop of this kind in Serbia was held in 2006 in Kraljevo. The officially legally established parkour association was formed in 2007 in Kraljevo under the name Parkour 4 all. The turning point in the further development of parkour in Serbia was in 2008, when the founder of world parkour, David Bell, visited Serbia. International cooperation began in 2008, first with Germany, then France, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Italy, and cooperation expanded even to Qatar and Taiwan. Since 2009, regular outdoor and indoor trainings have been organized in the hall of the Faculty of Sports and Physical Education, University of Belgrade. It continues with courses, camps for adults and children, birthdays and team building. The first appearance in media in Serbia was recorded in the year 2003. The filming of commercials with the theme of parkour began in 2008 (ParkourSrbija, 2008), while the reportage about this activity in the program "Sasvim prirodno" (RTS Sasvim prirodno - Zvanični kanal, 2017) had the greatest impact. Although terrain movements have been performed since the appearance of the subject of the outdoor activities, from 2021, in the field teaching of the subject, parkour begins to be studied under its original name. Today, there are about 150 active traceurs in Serbia.