Very is little I love more than watching Parkour. This is FIG nonsense doesn’t do it for me. Honestly this doesn’t even satisfy many of the definitions of Parkour. It’s a shame Parkour Earth got beat out by the FIG to be the governing body.
Also Parkour is very similar to Judo in many aspects. It was never meant to be a competition sport. It was meant originally as a martial art, the art of motion many have called it. It was supposed to increase ones spacial awareness and foot travel. The idea was that during an invasion or other threat, a traceur/traceuse (the name for Parkour practitioners) could get to a destination faster and more efficiently than a threat. Parkour has also proven helpful in better balance, fall prevention (for older practitioners), and inner city travel. Parkour involves no tricks (a common mistake people make), and has a loosely defined skill set mainly consisting of leaps, vaults, jumps, rolls, and a few specialty moves.
Freerunning was designed specifically for competition and a wider, younger audience. This is the discipline of Parkour where tricks are mandatory. Purists like myself (I’ve practice some basic Parkour on and off) do not like when people mislabel the two. Most Parkour gyms teach basic Parkour, and then focus their students on freerunning.
I wouldn’t consider myself an expert because I have very little actual experience in the sport, but I am very knowledgeable about it. I can answer any questions people have while watching the FIG version during the games.
My main complaint about the FIG version is that the obstacles aren’t urban. In Parkour, the obstacles are not supposed to be perfectly lauded out artificial setups, they are supposed to be random walls, fountains, railings, roofs, and any other modern architectural figure. Freerunning has evolved to allow such things, but many life long traceurs will tell you they prefer “natural” obstacles that were never built with the intention for Parkour.