Yamakasi

The Yamakasi is the original group of parkour practitioners from Lisses, France. The nine founding members were David Belle, Sébastien Foucan, Châu Belle Dinh, Williams Belle, Yann Hnautra, Laurent Piemontesi, Guylain N'Guba Boyeke, Malik Diouf, and Charles Perriére. Their philosophy was that parkour builds an individual who is physically, mentally, and ethically strong. The name has been used in popular references to parkour, including in French films about admirable lawbreakers who do their physically demanding deeds for charitable ends. Members of the original group have continued to appear in video reports on their history and the practice.

The development of the Yamakasi is traced back through David Belle to his father Raymond Belle, who was heavily influenced by Georges Hébert's methode naturelle.

David initially trained on his own, and after moving to Lisses found other young men (including his cousins) who had similar desires and they began to train together. The group put themselves through challenges that forced them to find physical and mental strength to succeed. Examples included training without food or water, or sleeping on the floor without a blanket, to learn to endure the cold.

The group began calling themselves the Yamakasi - Congolese Lingala ya makási, meaning strong in one's person. They called their activity l'art du déplacement - the art of movement. To join the group, new members had to be recommended by an existing member and then pass tests to evaluate their motivation for joining. The group complemented their training with values and principles shared with all members, such as honesty, respect, humility, sacrifice and hard work.

For example, no one in the group was permitted to be late for training, as it would hold back the whole group. If any member completed a challenge, everyone else had to do the same thing. During their training no one was allowed to be negative or to complain. Few excuses were allowed. For instance, if someone claimed that his shoes were too worn out in order to make a jump, he had to do it anyway, even if it meant doing the jump barefoot. At the same time, everyone was required to have knowledge of their own limits.

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