methode-naturelle – Justin Owings

Here is a short video of a stunt man that is being billed as a video of Georges Hebert, the French navy man who founded Methode Naturelle back in the early 20th century and originated parkour* (Perhaps Hebert was the original traceur). It’s a cool video, even though it’s not Hebert. The stunt man bounds up trees, walls, pipes, and makes any number of insane leaps into bodies of water.

There are two “tells” that this isn’t Hebert. The first is that the motto of Methode Naturelle was:

“Être fort pour être utile”–“Being strong to be useful.”

Carrying a kid up a parallel wall to show off — nifty, impressive, dangerous, but not really useful!

The second tell was really that I got told or tipped off by Erwan that this isn’t Hebert, and it really should have been obvious. In Erwan’s words:

I’ve noticed your link to the so-called Methode Naturelle founder. This is not AT ALL Georges Hebert, this is an old footage I think of a movie called Gizmo.

Hebert was born in 1875 and got badly injured (his right arm paralyzed) in 1914. There’s no video footage of him! The guy is a stuntman, pretty talented (the tree climbing is nice, but obviously sped up though). In any case, not Hebert, but a cool illustration of the practical side of natural movement, even though the kid carrying is I think not very smart, great skill, but if the guy had fell, the boy could have died just to show off…

Glad he told me even though I feel like a horse’s pa toot for being gullible enough to think it was Hebert (From my original post). Alas, still a neat video, and you gotta love the goofy old-time music:

[video:youtube:q3FheeVpFYo]

H/T CF by Imperium

*Though you could argue that parkour originated with our innate nature as human beings who had to be strong to be useful.

I’ve been knee-deep in reading everything I can find on Erwan Le Corre’s MovNat, which is an extension and expansion of Georges Hebert’s Methode Naturalle.

In a fantastic example of how the Internet makes our worlds smaller and builds community across large geographic boundaries (See The Power of Blogging), I’ve been able to dialogue with Erwan over email. I can’t attest to his physical fitness (though plenty of others have!), but I can attest to his genuineness of purpose as a philosopher who seeks to understand and express our true nature as human beings. I think I’d say I’m seeking the same thing.

More Insight on Erwan Le Corre and the Methode Naturalle — Saved material from a blogger who trained with Le Corre and has a background in parkour (and also CrossFit). Interesting reflection on the core idea, which is natural movement and being a athletic generalist.
Reverting to “Le Corre” of Things, Our Nature — A fantastic interview with Erwan Le Corre by Conditioning Research; here, we get some background on Le Corre’s training, the “zoo human” concept, his thoughts on evolutionary fitness, and the social aspect of his philosophy, which is the importance of cooperation (as opposed to isolating/insulating oneself from others). Erwan makes the point that humans didn’t compete with each other in a “survival of the fittest” sense — we existed cooperatively in tribes. De Vany has made this point, as well, which is that in a band of humans, each person had their important role to play as part of the group. It’s interesting to imagine that sort of purpose and compare it to our Corporate-leaning cog-like modern existence.
MensHealth covers Erwan Le Corre’s MovNat — Perhaps the article that has spurred the greatest interest in Le Corre and MovNat in recent days, the Men’s Health article titled A Wild Workout for the Real World discusses the concepts behind Le Corre’s MovNat and is told from the perspective of someone who traveled to Brazil and trained with Le Corre.
Wikipedia entry on Georges Hebert and Methode Naturelle — As usual, wikipedia offers a nice primer on Methode Naturelle which was a movement started by Georges Hebert, a French navy officer, back in the early 20th century. This covers the basics and is a pretty useful overview of the precursor to Le Corre’s own advancement of the ideas he calls MovNat. Of note, the motto of Methode Naturelle is “Être fort pour être utile”—”Being strong to be useful.”
The MovNat website — Obviously, this is the hub of Le Corre’s public MovNat presence. It’s a nice website and I look forward to when Erwan gets a blog up and running!
The MovNat video on YouTube — be sure to hit the “HD” button to watch the video in high quality. Anyone want to go to Brazil?!

Related Link on Human Nature and our Hunter-Gatherer, Non-Specialist Evolutionary Roots

I’ll be sure to update this repository if I find anything else.

Update: I’ve been informed that Kevin, a fan of Erwan Le Corre and MovNat, has created a site dedicated to Hebert’s Methode Naturelle. Check it out!