Jam Session, May 1

A little trip to Mangalsala with a bunch of the Latvian traceurs:

parkour, free running, whatever in parts of former military fortifications...

Some interesting insights, creative use also of more natural surroundings (practicing flips from the sand dunes on the beach); ohhs and ahhs about half-finished buildings which would offer great opportunities; little concern - at least vocally - about the mixture of "disciplines" that people practice...

Nothing more I want to add right now, I need to go on with my writing ;)

Discourse Analysis: The Media and the Traceurs

(i.e., here, looking for the main expressions, and therefore issues and defining characteristics, raised in different sources.)

Here, the sources employed were seven TV reports on parkour in Austria, sixteen newspaper and magazine articles from -mainly- Austrian media, plus the traits stated as typical of "parkour" and "free running" in the question about how they would define these two terms given as part of the survey of traceurs I undertook.

Survey Results 1

As always, first it takes longer, second than you think...



Additional analysis (the bit on possible relations between sports and environmental attitude) will take longer still, but is a different issue anyways; here's the basic data/results:



86 questionnaires were validly answered

Age distribution of respondents:

• below 20: 55


• 20-30: 25


• 30-40: 4


• >40: 2

Countries of Respondents:

• USA: 10


• Canada: 6


• Austria: 27


• Germany: 8


• GB: 17


• other (EU): 3


• other (non-EU): 15

"Employment Status:"

• at school, no job: 36


• at school, job: 11


• at university, no job: 6


• at university, job: 9


• employed: 23


• unemployed: 1

Sports Practice of Respondents

Sports practice per week:

• once a week: 4


• 2-3x a week: 26


• 3-5x a week: 33


• 6-7x a week: 23

Reasons to practice sports (in percent of answers):

• for fun: 76


• for fitness/health: 75


• for mental development/discipline: 68


• for getting outdoors: 47


• for good looks: 26


• or other reasons: 24


• for weight loss: 11

Parkour Practice of Respondents

Parkour practiced for…

• 1-2 years 24


• 3 years 12


• 3-4 years 14


• more than 5 years 5

Usual environment to practice parkour:

• outdoors, urban 45


• outdoors, park 3


• outdoors, wild 6


• outdoors (any) 18


• outdoors/indoors (seasonal) 10


• outdoors, sports track 4

Usual way to practice parkour:

• alone 55


• with others 49


• in a team 22


• as trainer 10


• with a trainer 0

Reasons to Practice PK

order based on average place given:

1. fun


2. fitness


3. mind


4. health


5. preparedness


6. strength


7. looks/muscles


8. show value

Top 3 reasons at top three places:

1. fun, mind, preparedness


2. fitness, fun, mind


3. health, strength, fitness

Defining aspects...

... Parkour:

• 50% efficiency


• 29% philosophy of development


• 16% motion from A to B


• 15% overcoming obstacles


• 13% utilitarian


• 12% run/speed

... Freerunning:

• 28% show value


• 27% fun, playful motion


• 16% aesthetics, elegance


• 13% acrobatics


• 7% self-expression (through motion)

Answers to questions on online discussions:

The figure shows how many respondents stated that their view/participation/... responded to the statement on the left, the right, or in between.


A bit more, not least of which is a discussion of results, still ought to follow.