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.

"Parkour as Object of Science"

First off, as part of my work looking into parkour, I have been researching what public media have to say about it.
One part (more or less) of that is a look at science.

Since questions about published articles on parkour pop up every now and then, I thought I should provide this (very short - there just isn't much) part of a chapter as a review essay plus bibliography: "Parkour as Object of Science." It can be downloaded from here (pdf, 310 KB; http://www.positive-ecology.org/pk-graphie/Schmidt_2008_Parkour_Science.pdf).

What I also managed to finish is an online questionnaire for traceurs, collecting data about sports practice, environmental attitudes, and views of parkour/freerunning.

The survey is available in both German (ja, auf Deutsch) or in English, at http://www.befrager.de/befragung.aspx?projekt=5088

I estimate that answering all the questions should typically take 15-20 minutes if you do it as quickly as it should be done. I know, quite a lot of time for cyberspace- and parkour-attuned people, but good science requires more than a glance.
There may yet be some bugs, but it seems to work quite all right - if not, or if you'd like a questionnaire to fill in offline or print out, contact me at pk[at]positive-ecology.org