Participant E: Familiarisation process

Experience descriptive/evaluative/clarifying (Lines 1-8)

Okay, as (name omitted) stated it is the art of movement primarily, it is used as a way of overcoming obstacles, the challenges that you face in life, mentally and physically. It is a good training method that you can apply in everyday life. I mean, you know, there is a challenge, you build up to it. I mean you might not be able to do it at the moment but you can build up to it and overcome obstacles in time and it’s like you have eliminated the fears associated with that. So, if I was to describe it to a complete novice, yeah I would just say that it is a way of training yourself to become better and more confident as a person.

Experience descriptive/observation/clarifying (Lines 8-13)

I started in January 2005 after I saw a programme called Jump Britain on TV. I thought it was interesting and unique and it is the simplicity as well. For most sports you have to have discipline with a set training system and a place that you got to and do it or special equipment to do it. Whereas with parkour everyone can do it. All you need is a pair of trainers, gloves and mentality. I do it just round my local town in Wakefield and Leeds because I found out that there were some other people that did it, so I met up with them.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective (Lines 13-18)

I do it to better myself. I used to eat lots of crap food and stuff and now I try to feel healthy about myself. When I wake up in the morning I am getting stronger with reaching goals that I have set for parkour. When you go, it’s like a very relaxed environment as everyone is not jumping around all hyper. Everyone is not serious and everyone is just chilled out and relaxed and doing stuff that they want to do, stuff like that.

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Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/observational (Lines 18-23) Do you mean the type of people it attracts? alright okay, well I think usually you have to have an open mind previous to finding out about it, otherwise you would not have discovered it. People like it because it looks fun and until you get training for it - it’s not just for fun, it’s a sport and a discipline. It’s comparative to martial arts really. It has its philosophical side and it expands your mind when you are training.

Experience/clarifying (Lines 23-29)

The interesting aspects of parkour - every practitioner has the same mentality created through the practice of it really. Yeah, you have talked about creativity - every person has their own different style and they focus on different parts. The focus you get from it comes because you have to dedicate a lot of time to it. It’s like movement and the challenge. It affects the challenges in life and it affects work or anything really - getting past opinions. You have that focus and drive. So I think that is really interesting and inspires me to keep progressing.

Experience descriptive (Lines 29-33)

First time I tried it was following the Jump Britain documentary. I went out with a friend skateboarding previously to that. We thought it looked exciting and we went around the town and basically jumped on a wall and rail just to replicate what we had seen. Just something small really. We didn’t understand the philosophy at that time and just did small things because of our capabilities.

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Experience evaluative/clarifying (Lines 33-39 and Lines 47-49)

Yeah, I have learned many things, to express myself and not to listen to other people’s perceptions and that there is a limit to what you can do when you practise it. You can’t go on private property of course. It just allows you to express yourself creatively. The learning process comes from the new moves. You learn through errors or when you misjudge something. You know, when you replicate this you can learn from your mistakes and you can remember what you learnt last time (Lines 33-39). You won’t make the same mistake in every situation you are in and you are able to deal with it and not fall and injure yourself. That is a large part (Lines 47-49).

Experience descriptive (Lines 39-47)

It’s more of an individual thing. You are in control of your movement and you don’t have a personal coach and you make the decisions. You are vulnerable and no one is there to push you. You have to provide that yourself. There is a parkour community but it is not a teenage sport. You get people that help each other and yeah, if there are a lot of people out you get people helping each other. They combine together and pull each other up walls. You work in a team or in a group and yeah there are different communities in the UK. Each city has its own community and way of training and it is a social thing. People who do parkour have their own mindset as well and they live a sort of same life style. Some are employees and some are friends.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/clarifying/reflective (Lines 49-57) Yeah it’s environmentally influenced. It is allowed to be practised in urban or rural landscapes. You can engage with these areas and you have concrete areas and yeah people in different areas are influenced by the architecture of the environment. People who live in Newcastle - they are really urbanised and their training has more concrete obstacles and rural trees are available to them.

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Socially, yeah I think it is - people practise it together and they meet other people in training or see them in real life (name omitted) mentioned people not being free and not discovering the city that they live in and that they are clones that follow each other without looking up or around them. They are missing so much and they don’t take it all in.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/observational/clarifying (Lines 57-62)

No because of all the things I have achieved from it and even if I stopped it physically then the mentality will still be there. Then you get experience so that you can help others as well by passing on knowledge. It’s the learning process that keeps the drive to keep practicing it and it gives me confidence which opens my eyes. I would not be where I am now and I am so much more confident now. I have developed physically, so it’s the health and fitness part of it and yeah and I can’t think my life without parkour.

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5.1.3 Participant F: Familiarisation process