Participant H: Familiarisation process

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective (Lines 1-9)

Okay well parkour is a physical discipline but there is also a philosophical side to it as well. The most obvious implementation that you see people practicing is as a means of navigating through the environment quickly and effectively. You can use it to travel through any given thing and you can also see it practiced in an urban environment. There is no reason why you can’t apply those skills into different settings like more rural settings. On the philosophical side of it, it’s not just about the physical aspect, so yeah you might want to get over a wall that is six foot tall and that is one aspect but also it is about overcoming other obstacles and they could be more mental based.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/clarifying (Lines 9-16)

I do some lecturing in the school of sound recording, where I talk about audio post production. Basically when I actually started lecturing I was really apprehensive about it and even the prospect of seeing only five or six people my hands would be shaking and I would talk nonsense at some point. Then some time later, a year later when my parkour became slightly more advanced, I found myself in a situation where I was standing in front of two hundred people, addressing the whole audience. Strangely it was absolutely fine and that was definitely down to parkour.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/observational (Lines 17-28) Personally, I suppose the reason why I got into parkour was because like all people I saw the documentaries in 2005 and it was, I don’t know, something about freedom. Personally I practice it due to the confidence and the physical aspects of things. I wasn’t interested in physical sports when I was at school. I was the last one chosen to join in a group and I hated it and had no interest. I found parkour really appealing and I don’t know if I have mentioned that it is not competitive and that is a really important aspect of it.

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Like if you go out then you are not competing with other people, that is not what parkour is. You are in your own space and you are just trying to jump in your own space. You might go out and do a jump and the next week you might be closer to accomplish it. Its personal progression that attracts me to parkour and to see these visible achievement and to stay fit and healthy as well.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/observational (Lines 29-40) I think initially it will attract people in different ways. Let’s assume some people have seen some videos and get into it because it’s great for health and this might be a reason why they show off. Some might get into it because they will look good. The attraction might be initially for various reasons. This is a generally agreed view point. For people who practice it on a longer term basis it might be about personal progression and not about showing off and making videos to show your mates. It’s about bettering yourself physically and helping others as well. There is a phrase that we use in parkour which is, “to be strong, to be useful” and it is from the Method Unnatural. Basically we follow the premise of it and to be stronger in many situations. For example, with the frost recently you might find someone trying to get out of the frost and can’t get any grips. So if you are trying to push the car with them and if you are stronger, then you can succeed in moving it, so it can be things like that really.

Experience descriptive/ evaluative/clarifying (Lines 40-47)

Parkour changes your perception of a given environment which means that you will see an area where there is wall with a rail and the more you practise the more you will see it like a volt or you will ascertain a type of jump and a potential movement. You seen it in a strange way and then you will see it in another way, even if you have been practicing their for years. There are several spots that we have been training in for years and we still go back there. Someone will suggest something and you will think that you haven’t thought about it properly, so you see it from another perspective.

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Experience descriptive (Lines 47-54)

First time I tried it was after seeing the TV documentary Jump Britain. After seeing that I looked on the internet to find out where to free run and I didn’t know the difference between free running and parkour. I found the parkour website that (name omitted) set up, like a discussion forum and I went out on a Sunday and met up with fifty odd people (name omitted) was there and other people and parkour and free running was around. Some of the people had been doing it for about six months and I was just learning. Basically doing stuff for three or five hours and my legs were aching and I could barely walk up stairs.

Experience evaluative/clarifying (Lines 55-63)

Okay I have learnt two sides really: a physical and mental side. The physical side of it, yeah, being aware through the practice of parkour and on a simple level balance is a fundamental aspect. You do become good at climbing. People don’t see the mental aspect but they are aware that you are becoming more confident and believing in other aspects of life. I have learnt more about people in a strained way with people saying what the norm is. People will still choose to walk around the metal rail even if it takes one second to go over it. For some reason they have some preconceived perceptions of how things should be and how they should be and give it rationally.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/clarifying/reflective (Lines 63-77) Most people don’t like difficulty and avoid challenge and try to keep confident by avoiding difficulty. Going back to what (name omitted) was saying about pushing each other. This is about a mindset. You can train under your own motivation without external influence but I am not sure if anyone can truly push themselves to the max under their own influence. I mean we bought gymnastic rings and practise holding ourselves up on them and it’s called the iron cross. The arms aren’t that straight and we have been training lowering the arms to build strength.

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We were drilling in a set of ten each and I said I think I will do thirty and (name omitted) said I do fifty as a rule. If something will be done then you have no option but to do fifty ha-ha. The point that I wanted to make about the country and around the world is that they are training in their own group. You do get regional trends that influence how people practice. I went to France and they were great in jumping across-the-board and we were better in strength based training. There training was in their aspect and we were in ours so you get your regional differences. Younger participants follow the fashion based trends and wear a type of trainer or where tracksuits with their hair grown long.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/observational/clarifying (Lines 78-90)

Yeah because it is you who practises in an environment and so it is impossible to ignore the environment you are practicing in. Parkour is strongly influenced by the environment and you are training to be good in that environment. If you don’t understand that you do not understand the real purpose of parkour. People around the world are practicing in the environment that they have available to them. Parkour is socially influenced. We haven’t had any problems the police. When they have come up to us and asked, “what are you doing lads?” We explain and they say “okay carry on”. Security guards are funnier about it. You describe it to them and their response to you is predetermined before they even talk to you. They will come out and they will say, “move on” which is a predefined thing they say. Sometimes you ask for a reason and they just say, “don’t get cocky with us now”. They will mention the facts about insurance and health and safety is normally cited.

Experience descriptive/evaluative/reflective/observational/clarifying (Lines 90-98)

I think you can’t get away from what you have learnt in parkour and you can’t just stop it and lose all the mental stuff you have learnt. It’s hard to answer really. When I started to practice parkour I was locked out of the house.

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I had to wait five hours to open the door in the cold because I hadn’t been practicing. I didn’t think that I could climb up the wall to the bathroom window. Then a couple of years later, the same thing happened and I just went through the bathroom window. So I will always find a situation when I can use parkour. There is no way of getting away from it really. You can put a ban on it but never take away what I have learnt and how to utilise it.

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5.2 Systematic Production of Themes and Clusters

Becoming familiar with the text enables the researcher to implement a systematic approach with each participant’s comments (components) being gathered together under appropriate emerging themes. A constant reading and rereading of each participant’s comments makes it possible to identify patterns in the form of invariant components of the experience (Smith et al., 2009).

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5.2.1 Participant D: Emerging Themes and Clusters