Tracing the city – parkour training, play and the practice of collaborative learning

Abstract

The article examines how parkour training is constructed and transmitted amongst localised peer groups known as ‘traceurs’. It concentrates on training practices that develop as a result of peer interaction in open, public spaces rather than formal training sessions that take place within a gym or as part of a regulated coaching programme. Drawing on extended interview material from a range of parkour practitioners with varying levels of experience and expertise, the article investigates the traceur's perspective on group training and how this relates to cognition and processes of learning. Using traceurs' own reflections the research will identify how physical obstacles, mental challenges, fear and risk are handled through repeated actions that then result in deeply embedded somatic responses to the built environment. The repertoire of moves that is shared between traceurs offers a patterned way of learning that, in turn, provides a route to embodied knowing. The research demonstrates how group training sessions in parkour can be conceived as collaborative learning and how that relates to theories of social learning (Bandura 1977, Lave 2009, Wenger 1998). The article argues that the efficacy of play as an approach to training provides a vehicle for active learning that chimes with the utilitarian aspect of parkour practice where to know and overcome obstacles represents the knowing and attainment of freedom.

Keywords:

• underground culture
• play
• social engagement
• interaction
• applied performance

Acknowledgements

Heartfelt thanks to all the traceurs who gave up their time freely in order to be interviewed for this research. Your generosity, insight and willingness to share your passion for parkour has been enlightening and inspiring. Many thanks also to the wider parkour community for providing such rich online material through discussion groups, forums and YouTube footage. Special mention goes to traceurs Alex Ashford, Rob Green, Ethan Leamon, Jacob Peregrine-Wheller and Brad Wendes, without whom this research would not have been possible. Thanks also to Parkour Leeds and photographer Josh Caudwell.

Notes

1. Desire lines are the unpaved paths that are developed over time by human and animal footfall. They represent the easiest or shortest route from one point to another. They emerge where the designated route or pathway has been ignored and thus desire triumphs over design (see http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/desire-lines/).

2. Other underground forms of play that are beginning to emerge predominantly via YouTube and social networking sites include practices such as house gymnastics (http://www.housegymnastics.com/index.shtml), planking (http://www.planking.me/) and extreme ironing (http://www.extremeironing.com/). All share an interest in risk, danger and physical challenge and challenge the normative conventions of urban and domestic spatial practice.

3. Most active in this area is the London Borough of Westminster through the Positive Futures initiative (Positive Futures 2007). This initiative is a sport-based policy developed in line with New Labour's social inclusion agenda to tackle issues surrounding health, crime and education for young people at risk.

4. Parkour is not a gender-specific activity and there are many female traceurs practising within the UK. However, as all the interviewees for this research were male, traceurs will be referred to as ‘he’ for the purposes of this article.

5. Free running is an aesthetically orientated version of parkour. It involves adding flips and spins to produce spectacle rather than concentrating solely on functionality and efficiency. It also emphasises the need for practitioners to find their ‘own way’ over obstacles and to develop their own style as a route to personal development.

6. For the purposes of this article transcribed material from interviews is not linked to named contributors.

7. For a full explanation of this model and a diagrammatic representation see Wenger (1998, p. 5).

8. The youngest interviewees for this research described how in the summer months they regularly trained for 12 hours in a single day. Walking from place to place to find suitable places for training made up for some of this time. Socialising was an important aspect of the day and made up for approximately a quarter of the time spent together.

9. A full list of parkour moves and training videos can be found at http://www.worldwidejam.tv/pkbasics.1.jam.parkour.html

10. The term ‘corruption of space’ comes from the documentary Jump London (2003) where architect Will Alsop discusses how lifestyle sports such as parkour and skateboarding corrupt the original use or function of buildings but in doing so reinvigorate public space with new dynamism and creativity.