Designing Parkour-style training environments for athlete development: insights from experienced Parkour Traceurs

ABSTRACT

Contemporary models of motor learning implicate the value of Parkour-style training as an activity to enrich athletic performance in different sports. We explored Parkour Traceurs’ experiential knowledge on the range of physical, perceptual, psychological and social skills that they perceive to be developed during Parkour practice and performance. We also investigated their recommendations on how to design Parkour practice to facilitate the development of foundational performance behaviours. Experienced male Parkour Traceurs (n = 14) were interviewed using an open-ended, semi-structured approach, with a two-stage thematic analysis being conducted to identify themes. The analysis identified two dimensions: Skills Developed Through Parkour and Recommendations for Designing Parkour Training Environments. Parkour Traceurs outlined numerous physical (locomotor skills; endurance; strength; agility; balance), perceptual (multi-limb coordination; control precision; rate control; response orientation), psychological (problem-solving; stress relief; self-efficacy; risk management) and social (networking; initiative; social perceptiveness; receptiveness to feedback) capacities and skills that could be augmented through Parkour training. Parkour Traceurs explained how indoor Parkour environments should promote creative and exploratory movement behaviours that enable physical conditioning, whilst enhancing decision-making and action functionality. Responses suggest that these aims are often achieved by designing a modular practice landscape where Parkour Traceurs manipulate the spacing, orientation and angles of bars and wall set-ups to facilitate the development of different perceptual, cognitive and physical skills. In conclusion, this study provides insights on how affordances offered by a Parkour environment could be integrated into practice to enhance athlete self-regulation and transfer of functional behaviours to team sport performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Affordances
• athletic development
• Athletic Skills Model
• donor sport
• free running

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

No sources of funding from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not for profit sectors were used to assist in the preparation of this article.

Notes on contributors

Ben William Strafford

Ben William Strafford is at the time of publication, a PhD researcher within the Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University. His research investigates topics in human movement science guided by the theoretical framework of Ecological Dynamics.

Keith Davids

Keith Davids researches at the Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, on skill acquisition and expertise in sport, motor learning and talent development. His research is underpinned by the theoretical framework of Ecological Dynamics, producing different types of evidence to support the application of key concepts to learning design and practice organisation in different sports and physical activities.

Jamie Stephen North

Jamie Stephen North is Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise in the Faculty of Sport, Health, and Wellbeing at St Mary's University, Twickenham. His research interests focus on the study of expert performance and how learning environments can be best designed to expedite the acquisition of motor skills.

Joseph Antony Stone

Joseph Antony Stone is a Senior Lecturer in Performance Analysis and Skill Acquisition within the Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University. His research focuses on skill acquisition and talent development in sport guided by the theoretical framework of Ecological Dynamics.