Coaching parkour: the instructed concerted actions of negotiating expectancies

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an ethnomethodological (EM) account of parkour coaching based on an eight-month participant observation conducted by the researcher in a parkour gym in Madrid (Spain). It addresses from a praxeological perspective the emotional dimension of parkour coaching: the tension balance between confidence and fear, expressed in the negotiation of expectancies upon athletes’ performances on each occasion. To do so, it provides a detailed EM analysis of the endogenous production of negotiating expectancies among members (coach and athletes) during parkour sessions. The coaching ethnomethods for negotiating expectancies constitute a social orderliness on each occasion. The negotiation of expectancies can lead to positive or negative breaching moments which demands the execution of some repair work to maintain the social orderliness of the parkour class. Such dynamic negotiation constitutes a key feature of the process along which parkour proficiency is achieved.

KEYWORDS:

• Parkour
• ethnomethods
• coaching
• expectancies
• instructed concerted actions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For an ethnomethodological reading of habitus in sport activities see Sánchez-García (2008).

2. The same occurs with other lifestyle sport practices such as skateboarding, generating news ways of moving and enjoying the city in unexpected ways (Borden, 2001, Borden, 2019).

3. “To break” in parkour refers to the moment when the solution of a challenge is achieved, at least in a basic, rudimentary way that can be further polished or cleaned.

4. Garfinkel’s early writings (Garfinkel and Harvey, 1963) already analysed this double dimension (factual/normative) on the issue of trust as a necessary background condition for social interaction to be produced in a mutually intelligible way. Trust implies that concerted actions are deemed to be oriented to a set of constitutive expectations regarding norms that all competent members of a specific community have at hand while interacting. This is part of acquiring competence in any activity, being a parkour class in this case.

5. All the names of participants except mine has been changed in order to keep their anonymity.

6. A precision leap is a technique in which the traceur jumps from one place to another, using a preceding running start to gain extra momentum behind the jump.

7. An arm jump (also known as cat leap) is a technique used to land in a vertical object, such as walls.

8. A kong vault (also known as monkey vault or cat pass) is a technique in which both hands are placed on an obstacle and are used to push over the obstacle while the legs are picked up close to the chest.

9. Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for this important insight.

10. Splash is a technique in which the traceur jumps towards a wall, hitting it with feet first to cushion the impact and get safely to the ground.