benefits of practicing parkour (senior project)

[Erin Hofstetter]

So I am a senior in high school and am trying to figure out an idea for my senior project. I have seen people practicing parkour for at least a year and I have always wanted to learn how to do it. So i thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and do both! But I'm having some problems figuring out what my question would be, and how to incorporate it into an "academic relevance" where i would be able to write a paper and find plenty of sources to take notes from. I'm very stuck on how I should do this, so if you have any ideas or know someone who has done this before, that would be extremely helpful. Thanks!

Erin

[Seraph]

Hey Erin,

Using Parkour for a senior project is a great idea! I'm doing a documentary for my senior thesis in college, and it's one of the best things I've ever started. What kind of question do you need? What kinds of "academic relevance" are required? Do you have an idea of what you want to do for a career maybe? If you do, maybe you can incorporate Parkour and the field you want to go into. There are lots of sources both written and verbal (interviews?), It just depends on what you want to do it on.

~Seraph

[Erin Hofstetter]

Well, I have no idea about the type of question or anything, the papers they handed out make no sense to me, but I just talked to a friend of mine who did her project about the history of distance running/the science of it like the runners high. I believe the academic relevance has to do with certain classes in high school that are involved in the project... I'm not exactly sure how related to school it has to be though. I want to become a mechanical engineer, so not much connection there. I think if i start researching it, I'll find the relevance somewhere. Maybe physics or math if i'm lucky. Or possibly how to prevent injuries in a high impact sport or something like that.... but 8-10 pages on that might be difficult... haha. So how's your thesis set up? What are you majoring it?

- Erin

[puck]

Go do some parkour. Sign yourself up for one of the jams and experience it. I swear that practicing parkour will give you more ideas than you could possibly handle.

[Seng]

It sounds like you're going for a more mechanically-oriented angle, but if you're interested in something more conceptual, I just received an interesting academic paper about linking emotional space to physical space. Like many papers, it's somewhat dryer than its subject and has lots of citations breaking up the prose (and not being a geography scholar, I openly admit that I have ready probably none of the cited texts), but you can find it at

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a904179043

[marisa]

Wish I could read the rest of that paper, it sounds neat. I like the idea of parkour as a means of communicating with your environment.

[marisa]

Heh, looking into the physics aspect of pk reminded me of this article: http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-amp-gaming/article/2009-05/phys...

[Ryan Fulmer]

a senior at my crossfit classes is "using me as a mentor" for his senior project.

hes having fun.

[Erin Hofstetter]

Thanks for all your help! I talked to my english teacher yesterday, and she agreed to my idea. So my question right now is what are the benefits of practicing parkour. Like, physicaly, mentally ect. I'm excited now. :)

[Bay Area Parkour]

...consider retitling the thread to "physical and/or mental benefits of practicing parkour", or similar to get more input.
:)

[Erin Hofstetter]

Good idea

[Erin Hofstetter]

Except I can't figure out how to change it. Hehe

[Bay Area Parkour]

Done!
(If you want it different, just say it)