Pub Date : 2022-08-14DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111458
Kaitlin L. Crawford, B. Wilson, Laura Hurd, M. Beauchamp
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore male ice hockey athletes’ experiences with barriers and facilitators to asking for help while competing in professional leagues (e.g. National Hockey League). Using a critical interpretivist approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 athletes (aged 24–41 years), who either held a professional contract or recently retired from professional ice hockey within five years of the interview. The data were thematically analysed whereby four overarching themes and 19 subthemes were identified to reflect the various barriers to, and facilitators of, athlete help- seeking. The themes included (1) cultural norms: old versus new school (2) culturally informed identities, (3) personal agency, and (4) provision of resources. The first theme reflects how tensions between old and new school cultural norms promote and/or restrict help-seeking. The second theme encompasses how participants described their sense of self, as linked to help-seeking within the context of professional ice hockey. The third theme details how participants perceived their help-seeking literacy, autonomy, maturity, and personal mindset to facilitate or restrict help-seeking. The final theme corresponded to how the quality of the resources and relationships with support personnel facilitated or created barriers to help-seeking. The results indicate that the culture of professional ice hockey is highly influential in terms of how athletes understand and frame help-seeking behaviours and, in turn, how they engage in help-seeking behaviours. The findings further highlight potential means through which key social agents (e.g. coaches, psychologists, general managers) can reduce barriers and facilitate athlete help-seeking.
{"title":"Reaching out: help-seeking among professional male ice hockey athletes","authors":"Kaitlin L. Crawford, B. Wilson, Laura Hurd, M. Beauchamp","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111458","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore male ice hockey athletes’ experiences with barriers and facilitators to asking for help while competing in professional leagues (e.g. National Hockey League). Using a critical interpretivist approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 athletes (aged 24–41 years), who either held a professional contract or recently retired from professional ice hockey within five years of the interview. The data were thematically analysed whereby four overarching themes and 19 subthemes were identified to reflect the various barriers to, and facilitators of, athlete help- seeking. The themes included (1) cultural norms: old versus new school (2) culturally informed identities, (3) personal agency, and (4) provision of resources. The first theme reflects how tensions between old and new school cultural norms promote and/or restrict help-seeking. The second theme encompasses how participants described their sense of self, as linked to help-seeking within the context of professional ice hockey. The third theme details how participants perceived their help-seeking literacy, autonomy, maturity, and personal mindset to facilitate or restrict help-seeking. The final theme corresponded to how the quality of the resources and relationships with support personnel facilitated or created barriers to help-seeking. The results indicate that the culture of professional ice hockey is highly influential in terms of how athletes understand and frame help-seeking behaviours and, in turn, how they engage in help-seeking behaviours. The findings further highlight potential means through which key social agents (e.g. coaches, psychologists, general managers) can reduce barriers and facilitate athlete help-seeking.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"15 1","pages":"364 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46900621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-13DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111457
A. Maher, J. McVeigh, Alan Thomson, J. Knight
ABSTRACT Concepts of exclusion and inclusion in sport, physical activity and physical education settings are mostly anchored to discussions about access to and opportunities in physical and social spaces from the perspective of non-disabled adult stakeholders. In this article, we use individual interviews and two creative non-fiction accounts to explore the views of an adult with cerebral palsy (CP), named Jack, who reflects on his embodied experiences of mainstream and CP youth football. This approach enabled us to provide a more nuanced and sophisticated consideration of the exclusion/inclusion dichotomy by centring Jack’s construction of identity and feelings of belonging in the spaces his body inhabited. Particular attention is paid to the interactions and relationships that Jack developed with teammates and coaches, and the (often ableist) constructs of ability that pervade mainstream and CP settings, all of which served to influence Jack’s sense of belonging. We end by encouraging scholars to centre the experiences and amplify the voices of disabled young people, and to consider inclusion as intersubjective experiences associated with feelings of belonging, acceptance and value that are dynamic and in flux. The concept of embodied belonging can help us to move researchers beyond a simple critique of disabling socio-spatial power relations towards the construction of new knowledge that enhances understandings of disability, place, and space.
{"title":"Exclusion, inclusion and belonging in mainstream and disability sport: Jack’s story","authors":"A. Maher, J. McVeigh, Alan Thomson, J. Knight","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111457","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Concepts of exclusion and inclusion in sport, physical activity and physical education settings are mostly anchored to discussions about access to and opportunities in physical and social spaces from the perspective of non-disabled adult stakeholders. In this article, we use individual interviews and two creative non-fiction accounts to explore the views of an adult with cerebral palsy (CP), named Jack, who reflects on his embodied experiences of mainstream and CP youth football. This approach enabled us to provide a more nuanced and sophisticated consideration of the exclusion/inclusion dichotomy by centring Jack’s construction of identity and feelings of belonging in the spaces his body inhabited. Particular attention is paid to the interactions and relationships that Jack developed with teammates and coaches, and the (often ableist) constructs of ability that pervade mainstream and CP settings, all of which served to influence Jack’s sense of belonging. We end by encouraging scholars to centre the experiences and amplify the voices of disabled young people, and to consider inclusion as intersubjective experiences associated with feelings of belonging, acceptance and value that are dynamic and in flux. The concept of embodied belonging can help us to move researchers beyond a simple critique of disabling socio-spatial power relations towards the construction of new knowledge that enhances understandings of disability, place, and space.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"15 1","pages":"123 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48586157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-12DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086165
Suzanne M. Cosh, S. Crabb, D. McNeil, P. Tully
ABSTRACT Athletes are vulnerable to experiencing mental health disorders, yet, disclosure and help-seeking around mental health remains low, with stigma the most widely reported barrier. However, the ways in which stigma around mental health may be produced (or resisted) in dominant constructions of athlete mental health remain under examined. This study explores constructions of athlete mental health into retirement in an example of Australian broadcast media, with consideration of the ways in which these representations might function to reproduce and perpetuate (or not) stigmatising versions of athlete mental health. Data from a two-part special of a current affairs programme focusing on transition difficulties and poor mental health of nine retired athletes were analysed using Discursive Psychology. Analysis focused on identifying the constructions of mental health and recovery produced in this broadcast, with consideration as to how these depictions might function to perpetuate and/or resist stigma. Mental health was constructed in two key ways – biomedical and life-stress – which externalised mental health. Recovery was, conversely, located as solely the individual’s responsibility and was depicted as achieved through self-awareness and engaging in new pursuits. Thus, individual experiences of mental health disorders were partially legitimised through externalising blame and presenting a plurality of depictions, yet did not redress stigma around transition distress more broadly by overlooking contextual factors. Depictions trivialised recovery, potentially functioning to stigmatise long-term or chronic mental health experiences as well as help-seeking. These results inform ways in which stigma around athlete mental health may be challenged, and implications for practice are discussed.
{"title":"Constructions of athlete mental health post-retirement: a discursive analysis of stigmatising and legitimising versions of transition distress in the Australian broadcast media","authors":"Suzanne M. Cosh, S. Crabb, D. McNeil, P. Tully","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086165","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Athletes are vulnerable to experiencing mental health disorders, yet, disclosure and help-seeking around mental health remains low, with stigma the most widely reported barrier. However, the ways in which stigma around mental health may be produced (or resisted) in dominant constructions of athlete mental health remain under examined. This study explores constructions of athlete mental health into retirement in an example of Australian broadcast media, with consideration of the ways in which these representations might function to reproduce and perpetuate (or not) stigmatising versions of athlete mental health. Data from a two-part special of a current affairs programme focusing on transition difficulties and poor mental health of nine retired athletes were analysed using Discursive Psychology. Analysis focused on identifying the constructions of mental health and recovery produced in this broadcast, with consideration as to how these depictions might function to perpetuate and/or resist stigma. Mental health was constructed in two key ways – biomedical and life-stress – which externalised mental health. Recovery was, conversely, located as solely the individual’s responsibility and was depicted as achieved through self-awareness and engaging in new pursuits. Thus, individual experiences of mental health disorders were partially legitimised through externalising blame and presenting a plurality of depictions, yet did not redress stigma around transition distress more broadly by overlooking contextual factors. Depictions trivialised recovery, potentially functioning to stigmatise long-term or chronic mental health experiences as well as help-seeking. These results inform ways in which stigma around athlete mental health may be challenged, and implications for practice are discussed.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"14 1","pages":"1045 - 1069"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49239501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-10DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111460
Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson
ABSTRACT The French existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, long ago signalled the potentially empowering force of outdoor exercise and recreation for women, drawing on feminist phenomenological perspectives. Feminist phenomenological research in sport and exercise, however, remains relatively scarce, and this article contributes to a small, developing research corpus by employing a feminist phenomenological theoretical framework to analyse lived experiences of running in ‘public’ space. As feminist theorists have argued, such space is gendered and contested, and women’s mobility remains constrained by fears of harassment and violent attack. Running also generates intense pleasure, however, and embodied empowerment. Drawing on findings from two separate but linked automethodological running research projects, here I explore salient and overlapping themes cohering around lived experience of pleasure and danger in both urban and rural spaces.
法国存在主义哲学家西蒙娜·德·波伏娃(Simone de Beauvoir)很久以前就从女性主义现象学的角度出发，指出了户外运动和娱乐对女性的潜在赋权作用。然而，运动和锻炼中的女性主义现象学研究仍然相对匮乏，本文通过采用女性主义现象学理论框架来分析在“公共”空间中跑步的生活经验，为一个小型的、正在发展的研究语料库做出了贡献。正如女权主义理论家所指出的那样，这样的空间是性别化的，是有争议的，女性的流动性仍然受到对骚扰和暴力袭击的恐惧的限制。然而，跑步也能产生强烈的快乐，并体现出力量。根据两个独立但相互关联的自动方法论研究项目的发现，我在这里探讨了围绕城市和农村空间中快乐和危险的生活体验的突出和重叠的主题。
{"title":"Pleasure and danger: a running-woman in ‘public’ space","authors":"Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2111460","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The French existentialist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, long ago signalled the potentially empowering force of outdoor exercise and recreation for women, drawing on feminist phenomenological perspectives. Feminist phenomenological research in sport and exercise, however, remains relatively scarce, and this article contributes to a small, developing research corpus by employing a feminist phenomenological theoretical framework to analyse lived experiences of running in ‘public’ space. As feminist theorists have argued, such space is gendered and contested, and women’s mobility remains constrained by fears of harassment and violent attack. Running also generates intense pleasure, however, and embodied empowerment. Drawing on findings from two separate but linked automethodological running research projects, here I explore salient and overlapping themes cohering around lived experience of pleasure and danger in both urban and rural spaces.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"15 1","pages":"382 - 396"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41515020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-29DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098808
C. Ross
ABSTRACT This study introduces the possibility of a new concept, ‘figuring’, to describe the contentious reactions and readings of non-conforming larger bodies and the spaces in which these occur. I illustrate this concept through an analysis of 15 semi-structured virtual interviews and participant journaling to uniquely explore the lived experiences of larger-bodied people in the gym. The key analytic construct ‘figuring’ put forward in this paper helps to theoretically advance work on body size and exercise by offering a way to conceptualise the role of environment (e.g. exercise contexts) in shaping boundaries of bodily difference. My findings articulate how physical activity spaces are implicated in ‘figuring’ space and are presented in three main themes; (1) the pursuit of the ‘ideal’, (2) presence: hyper-visibility and ‘belonging’ in space, and (3) mobilities: Intersections of gender and body size. This study expands our empirical understanding of people’s exercise experiences in gym environments by rendering visible the socio-spatial processes that create boundaries around participation in the gym along the lines of body size. My findings point to the need to intervene in the social and spatial dimensions of the gym, and potentially other exercise environments, to promote equity in access to physical activity.
{"title":"Fitness v fatness? Bodies, boundaries and bias in the gym","authors":"C. Ross","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098808","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study introduces the possibility of a new concept, ‘figuring’, to describe the contentious reactions and readings of non-conforming larger bodies and the spaces in which these occur. I illustrate this concept through an analysis of 15 semi-structured virtual interviews and participant journaling to uniquely explore the lived experiences of larger-bodied people in the gym. The key analytic construct ‘figuring’ put forward in this paper helps to theoretically advance work on body size and exercise by offering a way to conceptualise the role of environment (e.g. exercise contexts) in shaping boundaries of bodily difference. My findings articulate how physical activity spaces are implicated in ‘figuring’ space and are presented in three main themes; (1) the pursuit of the ‘ideal’, (2) presence: hyper-visibility and ‘belonging’ in space, and (3) mobilities: Intersections of gender and body size. This study expands our empirical understanding of people’s exercise experiences in gym environments by rendering visible the socio-spatial processes that create boundaries around participation in the gym along the lines of body size. My findings point to the need to intervene in the social and spatial dimensions of the gym, and potentially other exercise environments, to promote equity in access to physical activity.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"15 1","pages":"104 - 122"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45694661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-17DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098809
K. Tamminen, Mathew Lau, J. M. Milidragovic
ABSTRACT In this article we elaborate on a narrative of forward momentum in sport drawing on multiple interviews (total = 37 interviews) over six months with thirteen current and former competitive athletes (9 women, 4 men) from various sports and different stages of their sport careers. Using Dialogical Narrative Analysis to guide the analysis, the results elaborate on a narrative of forward momentum and the ways it is drawn upon by athletes to make sense of their experiences in sport. A narrative of forward momentum emphasises concerns about continual progress and increasing achievements in performance over time, and athletes’ stories and lives were structured around the continual pursuit of success at the highest possible level in sport before the end of one’s career. Athletes felt ‘swept along’ by the structure of sport, and injuries and illnesses were seen as setbacks that could cause athletes to lose out on their progress and which they would have to ‘catch up’ on. We further elaborate on the concept of a contract within the narrative of forward momentum, wherein athletes invested hard work that would eventually ‘pay off’ and which promoted continual training and improvement in order to make progress and maintain momentum. A narrative of forward momentum is explored as a useful companion story, and as a potentially ‘dangerous’ companion story. We conclude by discussing the implications of a narrative of forward momentum for exploring the ways that athletes make sense of their experiences in sport.
{"title":"‘It’s easier to just keep going’: elaborating on a narrative of forward momentum in sport","authors":"K. Tamminen, Mathew Lau, J. M. Milidragovic","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098809","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098809","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this article we elaborate on a narrative of forward momentum in sport drawing on multiple interviews (total = 37 interviews) over six months with thirteen current and former competitive athletes (9 women, 4 men) from various sports and different stages of their sport careers. Using Dialogical Narrative Analysis to guide the analysis, the results elaborate on a narrative of forward momentum and the ways it is drawn upon by athletes to make sense of their experiences in sport. A narrative of forward momentum emphasises concerns about continual progress and increasing achievements in performance over time, and athletes’ stories and lives were structured around the continual pursuit of success at the highest possible level in sport before the end of one’s career. Athletes felt ‘swept along’ by the structure of sport, and injuries and illnesses were seen as setbacks that could cause athletes to lose out on their progress and which they would have to ‘catch up’ on. We further elaborate on the concept of a contract within the narrative of forward momentum, wherein athletes invested hard work that would eventually ‘pay off’ and which promoted continual training and improvement in order to make progress and maintain momentum. A narrative of forward momentum is explored as a useful companion story, and as a potentially ‘dangerous’ companion story. We conclude by discussing the implications of a narrative of forward momentum for exploring the ways that athletes make sense of their experiences in sport.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"14 1","pages":"861 - 879"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46865587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-05DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2092200
Dona L. Hall, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, P. Jackman
ABSTRACT The partnership between a visually impaired runner (VIR) and sighted guide runner (SGR) constitutes a unique sporting dyad. The quality of these partnerships may profoundly impact the sport and physical activity (PA) experiences of visually impaired (VI) people, yet little is known about the experiences of VIRs and SGRs. This study aimed to explore qualitatively the running experiences of VIRs and SGRs. Five VIRs and five SGRs took part in in-depth, semi-structured interviews (M length = 62 minutes) exploring their running journeys and perceptions of running-together. We analysed the dataset using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were generated, comprising: becoming and being a running team; a multi-faceted intercorporeal experience; running-together promotes change; and disabling social interaction within running. Participants were generally positive about their running experiences, highlighting a range of benefits derived from the activity. Nevertheless, some examples of barriers to participation were also identified. Although the positive experiences described by the runners suggest guided running holds promise to increase PA in VI people, our findings illustrate the importance of directing attention towards developing high-quality relationships between VIRs and guides, alongside reinforcing the need for further change to promote inclusivity.
{"title":"‘The agenda is to have fun’: exploring experiences of guided running in visually impaired and guide runners","authors":"Dona L. Hall, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, P. Jackman","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2092200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2092200","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The partnership between a visually impaired runner (VIR) and sighted guide runner (SGR) constitutes a unique sporting dyad. The quality of these partnerships may profoundly impact the sport and physical activity (PA) experiences of visually impaired (VI) people, yet little is known about the experiences of VIRs and SGRs. This study aimed to explore qualitatively the running experiences of VIRs and SGRs. Five VIRs and five SGRs took part in in-depth, semi-structured interviews (M length = 62 minutes) exploring their running journeys and perceptions of running-together. We analysed the dataset using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were generated, comprising: becoming and being a running team; a multi-faceted intercorporeal experience; running-together promotes change; and disabling social interaction within running. Participants were generally positive about their running experiences, highlighting a range of benefits derived from the activity. Nevertheless, some examples of barriers to participation were also identified. Although the positive experiences described by the runners suggest guided running holds promise to increase PA in VI people, our findings illustrate the importance of directing attention towards developing high-quality relationships between VIRs and guides, alongside reinforcing the need for further change to promote inclusivity.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"15 1","pages":"89 - 103"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45811257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-24DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2092199
Johannes Müller, M. Mutz
ABSTRACT Prior studies emphasise that prisons are violent places and strong social hierarchies exist between inmates. Against the background that a large number of inmates engage in strength training, this paper explores the significance of self-organised weight training and muscle building by reconstructing the meanings and relevance of these activities particularly with regard to power relations and social hierarchy formation. Using an ethnographic approach, the study is based on 80 field visits over 27 months in a German prison and 19 problem-centred interviews with male prisoners. The material shows that social hierarchies among inmates are largely based on physical strength and often manifest in acts of violence. In addition, inmates frequently face minor provocations, verbally or physically, that establish relations of dominance and submission. Interviewees interpret a stable, muscular body in combination with a self-confident, sometimes deliberately grim appearance as a signal that one is determined to defend oneself and does not serve as an easy victim. Accordingly, inmates see it as a necessity to build up muscle strength, which is why all forms of strength training are extremely popular within the prison. However, since the prison studied here actually forbids weight training with barbells, prisoners have to find informal ways and sometimes trick guards when carrying out muscle building exercises. It is concluded that weight training can best be understood as a functional adaptation to the prison context with its widespread aggression and (fear of) violence.
{"title":"Pumping iron for strength and power: prisoners’ perceptions of a stable body","authors":"Johannes Müller, M. Mutz","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2092199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2092199","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Prior studies emphasise that prisons are violent places and strong social hierarchies exist between inmates. Against the background that a large number of inmates engage in strength training, this paper explores the significance of self-organised weight training and muscle building by reconstructing the meanings and relevance of these activities particularly with regard to power relations and social hierarchy formation. Using an ethnographic approach, the study is based on 80 field visits over 27 months in a German prison and 19 problem-centred interviews with male prisoners. The material shows that social hierarchies among inmates are largely based on physical strength and often manifest in acts of violence. In addition, inmates frequently face minor provocations, verbally or physically, that establish relations of dominance and submission. Interviewees interpret a stable, muscular body in combination with a self-confident, sometimes deliberately grim appearance as a signal that one is determined to defend oneself and does not serve as an easy victim. Accordingly, inmates see it as a necessity to build up muscle strength, which is why all forms of strength training are extremely popular within the prison. However, since the prison studied here actually forbids weight training with barbells, prisoners have to find informal ways and sometimes trick guards when carrying out muscle building exercises. It is concluded that weight training can best be understood as a functional adaptation to the prison context with its widespread aggression and (fear of) violence.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"14 1","pages":"1159 - 1173"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42503470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-21DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086166
L. Patterson, S. Backhouse, B. Jones
ABSTRACT Global anti-doping policy indicates that athlete support personnel (ASP, e.g. doctors, nutritionists) can play an important role in fostering supportive environments that protect against intentional and inadvertent doping. Yet, research into ASP anti-doping roles is limited and no study has examined how (if at all) different members of ASP work together. Therefore, this study investigated anti-doping roles of ASP in a single sports club environment via semi-structured interviews. Through inductive reflexive thematic analysis, three overarching themes were constructed: 1) Everyone has responsibility for anti-doping, but most of the work rests unevenly on a few shoulders, 2) Education is fundamental to doping prevention, and 3) (Preventing doping) It’s all about the way we work with players and each other. As the first study of its kind, the findings indicated that actions taken to prevent doping varied across ASP working together in the same environment. The nutritionist and medical staff were most active in anti-doping efforts and least active were strength and conditioning coaches. Factors underpinning anti-doping roles were individuals’ relevant expertise/training and overall job responsibilities (e.g. supplements, medications) related to risk of doping. Staff also connected their doping prevention efforts to the club’s person-centred philosophy, which prioritised ‘individualisation’ and supportive relationships. While the data indicates potential for anti-doping responsibilities to be shared amongst ASP who work well together and trust one another, it revealed that reliance on one or two ASP in any environment might allow other ASP to neglect their opportunity to have a positive influence on players’ doping-related decisions.
{"title":"The role of athlete support personnel in preventing doping: a qualitative study of a rugby union academy","authors":"L. Patterson, S. Backhouse, B. Jones","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086166","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Global anti-doping policy indicates that athlete support personnel (ASP, e.g. doctors, nutritionists) can play an important role in fostering supportive environments that protect against intentional and inadvertent doping. Yet, research into ASP anti-doping roles is limited and no study has examined how (if at all) different members of ASP work together. Therefore, this study investigated anti-doping roles of ASP in a single sports club environment via semi-structured interviews. Through inductive reflexive thematic analysis, three overarching themes were constructed: 1) Everyone has responsibility for anti-doping, but most of the work rests unevenly on a few shoulders, 2) Education is fundamental to doping prevention, and 3) (Preventing doping) It’s all about the way we work with players and each other. As the first study of its kind, the findings indicated that actions taken to prevent doping varied across ASP working together in the same environment. The nutritionist and medical staff were most active in anti-doping efforts and least active were strength and conditioning coaches. Factors underpinning anti-doping roles were individuals’ relevant expertise/training and overall job responsibilities (e.g. supplements, medications) related to risk of doping. Staff also connected their doping prevention efforts to the club’s person-centred philosophy, which prioritised ‘individualisation’ and supportive relationships. While the data indicates potential for anti-doping responsibilities to be shared amongst ASP who work well together and trust one another, it revealed that reliance on one or two ASP in any environment might allow other ASP to neglect their opportunity to have a positive influence on players’ doping-related decisions.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"15 1","pages":"70 - 88"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45545345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086164
Anna Posbergh, Samuel M. Clevenger
ABSTRACT The popular media coverage of South African track and field star Caster Semenya showcases how colonialist discourses shaped the sexed, gendered, and racialised meaning of her public biography. Yet, when researchers study Semenya as their research ‘object’, does this act of inquiry reproduce the knowledge constructs of Western coloniality as well? In this article, we consider both issues by conducting and reflecting on our poststructuralist analysis of popular media coverages of Semenya’s athletic career, with specific attention to her dealings with gender-verification testing. We examine the discursive construction of Semenya’s public biography by popular newspaper outlets in the United States and South Africa from 2009 to 2019, arguing that both geopolitical locales maintained Western social binaries and scientific discourses concerning Semenya’s sexual identity in similar, yet distinct ways. Drawing from the poststructuralist methodology of intertextuality, we reflect on its capacity to deconstruct the colonial discourses shaping the cultural meaning of a non-Western athlete of colour such as Semenya, as well as its relation, as a method of knowledge production, to the epistemological legacies of Western coloniality. We also contend that by approaching Semenya as the ‘object’ of our poststructuralist framework, our analysis implicitly reproduced, rather than challenged, the Eurocentric subject/object framework of modern (Western) epistemology. Thus, our purposes are empirical, methodological, and reflexive as we seek to contribute to critical analyses of the constructed cultural meaning of celebrity athletes while subjecting our own research assumptions and frameworks to poststructuralist and decolonial deconstruction.
{"title":"Beyond Caster as object? Examining media constructions of Caster Semenya through decolonial thinking","authors":"Anna Posbergh, Samuel M. Clevenger","doi":"10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2086164","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The popular media coverage of South African track and field star Caster Semenya showcases how colonialist discourses shaped the sexed, gendered, and racialised meaning of her public biography. Yet, when researchers study Semenya as their research ‘object’, does this act of inquiry reproduce the knowledge constructs of Western coloniality as well? In this article, we consider both issues by conducting and reflecting on our poststructuralist analysis of popular media coverages of Semenya’s athletic career, with specific attention to her dealings with gender-verification testing. We examine the discursive construction of Semenya’s public biography by popular newspaper outlets in the United States and South Africa from 2009 to 2019, arguing that both geopolitical locales maintained Western social binaries and scientific discourses concerning Semenya’s sexual identity in similar, yet distinct ways. Drawing from the poststructuralist methodology of intertextuality, we reflect on its capacity to deconstruct the colonial discourses shaping the cultural meaning of a non-Western athlete of colour such as Semenya, as well as its relation, as a method of knowledge production, to the epistemological legacies of Western coloniality. We also contend that by approaching Semenya as the ‘object’ of our poststructuralist framework, our analysis implicitly reproduced, rather than challenged, the Eurocentric subject/object framework of modern (Western) epistemology. Thus, our purposes are empirical, methodological, and reflexive as we seek to contribute to critical analyses of the constructed cultural meaning of celebrity athletes while subjecting our own research assumptions and frameworks to poststructuralist and decolonial deconstruction.","PeriodicalId":48542,"journal":{"name":"Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health","volume":"14 1","pages":"843 - 860"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48767172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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