Denis Hauw

A qualitative exploration of the psychological contents and dynamics of momentum in sport.

While studies on triggers and outcomes of Psychological Momentum (PM) exist, little is known about the dynamics by which PM emerges and develops over time. Based on video-assisted recalls of PM experiences in table tennis and swimming competitions, this study qualitatively explored the triggering processes, contents, and the development of PM over time. PM was found to be triggered by mechanisms of dissonance, consonance, or fear of not winning. During the PM experience, participants reported a variety of perceptions, affects and emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. PM was found to develop through processes of amplification that sometimes ended with a reduction of efforts when the victory or defeat was perceived as being inevitable. These findings are discussed in light of theories on self-regulation and reactance-helplessness. From a practical standpoint, achievement goal-based strategies are suggested, since mastery-approach goals were found to be endorsed to maintain positive PM and overcome negative PM.

Comparison of vitality states of finishers and withdrawers in trail running: An enactive and phenomenological perspective

Studies on ultra-endurance suggest that during the races, athletes typically experience three vitality states (i.e., preservation, loss, and revival) at the phenomenological level. Nevertheless, how these states contribute to the management and outcome of performance remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether and how the vitality states experienced by runners and their evolution during a trail race can be used to distinguish finishers from withdrawers. From an enactive and phenomenological framework, we processed enactive interviews and blog posts of race narratives. We distinguished units of meaning, which were grouped into sequences of experience; each sequence was then categorized as one of the three vitality states: state of vitality preservation (SVP), state of vitality loss (SVL) or state of vitality revival (SVR). We analyzed the distribution of these vitality states and their temporal organization at the beginning, in the second and third quarters, and at the end of the races, and we qualitatively characterized runners’ adaptations to SVL. Results showed that finishers completed the race in SVP, with overall significantly more sequences in SVP and significantly fewer sequences in SVL than withdrawers. SVR did not discriminate finishers from withdrawers. The temporal organization of the vitality states showed a significant difference in the emergence of SVP from the second quarter of the race, as well as a significant difference in the emergence of SVL from the third quarter of the race. The analysis of adaptations to SVL confirmed that finishers were more capable of exiting SVL by enacting a preservation world when they felt physical or psychological alerts, whereas withdrawers remained in SVL. Our results showed that finishers and withdrawers did not enact the same phenomenological worlds in the race situation, especially in the organization of vitality adaptations and their relationships to difficulties; the cumulative effect of the succession of experienced vitality states differed, as well.

Toward a Situated and Dynamic Understanding of Doping Behaviors

This chapter presents a framework that shifts the perspective on doping and performance enhancement from “human nature” as enduring personal and general dispositions to the “nature of human activity”. Human activity is described as displaying circumstantial, embedded, autonomous, dynamical, extended and embodied characteristics that provide some grounds for reflections as they relate to athletic performance enhancement, the relationship with human nature, and the ethical consequences in the context of sports. From this perspective, doping is not a factor of athletes progressive dehumanization. It can instead be seen as one of the circumstantial and cultural actualizations of the possibilities for enhancing their resources, emerging in a dynamic, extended and distributed athletic activity system. In contrast, but not in opposition, to an ethical approach of “clean” sport based on general moral principles, such as respect for equal opportunity in competition, a dynamic and situated anti-doping ethics in sport can thus be built in close relationship with athletes’ activity.

Antidoping Education Using a Lifelong Situated Activity-Based Approach: Evidence, Conception, and Challenges

ABSTRACT Studies have shown that doping behavior emerges from contexts. Educational research would therefore be enriched by explorations of the situatedness of athletes’ activity and its dynamics of development inside sporting life courses. The principles can be summarized as (a) the connection between antidoping and athletes’ time-specific and meaningful concerns, (b) the creation of fields of possible activity that preserve athletes from doping, (c) the focus on propensities toward activities that pull athletes away from doping, and (d) the regular and timely updating of programs. Following this, the general framework for the antidoping education of elite athletes comprises four levels articulated by their distribution over the periods of athletes’ careers: (a) creating and maintaining a global antidoping culture via continuous socialization, (b) developing a sustained antidoping background via situated activities, (c) supporting punctual and specific needs with free services for all athletes, and (d) promoting tertiary prevention and post-career education.

Putting Together First- and Third-Person Approaches for Sport Activity Analysis: The Case of Ultra-Trail Runners’ Performance Analysis

This study aimed to characterize the activity of ultra-trail runners by combining data from their personal experiences with physical measurement indicators of their running performance. Ten runners’ first-person analyses of the Tor des Geants race were processed using course of action theory [1]. Runners’ experiences were represented in a succession of macrosequences and characterized using their typical components. These were associated with third-person data about their elevation velocities assessed using motion sensors. Results showed different patterns of activity related to runners’ aims and levels of performance. Three typical experiences were highlighted as frequently observed in such races and showed a strong association with overall elevation velocities. A fourth typical experience, one that followed a difficult race situation, presented finer-grained sensitivity that distinguished variations between ascent and descent velocities. Results were analyzed in relation to the sense-making process associated with routine or controlled activity.

Understanding Appearance-Enhancing Drug Use in Sport Using an Enactive Approach to Body Image

From an enactive approach to human activity, we suggest that the use of appearance-enhancing drugs is better explained by the sense-making related to body image rather than the cognitive evaluation of social norms about appearance and consequent psychopathology-oriented approach. After reviewing the main psychological disorders thought to link body image issues to the use of appearance-enhancing substances, we sketch a flexible, dynamic and embedded account of body image defined as the individual’s propensity to act and experience in specific situations. We show how this enacted body image is a complex process of sense-making that people engage in when they are trying to adapt to specific situations. These adaptations of the enacted body image require effort, perseverance and time, and therefore any substance that accelerates this process appears to be an easy and attractive solution. In this enactive account of body image, we underline that the link between the enacted body image and substance use is also anchored in the history of the body’s previous interactions with the world. This emerges during periods of upheaval and hardship, especially in a context where athletes experience weak participatory sense-making in a sport community. We conclude by suggesting prevention and intervention designs that would promote a safe instrumental use of the body in sports and psychological helping procedures for athletes experiencing difficulties with substances use and body image.

Elite volleyball coaches’ experience using a statistical information system

This study investigated how elite volleyball coaches enhance team management by using statistical tools that describe players’ behaviours. The focus was particularly on tool usability via a user-experience approach. Five elite male coaches volunteered to participate. Verbalisation data were collected during semi-structured interviews and examined by inductive content analysis (Biddle et al., 2001). The results showed that usability was linked to 15 raw themes (e.g. taking into account the value of the opponent) grouped into six first-order themes (e.g. to balance the statistical data) and then two high-order categories of experience (i.e. knowledge of the situated properties of the statistical tool and know-how for using the statistical tool). These results revealed that the coaches used the statistical tools in a situated, selective and parsimonious way and that their humanistic side was unaffected by the tool. Our findings emphasise that statistical tool use is not an addition to coaching activity but instead indicates a reorganisation in the activity. The key perspectives of this study are twofold: (a) the information focused on user experience should be included at the beginning of the design process to make statistical tools more relevant; (b) the list of knowledge and knowhow linked to the use of statistical tool may be included in guidelines for training program for coaching education.

Understanding Trail Runners’ Activity on Online Community Forums: An Inductive Analysis of Discussion Topics

Abstract Recreational trail runners often participate in online community forums where they can freely read posted messages, join discussions and/or introduce new discussion topics. This tool can enhance learning as runners connect with other trail runners and reflect on how they can better organize their own practice. Studying forum activity would provide greater insight into the relationship between field practice and dedicated forums. The aim of this study was therefore to detect the topics discussed online by trail runners in order to understand how they collectively look for solutions that help them adapt to issues that emerge during actual practice. The discussion topics (n = 171) on the forum hosted by the Raidlight brand were examined using inductive content analysis, which distinguished two general dimensions. The first dimension was training and had four first-order themes (i.e., “specific trail running sessions”, “complementary trail running sessions”. “training plans” and “specific questions about races”) grouped into two second-order themes (i.e., “training session contents” and “structure and schedule”). The second dimension was health and had seven first-order themes (i.e., “tendinitis”, “muscle issues”, “foot issues”, “sprains and fractures”, “pain”, “physiology” and “substances and practitioners”) grouped into two second-order themes (i.e., “pain and injury” and “prevention”). The results indicate that the issues that trail runners discuss on forums are significant and that the successions of questions and solutions are a fruitful means for building, enriching and adjusting their activity as they cope with constraints. As a practical consequence, suggestions for improving such online platforms are made.

Enacting Phenomenological Gestalts in Ultra-Trail Running: An Inductive Analysis of Trail Runners’ Courses of Experience

Using an enactive approach to trail runners’ activity, this study sought to identify and characterize runners’ phenomenological gestalts, which are forms of experience that synthesize the heterogeneous sensorimotor, cognitive and emotional information that emerges in race situations. By an in-depth examination of their meaningful experiences, we were able to highlight the different typologies of interactions between bodily processes (e.g., sensations and pains), behaviors (e.g., actions and strategies), and environment (e.g., meteorological conditions and route profile). Ten non-professional runners who ran an ultra-trail running race (330 km, 24,000 m of elevation gain) volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected in two steps: (1) collection of past activity traces (i.e., race maps, field notes, and self-assessment scales) and (2) enactive interviews using the past activity traces in which the runners were invited to relive their experience and describe their activity. The enactive interviews were coded using the course-of-experience methodology to identify the phenomenological gestalts that emerged from activity and scaffolded the runners’ courses of experience. The results revealed that runners typically enact three phenomenological gestalts: controlling global ease, enduring general fatigue and experiencing difficult situations, and feeling freedom in the running pace. These phenomenological gestalts were made up of specific behaviors, involvements, and meaningful situated elements that portrayed various ways of achieving an ultra-endurance performance in the race situation. They also highlighted how runners enact a meaningful world by acting in relation to the fluctuations in physical sensations and environmental conditions during an ultra-trail race. Practical applications for preparation, race management and sports psychology interventions are proposed to enrich the existing recommendations. In conclusion, this approach provides new research perspectives by offering a more holistic grasp of activity in trail running through an in-depth analysis of athletes’ experience. In doing so, we may expect that runners can connect these typical gestalts to their own personal experiences and stories as trail runners in order to sustain a viable approach to their sport.