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Les innovations technologiques participent aux évolutions de la culture technique des disciplines sportives. Le domaine de la voile sportive offre actuellement une opportunité pour étudier le développement d’une culture technique liée à la diffusion d’une innovation matérielle : les « foils », permettant aux voiliers de voler au-dessus de l’eau. La présente étude visait à : (a) appréhender la nature et la structure des connaissances de pratiquants et praticiens pionniers de la navigation volante, en relation avec la question de la gestion et du contrôle de la stabilité de vol, et (b) à appréhender le développement d’une culture technique propre à la navigation volante. Nous avons réalisé des entretiens de partage d’expérience avec douze participants reconnus pour leur implication dans la pratique ou l’encadrement de la voile volante. L’analyse a consisté en l’identification d’expériences types associées à la reconnaissance et au contrôle de la stabilité de vol, ainsi qu’à la catégorisation et la mise en réseau d’éléments explicatifs d’états de stabilité du vol, du point de vue des connaissances des participants. Ces deux versants de l’analyse ont permis d’appréhender l’émergence d’une culture partagée au sein du groupe de participants. Nos résultats permettent de suggérer un développement de la culture technique de la voile volante comme intégrant une forte dimension émotionnelle, et mettant en avant l’incorporation de l’équipage à un bateau présentant les caractéristiques d’un système autonome. Technological innovations contribute to developments in the technical culture of sports. The current field of competitive sailing provides an opportunity to study the development of a technical culture linked to the spread of an innovation in equipment – that of “hydrofoils”, which allow sailboats to “fly” over the water. The objectives of this study were to investigate: (i) the nature and structure of the knowledge of “pioneering” hydrofoil sailors, in relation to the question of flight stability management and control, and (ii) the development of a technical culture specific to hydrofoil sailing. We conducted “experience sharing” interviews with 12 participants recognized for their involvement in the practice or teaching of hydrofoil sailing. The analysis consisted in identifying typical experiences related to flight stability recognition and control, and in the categorization and inter-linking of explanatory elements on flight stability states, from the point of view of the participants’ knowledge. These two sides of the analysis helped to apprehend the emergence of a shared culture within the group of participants. Our results suggest the development of a technical culture of hydrofoil sailing that integrates to a greater extent the emotional dimension of this practice, and highlight the crew's incorporation into a boat that presents the characteristics of an autonomous system.

International audience; Coaches and scientists share a preoccupation with understanding athletic performance. The aim of this study was to investigate coaches’ practical knowledge about forward ice hockey skating with reference to the biomechanical research findings in order to improve understanding of the skating task and encourage the design of more representative research. For this purpose, 10 expert ice hockey coaches were interviewed. Semistructured interviews were transcribed and meanings units were selected and grouped to build the main categories after verbatim analysis. The qualitative analysis revealed that the coaches detailed forward skating based on three categories: posture, lower limb kinematics, and arm movements. They used performance indicators to specify their practical knowledge. These indicators were generally consistent with recent biomechanical research and when the coaches held different opinions, they expressed intuitive ideas that often suggested new research perspectives. This study illustrates how the interaction of scientists and coaches, via their respective knowledge, can supply new research perspectives.

Objective The objective of this study was to compare orienteers' modes of adaptation to different environments. Emphasis is placed on characterizing their concerns in relation to the need to accurately locate one's spatial position during orienteering. Design and methods The activity of eight orienteers was studied on two navigation tasks: (a) a classic orienteering task, and (b) a setting-orienteering task. The data were collected and processed using a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis. The methodology used video recordings of the orienteers in natural settings made by a glasses camera, and verbalizations during self-confrontation interviews conducted with four participants. Processing the qualitative data consisted of reconstructing the orienteers' course of experience. A further statistical analysis enabled us to identify events pertaining to map reading and pace. Results The analysis uncovered similarities and differences in the sequential organization of the orienteers' activity classic and setting tasks that were related to particular phases of the two courses and to time pressure. The results stress two fundamentally different modes of navigating and locating one's spatial position in one's environment. Conclusions The navigation activity and its adaptive nature are discussed in relation to the significant structural characteristics of the environment. The results are put in perspective in reference to the fast-and-frugal-heuristics approach, and several perspectives for skill acquisition are examined. It is suggested that this study could have broader implications for sport psychologists and sport instructors, in various sports requiring navigational skills in complex and dynamic environments.

Introduction: This study investigated the experience of a highly skilled student during a handball physical education unit in a French high school. More specifically, the analysis describes the nature of his involvement during two lessons that follow a pedagogical model close to the principles of Sport Education. The present case study of a student who experiences the gap between school and club practices raises the question of the possibility of promoting real ‘sport experiences’ in school. It contributes to empirical studies investigating Sport Education models and is based on situated learning perspectives and the theory of community of practice. Method: The study was carried out in reference to the theoretical and methodological framework called ‘course of action,’ in view of conducting a local analysis based on the actor's point of view. The audio and video recordings of two lessons and post-lesson self-confrontation interviews allowed us to reconstruct this student's experience through the identific...

This study investigated novices' “lived experiences” of navigation within the sport of orienteering from an enactive and phenomenological approach. The objective was to qualitatively characterize elements of task-related situations that were meaningful for orienteers. The results showed that the participants continuously made judgments about the reliability of their estimations about whether they were on “the right route” on the course. When the participants judged that they were only approximately on the right route or were unable to locate themselves, elements of the situation other than map and terrain features became meaningful for them. These results demonstrate that, for novice orienteers, navigation activity must extend beyond navigation as a logical, computational way-finding problem to include embodied, social, cultural and situated dimensions.

International audience; The purpose of this study was to understand how a single pair of expert individual rowers experienced their crew functioning in natural conditions when asked to practice a joint movement for the first time. To fulfill this objective, we conducted a field study of interpersonal coordination that combined phenomenological and mechanical data from a coxless pair activity, to analyze the dynamics of the (inter)subjective experience compared with the dynamics of the team coordination. Using an enactivist approach to social couplings, these heterogeneous data were combined to explore the salience (and accuracy) of individuals' shared experiences of their joint action. First, we determined how each rower experienced the continuous crew functioning states (e.g., feelings of the boat's glide). Second, the phenomenological data helped us to build several categories of oar strokes (i.e., cycles), experienced by the rowers as either detrimentally or effectively performed strokes. Third, the mechanical signatures that correlated with each phenomenological category were tracked at various level of organization (i.e., individual-, interpersonal-, and boat-levels). The results indicated that (a) the two rowers did not pay attention to their joint action during most of the cycles, (b) some cycles were simultaneously lived as a salient, meaningful experience of either a detrimental (n = 15 cycles) or an effective (n = 18 cycles) joint action, and (c) the mechanical signatures diverged across the delineated phenomenological categories, suggesting that the way in which the cycles were experienced emerged from the variance in some mechanical parameters (i.e., differences in peak force level and mean force). Notably, the mechanical measures that helped to explain differences within the phenomenological categories were found at the interpersonal level of analysis, thus suggesting an intentional inter-personal mode of regulation of their joint action. This result is further challenged and discussed in light of extra-personal regulation processes that might concurrently explain why participants did not make an extensive salient experience of their joint action. We conclude that attempts to combine phenomenological and mechanical data should be pursued to continue the research on how individuals regulate the effectiveness of their joint actions' dynamics.

Objectives This study sought to determine whether combining first- and third-person methodologies would provide insight into team coordination. Design and methods We studied the activity of a table tennis doubles team during an official match. We collected and processed the verbal data according to a procedure defined for course-of-experience analysis, but we also included a video-based field study of the partners' interactions during the breaks between points. We then conducted a joint analysis of the two players' lived experience and behaviors during these short breaks. Results The results showed both the difficulties and the empirical richness of this approach. For example, the joint analysis of first- and third-person data on doubles table tennis revealed how the players' behaviors during the short breaks between points had a key role in shaping the understanding shared by the two partners. Conclusions The combination of first- and third-person data seems to be a promising approach for improving our understanding of the coordination processes in sports teams. In our study, the joint analysis of these data enabled us to describe in great detail how the respective behaviors of the partners contributed to the dynamics of constructing/deconstructing shared understanding between them.

This case study investigated team cognition in basketball. The focus was on how concerns in a real match situation were shared among teammates and how the sharedness evolved. The activity of five basketball players (M age = 17.60, SD = 0.89) was studied. The data were collected and processed according to a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis (Theureau, 2003). The results indicated that the instances when all the teammates shared the same typical concern were relatively rare, but temporal analysis revealed two kinds of convergence phenomena (simultaneous and progressive). In conclusion, shared understanding emerged within this team as essentially “local sharing of understanding.”

Objectives To characterize the contents of emotions experienced by elite table tennis players during high-stakes matches and the situational elements that contribute to these experiences. Design A four-case study. Method Three top-level table tennis players from the French Men's Table Tennis Team volunteered to participate in the study. Four matches were studied. Procedures involved: (a) videotaping high-stakes table tennis matches, (b) conducting self-confrontation interviews with players after matches, (c) transcribing the players’ actions and self-confrontation data, (d) decomposing their activity into elementary units, and (e) identifying typical contents of emotion and typical emotional situations. Results The contents of players’ emotions varied during matches. The pleasant or unpleasant tone of emotional content was linked to the set result and the interpretations of the unfolding situation. However, other elements of the competitive interaction (score configurations, judgments about the strokes performed) had a strong emotional coloration. Certain similar events (e.g., bad sensations during stroke performance) were frequently coupled with similar emotional content (e.g., displeasure). Conclusions Until quite recently, the predominant focus in sport psychology has been on pre-performance emotions, with far less attention paid to the subjective emotional experiences that occur during task execution. This exploratory study provides initial empirical support for the notion of bi-directionality in emotion–performance relationships [Hanin, Y.L. (Ed.). (2000). Emotions in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; Hanin, Y.L. (2003). Performance related emotional states in sport: A qualitative analysis. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-line Journal], 4(1). Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-03/1-03hanin-e.htm ].

International audience; This article describes the main features of a collaborative project involving researchers, coaches, and elite table tennis players. The project was carried out between 1997 and 2002 with funding from the French Ministry of Youth and Sports, in response to a request by French Table Tennis Team coaches to improve the training of table tennis players. Matches were videotaped during international meets and followed by interviews during which the players described and commented on their activity as they viewed the tapes. A grounded theory of players' activity emerged from the data collected and the ensuing theoretical issues that were raised. The findings on table tennis players' activity pointed to a new direction for training proposals, for example the organization of reflexive practices during training.

Using Peirce's three categories of experience (1931-1935), the authors categorized a group of teachers' emotions into different affective states. During ordinary teaching situations contradictory emotions were observed. The nature of the emotions was related to the teachers' level of dependence on the lesson plan and the need to maintain student activity and underlined the importance of emotions in learning to teach.

International audience; This study analyzed the temporal and contextual organization of coach-athlete interactions in elite archery competitions. In light of the course of action theoretical framework (Theureau, 1992) from ergonomics research, action was conceived as situated (i.e., closely linked to ecological constraints) and was studied at the level at which it is significant for the actor. One expert archery coach and four elite athletes were observed and videotaped during two competitions. The coach's and athletes' verbalizations were also recorded during self-confrontation interviews immediately after each competition. Data processing consisted of: (a) transcribing the coach's and athletes' actions, communication, and self-confrontation data; (b) decomposing action into elementary units of meaning; (c) identifying coherence and similarities of sequences; and (d) examining the coordination of the courses of action of the coach and athlete. The coach's course of action was characterized by respect for the athletes' autonomy, analysis of performance decrements, and emergency interventions. The athletes' courses of action were characterized by autonomy and help-seeking. The coach's and athletes' collective courses of action showed that cooperation within the dyad was either immediate, due to shared perceptions, or was constructed through negotiation. This study outlines the situated and constructed nature of coach-athlete cooperation, and suggests the value of such frameworks from ergonomics, for coaching, and counselling.

The purpose of this study was to test the usefulness of combining two types of analysis to investigate sports performance with the aim of optimizing it. These two types of analysis correspond to two levels of athletes’ activity: (a) their experiences during performance and (b) the biomechanical characteristics of their movements. Rowing served as an illustration, and the activity of one female crew member was studied during a race. Three types of data were collected: (a) audiovisual data recorded during the race; (b) verbalization data obtained in interviews conducted afterward; and (c) biomechanical data. The courses of experience of the two rowers during the race were reconstructed on the basis of the audiovisual and verbalization data. This paper presents a detailed analysis of a single phenomenon of the race experienced by one of the rowers. According to the coaches, it reflected a dysfunction in crew coordination. The aim of this analysis was to identify the biomechanical characteristics of the rowers’ movements that might explain it. The results showed that the phenomenon could be explained principally by an amplitude differential between the two rowers’ strokes. On this basis, the coaches defined new training objectives to remedy the dysfunction in crew coordination. Over the past several years, a research program in cognitive ergonomics as applied to sports situations has developed in France, based on the course-of-action theory originally developed in the field of Frenchlanguage ergonomics (Theureau, 2006). The objectives are both scientific, through the production of new knowledge in sports sciences, and practical, through the conception of new aids for the development of high performance. The program includes a methodology for collecting and processing two types of data: audiovisual recordings and transcribed verbalizations. The audiovisual data are collected in situ during ordinary

International audience; This study investigated team coordination in basketball using the course-of-action theoretical framework. The focus was on how the players were connected with their teammates' activities. The activity of five French basketball players (17.60 ± .89 years) was studied during an official match. The data were collected and processed according to a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis. The results were used to characterize the coordination modes among players and the team coordination network that was built. The processes that underlie team coordination are discussed (i.e., mutuality and awareness), and some directions for practical applications are addressed.

This study examined contextual information sharing between table tennis players during competitive interaction (two opponents during singles) and cooperative interaction (two partners during doubles) in a study based on the notion of shared context (Salembier & Zouinar, 2000) and conducted within the semiological framework of the course‐of‐action (Theureau, 2003). Matches were videotaped and players’ verbalizations as they viewed the tapes were collected a posteriori. The analysis and comparison of their courses of action served to characterize the nature and content of the contextual information that was shared between the players during singles and doubles matches. The results revealed alternating forms of sharing (i.e., symmetrical sharing, asymmetrical sharing, and no sharing) and highlighted several processes for regulating contextual information sharing (i.e., inquiry, monitoring, displaying, masking, and focusing). The discussion is organized in three sections: (a) the changes in informati...

International audience; The course-of-action theory (J. Theureau, Le Cours d'action: Analyse Sémiologique, 1992) provided the framework for this study, which described how expert table tennis players' mobilized knowledge in relation with their mode of involvement (exploratory and executory). Matches were videotaped during international meets and the verbalizations of the players as they viewed the tapes were collected a posteriori. The data were processed by transcribing the players' actions and verbalizations, decomposing their activity into elementary units of meaning, labeling the constituents of these units, identifying typical exploratory and executory sequences. The results showed that the knowledge mobilized by the players during the matches differed with their mode of involvement. Knowledge was continuously put into relationship with significant elements in the unfolding situation in order to create interpretive chains, and this contributed to building a meaningful world for the players. The players' cognitive activity was thus revealed to be a permanent construction of meaning aimed at reducing uncertainty in situations of competitive interaction.; Le but de cette étude était de décrire la manière dont les pongistes mobilisaient des connaissances, en relation avec leurs modes d'engagement (exploratoire et exécutoire), au cours de matchs internationaux. L'étude a été menée en référence au cadre théorique du cours d'action (J. Theureau, Le Cours d'action: Analyse Sémiologique, 1992). Les matchs ont été filmés, et les verbalisations des pongistes confrontés à ces enregistrements ont été recueillies a posteriori. Le traitement des données a consisté à retranscrire les actions des pongistes au cours des matchs et leurs verbalisations provoquées lors des entretiens, identifier les unités significatives élémentaires de chaque cours d'action et leurs composantes sous-jacentes, et identifier les séquences types exploratoires et exécutoires. Les résultats montrent que les connaissances mobilisées par les pongistes lors des matchs différaient selon leur mode d'engagement. La mise en relation de ces connaissances avec les éléments significatifs dans la situation actuelle permettait la création de chaînes interprétatives et contribuait à la construction d'un monde pertinent et significatif pour les pongistes. L'activité cognitive des pongistes consiste ainsi comme une construction permanente de significations visant à réduire l'incertitude de la situation d'interaction compétitive.

This study analyzed the activity of expert table tennis players during a match, in reference to course of action theory (Theureau, 1992). Matches were videotaped, and the players' verbalizations as they viewed the tapes were collected a posteriori. The data was analyzed by (a) transcribing the players' actions and verbalizations, (b) decomposing their activity into elementary units of meaning, and (c) grouping the elementary units into larger sets. The results showed that the matches began with an inquiry into the specific features of the opponent's play. This was followed by reproducing the actions identified as effective during the inquiry. The results are discussed in relation to the role of training in expert performance.