Tuesday, April 18, 2023 - 12:40 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Horton 304
Please join us for our final colloquium of the year on April 18, 2023, in Horton 304 at 12:40 pm. Our colleague, Dr. Edward Reynolds, will be presenting his paper “The sequential organization of effort display vocalizations versus post-effort vocalizations in the sport of powerlifting.”
Abstract:
Previous research (Hofstetter,
2021a-b, Reynolds, 2021) in the interactional organization of sports has
highlighted the normative organization of ‘displays of effort’. One recurrent
method for these displays in sport of powerlifting are the ‘strain grunts’
(Goffman, 1978) deployed by lifters in the course of their movements. In this
paper I further unpack Goffman’s initial characterization of strain grunts by
contrasting their sequential deployment relative to the movements they occur in
the environment of. Drawing on a collection of 100 non lexical vocalizations, I
contrast 32 instances of ‘effort displays’ with 29 cases of ‘post-effort
evaluative vocalizations’ from recordings of two different powerlifting gyms in
the USA and Australia. Deconstructing the overall order of a lift I demonstrate
two distinct opportunities for athletes to deploy these different
vocalizations. The first opportunity for lifters occurs when the lift has
reached a safe point for the release air during a lifting movement at which
point they may deliver an effort display which is recurrently
treated by onlookers as consequential for their own potential involvement in
safeguarding lifters. In start contrast on the immediate cessation of movements
when equipment is safely at rest and lifters are no longer under a load they
may offer post-effort vocalizations working to evaluate the
difficulty of the just-completed exercise. Conclusively illustrating the
difference, lifters may employ both during a lift, and often
do, illustrating the social organization of the positioning of ‘breathwork’ in
situations of exertion.
