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.

This study described elite football (soccer) goalkeepers' activity and performance in critical game situations. The 11 best French players (M age = 15.5 yr., SD = 0.5) participated in the study. Interviews focused on goalkeepers' experiences were conducted to identify meaningful events involved in failed actions. Players formulated 23 critical game situations. Verbatim encoding using a thematic analysis indicated that four main categories (coming off the line, goal-line clearance, one-on-one, and diving) represented the most critical situations encountered during matches. The relations among experience and action, inner states, background, attention contents, and intentions were elucidated. The discussion is grounded on the properties of such critical game situations and their implications for improving goalkeepers' performance.

This study examined how individual team members adjust their activity to the needs for collective behavior. To do so, we used an enactive phenomenological approach and explored how soccer players' lived experiences were linked to the active regulation of team coordination during eight offensive transition situations. These situations were defined by the shift from defensive to offensive play following a change in ball possession. We collected phenomenological data, which were processed in four steps. First, we reconstructed the diachronic and synchronic dynamics of the players' lived experiences across these situations in order to identify the units of their activity. Second, we connected each player's units of activity side-by-side in chronological order in order to identify the collective units. Each connection was viewed as a collective regulation mode corresponding to which and how individual units were linked at a given moment. Third, we clustered each collective unit using the related objectives within three modes of regulation—local (L), global (G), and mixed (M). Fourth, we compared the occurrences of these modes in relation to the observable key moments in the situations in order to identify typical patterns. The results indicated four patterns of collective regulation modes. Two distinct patterns were identified without ball possession: reorganize the play formation (G and M) and adapt to the actions of putting pressure on the ball carrier (M). Once the ball was recovered, two additional patterns emerged: be available to get the ball out of the recovery zone (L) and shoot for the goal (L and M). These results suggest that team coordination is a fluctuating phenomenon that can be described through the more or less predictable chaining between these patterns. They also highlight that team coordination is supported by several modes of regulation, including our proposal of a new mode of interpersonal regulation. We conclude that future research should investigate the effect of training on the enaction of this mode in competition.

The aims of this study were to identify and analyse elite athletes' problems in competition. A situated cognition approach placed the emphasis on athletes' actions (i.e. cognitions and behaviours), which were considered to emerge from couplings with selected elements of the context. Fifty-two exercises performed by 10 elite trampolinists were analysed. Field observations, structured interviews, and self-confrontation interviews were conducted and transcribed, and used together with behavioural descriptions derived from video recordings. Performance problems were selected from these reports and from the major infringements of trampoline rules. Qualitative analysis identified the meaningful units of action and their semiotic components for each problem. Four categories of problem were identified and noted to appear either separately or jointly while performing: (a) finding the best moment to begin the performance; (b) finding and maintaining the best mode of involvement to end the performance; (c) recovering normal sensory-motor capacity to perform; and (d) solving problems quickly and definitively while performing. The results suggest that the study of action -- situation couplings in sports, as well as of their constantly evolving dynamics, not only reveals elite athletes' psychological activity, but is vital to a deeper understanding of these couplings.

This study employed methodological principles of the course-of-action theory in order to identify the typical organization of teachers’ actions when in conflict with one or more students. Eighteen physical education teachers were filmed during physical education lessons and then participated in self-confronting interviews. Data analysis consisted of comparing each course of action to identify the archetypal structures that characterize conflict management. The results showed (a) conditions conducive to conflict, (b) teacher attempts at resolution occurring under strong time pressure and thus carrying risks of further deteriorating the situation because of precipitous decisions, (c) an authoritative use of the status conferred by the role of teacher, and (d) a systematic exploitation of the conflict to drive home a message.