Psychophenomenology and the explicitation interview for accessing subjective lived experience in sport coaching

Abstract

The purpose of this position paper is to promote the interest, usefulness and specificity of a coherent system that is based on psychophenomenology as a theoretical framework (Vermersch, 2012), and the explicitation interview (Vermersch, 2009) as an appropriate and original method for studying the subjective lived experience of participants in sport situations. This original approach is associated with an epistemological posture which accords significant importance to the first-person point of view (i.e. what is appearing to a person about his own subjective lived experience in a past situation). After presenting some limitations in other phenomenological approaches and interview methods, we present the specificity of the theoretical background and the method of explicitation interview, for describing in detail the actions and understanding of the lived experience of a person in a past and singular situation. To demonstrate the potential of this approach, we provide two specific examples of explicitation interview data from an in-match player decision-making situation and an in-game half-time speech of a coach. In concluding, we contend that psychophenomenology and the explicitation interview present new perspectives and opportunities for coach education, by developing the analysis of the subjective lived experience. This may have important implications for sport related research and the development of coaching practice and formal coach education, through closer links to real life experiences.

A review of the penetration of Francophone research on intervention in physical education and sport in Anglophone journals since 2010

“…This enrichment can be done by joint projects exchanges finalized by publications in English (eg. Mouchet, Morgan, and Thomas 2018); or in both languages (eg. Vors and Kirk 2016).…”

“…Moreover, some studies in France have paid attention to expert coaches' behaviours in rugby union games. Its noteworthy that, with respect to the need for a more holistic approach to in-match coaching, some researchers have associated the technological approach and psychophenomenology with the method of the explicitation interview (Vermersch, 2009) in order to capture and understand the subjective lived experience of players during real situations in sport contexts (Mouchet, Morgan, and Thomas 2018). An example of this kind of study is Mouchet, Harvey, and Light (2014) who explored the coaches' lived-experience when communicating with the players during the game.…”

Describing the tactical knowledge used by young competitive soccer players: A psychophenomenological analysis

“…The protocol is in line with the composition of the video and interview process elaborated and utilized in similar research in rugby [15,22]. The researchers selected attacking actions that were significant for ball recovery or build-ups in continuous sequences of play, discarding set plays and throw-ins.…”

“…More specifically, this approach consists in emphasizing the subjectivity of decisions as empiric data for investigation on the elements that support decisions. According to the instigators of associated techniques, the lived experience reflects a representative starting point to study decision-making and can be investigated in team sports [13][14][15].…”

The bodily experience of disabled athletes. A phenomenological study of powerchair football

“…It gives access to the lived dimensions of action that are not necessarily immediately conscious (Vermersch 2005;Petitmengin, 2006). In order to create the right conditions for interviewees to report as accurately as possible on their subjectivity (Vermersch 2009), the researcher can rely on photographs (Mouchet, Morgan, and Thomas 2018;Orr and Phoenix 2015) or videos (Merchant 2011) of the experience in question.…”