Distributed Marking in Sport Corrections: A Conversation Analysis of Synchronized Swimming

This paper is an empirically based contribution on the communication of corrections in synchronized swimming. Our claim is that marking is a socially orgnanized skill that can be found in sports corrections. Conversation Analysis provides the framework to locate the pathways of communication modalities in real professional trainings. Through video-aided ethnographic work, which includes observation and interviewing the Spanish Olympic team for four months, we captured standardized communication patterns. We analyzed the video of the training sessions with ELAN software for micro-interactions. Our results show that the modalities of speech, marking, gesture and gaze appear in synchronized swimming. There is an epistemological asymmetry between the trainer and the swimmers as experts in different domains. Still, we found instances of distributed marking through analysis of gaze behavior. Marking for others in synchronized swimming has a cognitive function that goes beyond individual reflexivity and recall. Corrections in sports training are a product of socially managed turn taking.