Conversation analysis in sport and exercise

The above exchange occurred during routine body composition testing at an elite sports institute. The recording was made for a study investigating the suggestion that constant surveillance of athletes’ bodies in elite sports environments leaves them vulnerable to developing eating disorders (Cosh, Crabb, LeCouteur, & Kettler, 2011). But what can be done with such conversational data in all its rawness? How might everyday practices in sport and exercise – here, in the form of news delivery around a tricep measurement – be used in analysis? In this chapter, we answer the question by turning to a relatively unexplored approach within sport and exercise: conversation analysis (CA). We first describe what CA is. Next, some reasons for using CA are offered. How to do CA is then described. Finally, we describe some studies that have used CA in sport and exercise settings, and make some suggestions for future application of the method.