Abstract
How do our bodies learn to move? The answers to this question are relevant to sports education, but also to identity formation among a sport’s coaches and practitioners. An emerging debate in the jiu-jitsu community regarding skill acquisition between advocates of traditional training methods (which generally operate within the Individual Practice pedagogical framework) and advocates of constraints-based training methods (known as the Ecological Dynamics approach). In addition to the ramifications for coaching practices, debates between prominent community members also contain insights for structural processes, revealing how compromises are formed—or not formed. This debate is worthy of examination both in terms of the message framing used in arguments and in terms of how those arguments are deployed in jiu-jitsu media. This work will analyze messaging around skill acquisition for martial arts. The research entails both a content analysis of media where debates occur, including online platforms such as YouTube, and interviews with participants in these discussions. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to assess the arguments, framing tactics and metaphors used by advocates.
Presenters
Jeff ShawAdjunct Professor, Journalism, Western Washington University, Washington, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
Jiu-jitsu, Martial Arts, Ecological Dynamics, Pedagogy
