“Five” or “ten”: analysing a co-operative correction in Muay Thai coaching

ABSTRACT

Error-correction in sport coaching consists of the following phases: (a) correction initiation, (b) error-identification, (c) solution proposal, and (d) practice resumption. Framed by multimodal conversation analysis, this article adopts a single-case analysis to examine an extended correction sequence in Muay Thai coaching. First, I illustrate the opening phase in which the participants negotiate the norms regarding the training procedure. I then examine how the normative organisation of correction and the coach’s use of the previously-reported interactional practices are both fitted to the local contingencies of the setting. Finally, I demonstrate how the indexicality of Coach’s correction can be remedied by members’ practical knowledge about Muay Thai. I discuss that members’ methods may have diversified in sedimented landscapes as instances of correction accumulate, refining the way in which Muay Thai practitioners teach embodied skills that constitute the work of their community

KEYWORDS:

• Embodied instruction
• error-correction
• opening
• co-operative action
• Muay thai

Acknowledgments

My sincere thanks go to Coach, Takuto, and all the members of the Ānuenue Muay Thai Kickboxing School, for allowing me to conduct this project. This study would not have been possible, had they not welcomed me as part of their ‘ohana. I would also like to thank Gabriele Kasper, Eric Hauser, and many other colleagues, for providing their insightful comments. Lastly, I would like to thank Charlie Corsby for his patience and guidance, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their critical suggestions on my manuscripts. Any errors that remain are mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Repair and correction are mutually relevant concepts in that they are “co-operating organisations” (Macbeth, 2004). While the former concerns the achievement and restoration of intersubjectivity, the latter primarily addresses moral aspects of performance (e.g. “You did this wrong”.). See Evans and Reynolds (2016) for more detailed discussion.

2. See Yagi (2022) for detailed discussion on correction as a co-operative action.

3. Hester and Eglin (1997), while primarily dealing with membership categorisation analysis, offers an ethnomethodologically-informed approach to culture-in-action.

4. Note that Muay Thai and kickboxing constitute different fighting styles. I have chosen to keep the “kickboxing” to retain the sense of the original school name.

5. https://shop.ensomartialarts.com/leather-muay-thai-pads.html

6. Takuto’s “rehearsing”, especially, its preparation, is neatly synchronised with the timing of Coach’s demonstration. While it may make an interesting topic for temporalities, it will not be pursued here.

7. The corpus include numerous instances of the pad/glove-patting practice for activity transition, which are currently being compiled for a separate study.

8. After the correction sequence, the participants resumed practice, and Takuto performed five more reps of the roundhouse kick.