Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health

ABSTRACT There is growing interest in co-production in the sport, exercise, and health sciences. That includes from researchers in sport and exercise physiology, public health, sports medicine, sport sociology, sport and exercise psychology, sport management, physical education, sport coaching, leisure studies, geography, and occupational therapy. Despite the disciplinary spanning interest, academic resources in our field dedicated to the complex problem of comprehensively detailing the co-production of research and taking it forward are lacking. This paper is a modest attempt to do this. Rationales outlining the need for a resource are first presented. What is meant by co-production is then attended to. An original typology is developed to illuminate different ways co-production is defined and put to use. In the typology three differing types of co-production are described: Citizens’ Contributions to Public Services; Integrated Knowledge Translation; and Equitable and Experientially-informed Research. Why researchers co-produce research, along with various challenges involved with doing it, are then offered. It is suggested that generally university structures and academic norms tend not to facilitate co-production processes. Next, working principles to promote co-production as a means to advance a participatory turn in sport, exercise, and health research are introduced. We also highlight practical options for how to co-produce research and advance various criteria for judging the quality of it. Throughout it is highlighted why qualitative researchers are well prepared to do high quality co-produced research and should be considered important collaborators for researchers without qualitative expertise intending to co-produce research. The paper closes with future directions.

Brett Smith

Oli Williams

Lydia Bone

the Moving Social Work Co-production Collective

Co-production: A resource to guide co-producing research in the sport, exercise, and health sciences

协同生产：指导体育、运动与健康科学领域协同生产研究的资源

Exercise in natural environments positively impacts physical, social and mental well-being. However, most research has focused on green exercise, with less investigation of blue exercise (i.e. exercise in natural water). The study explored how blue exercise impacted well-being and whether its benefits were unique from other types of physical activity. Qualitative interviews (N = 8) were conducted with adults who participated in kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding, surfing and open-water swimming. Semi-structured interviews focused on blue exercise type, feelings during/after, and non-blue exercise participation. Transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Benefits from blue exercise included being in nature, seeing land from a different perspective, and escaping daily responsibilities. Health benefits included improved physical health, particularly for persons with physical conditions, relaxation/mindfulness, and managing mental health through non-medicinal methods. Participants emphasised social aspects compared with other exercises; particularly through supporting others in skill development. They highlighted respect for water and feelings of achievement by overcoming their fear of it. The findings supported social, mental and physical benefits of exercising in nature liked to restorative environments and basic psychological need fulfilment, with several unique benefits specific to blue exercise. Encouraging blue exercise may have public health potential, but research should explore barriers to engaging with it and how it differs from another nature-based exercise.

Nadine Thompson

Stephanie Wilkie

Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health

‘I’m just lost in the world’: the impact of blue exercise on participant well-being

“我只是迷失在这个世界中”：蓝色锻炼对参与者幸福感的影响

Since initially writing on thematic analysis in 2006, the popularity of the method we outlined has exploded, the variety of TA approaches have expanded, and, not least, our thinking has developed and shifted. In this reflexive commentary, we look back at some of the unspoken assumptions that informed how we wrote our 2006 paper. We connect some of these un-identified assumptions, and developments in the method over the years, with some conceptual mismatches and confusions we see in published TA studies. In order to facilitate better TA practice, we reflect on how our thinking has evolved – and in some cases sedimented – since the publication of our 2006 paper, and clarify and revise some of the ways we phrased or conceptualised TA, and the elements of, and processes around, a method we now prefer to call reflexive TA.

Virginia Braun

Victoria Clarke

Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis

反思自反性主题分析

Strength- and muscularity-based sports have a long and enduring association with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), most notably anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). Strongwoman is a strength and power-based sport with its own attendant subculture around training, nutrition, and shared values. Although extant literature has examined PED use in mainstream sports, there is a gap relating to its use in niche, subcultural sports such as strongwoman, and the voices of those choosing to use PEDs are rarely heard. Based on data from a wider auto/ethnographic study exploring strongwoman's subculture, and primarily drawing on 21 semi-structured interviews with 23 strongwoman competitors of various stages and levels of involvement in the sport, this article examines the attitudes, values, and practices surrounding PED use in the unregulated sport of strongwoman. In comparing novice, intermediate, and elite strongwoman experiences, the findings demonstrate shifting attitudes, perceptions and practices. The analysis indicates that the temporality and intensity of involvement in a sport is crucial to understanding changes relating to perceptions about moral, health, and aesthetic risks and, further, that a 'culture of silence' within a given sporting subculture is perpetuated by complex individual negotiations of risk and reward. The insights from this study have implications for other non-regulated and uncommercialised sports, particularly regarding the development of harm reduction strategies, and how these can be most effective.

Hannah J. H. Newman

Line Nyhagen

Thomas Thurnell-Read

Moral, health, and aesthetic risks: performance-enhancing drug use and the culture of silence in the UK strongwoman community

道德、健康与审美风险：英国大力士群体中使用兴奋剂与沉默文化

The paper infuses post thinking in qualitative training by providing a concrete example of how students can learn to inquire through the posts in a graduate-level methods course. The paper begins by storying 'the qualitative course', outlining its structure and rationale. The qualitative course's main post assignment (i.e. psychogeographic walk and performance) is then detailed and positioned as a material-performative pedagogy offering encounters that can transform students if they open themselves to the vulnerabilities and opportunities of inquiring on-the-move. Key next steps for the qualitative course are presented in terms of changing the name of the assignment, adding an object assignment, exposing students to the virtues of errant reading, inquiring as an act of creation and inquiring as epistemic witnessing. Implications for qualitative inquiry in sport, exercise, and health are offered that include attending to the relational ongoingness of existence, creating alternate understandings of understanding, and attuning to presences/absences. The paper concludes with thoughts on our collective response-ability to promote ontological pluralism. How we train the next generation of qualitative inquirers to play the ontological politics game has immense implications for presencing the manifold thoughts, concepts, and worlds that remain endarkened.

Martin Camiré

Infusing ‘post’ thinking in qualitative training using material-performative pedagogies

在定性培训中融入“后”思维：运用物质表演性教学法

Danielle L. Cormier

Helene Jørgensen

Leah J. Ferguson

Nancy C. Gyurcsik

Jennifer L. Briere

Kent C. Kowalski

Constructing a grounded theory of grit in sport: understanding the development and outcomes of long-term passion and perseverance in competitive athletes

构建体育领域坚韧性的扎根理论：理解竞技运动员长期激情与坚持的发展与成果

The most prominent competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities is the Special Olympics; however, there is surprisingly little research focusing on what it means to be an effective Special Olympics coach. The purpose of this study was to explore the career experiences and reflections of Special Olympics Canada's National Team Program coaches. Thirteen Special Olympic coaches participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Guided by narrative inquiry, we analysed our data with a thematic narrative analysis; and using creative non-fiction, presented our findings in three composite vignettes. The first vignette illustrates Coach Sarah as head coach of the Canadian national team managing the complexities and stressors of athlete travel, medications, emotions, and behaviours. The second vignette is from Coach Jennifer who balances the demands of being a volunteer coach and parent of a child with an intellectual disability, and reflects on the creativity and patience required to coach in this setting. The final vignette is from Coach Michael, who reflects on how to improve coach learning and development for upcoming coaches in the Special Olympics, including providing formal mentorship and improving coach education for this setting. Using narrative inquiry as a theoretical and methodological framework, we were able to support the use of creative non-fiction as a learning tool for disability sport coaches. With accessibility in mind, these vignettes are readily available to be translated into coach education to provide Special Olympics coaches with common coaching experiences that can prepare and inform coaches of athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Danielle Alexander-Urquhart

Gordon A. Bloom

Madison M. Fraser

Understanding the career experiences and reflections of Special Olympics Canada’s National Team Program coaches

理解加拿大特殊奥林匹克国家队教练的职业经历与反思

Cailie S. McGuire

Jeffrey G. Caron

Luc J. Martin

Understanding coaches’ perspectives on building trust in sport: a narrative inquiry approach

理解教练在体育中建立信任的视角：叙事探究方法

Abbreviation	Qual. Res. Sport. Exerc. Health.
Journal Impact	7.88
Quartiles(Global)	SPORT SCIENCES(Q1)

ISSN	2159-676X, 2159-6778
h-index	49

Publication Information	Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd.，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2011，Proportion of original research papers: 100.00%，Self Citation Rate:5.00%， Gold OA Rate: 39.16%

Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health

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Co-production: A resource to guide co-producing research in the sport, exercise, and health sciences

‘I’m just lost in the world’: the impact of blue exercise on participant well-being

Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis

Moral, health, and aesthetic risks: performance-enhancing drug use and the culture of silence in the UK strongwoman community

Infusing ‘post’ thinking in qualitative training using material-performative pedagogies

Moral, health, and aesthetic risks: performance-enhancing drug use and the culture of silence in the UK strongwoman community

Infusing ‘post’ thinking in qualitative training using material-performative pedagogies

Constructing a grounded theory of grit in sport: understanding the development and outcomes of long-term passion and perseverance in competitive athletes

Understanding the career experiences and reflections of Special Olympics Canada’s National Team Program coaches

Understanding coaches’ perspectives on building trust in sport: a narrative inquiry approach