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Context: A growing amount of recent research in sport psychology has focused on trying to understand withdrawals from ultra-races. However, according to the Four E approach, the studies underestimated the embedded components of these experiences and particularly how they were linked to the specific environmental conditions in which the experiences occurred. Objective: This study aimed to characterize trail running withdrawals in relationship to race topography. Design: Qualitative design, involving self-confrontation interviews and use of a race map. Setting: Use of the race map for description of the race activity and self-confrontation interviews took place 1–3 days after the races. Participants: Ten runners who withdrew during an ultra-trail race. Data Collection and Analysis: Data on past activity traces and experiences were elicited from self-confrontation interviews. Data were coded and compared to identify common sequences and then each type of sequence was counted with regard to race topography. Results: Results showed that each sequence was related to runners’ particular possibilities for acting, feeling, and thinking, which were in turn embedded in the race topography. These sequences allowed the unfolding of the activity and increased its overall effectiveness in relation to the constraints of this specific sport. Conclusion: This study allowed us to highlight important information on how ultra-trail runners manage their races in relationship to the race environment and more specifically to its topography. The result will also help us to recommend potential adjustments to ultra-trail runners’ performance-oriented training and preparation.

We analyzed the courses of experience of 10 runners who volunteered to describe their experiences of withdrawal during an ultra-trail race. Data collected contained traces of past activities elicited in self-confrontation interviews. Data were coded and compared with identify structures in common sequences. Seven representative sequences were identified: feeling pain; putting meaning to those feelings; adjusting one's running style; attempting to overcome the problem; other runners' influences; assessing the situation; and deciding to withdraw. Results showed that disruptive events could cause progressive, cumulative, and varied transformations in runners' courses of experience that led inevitably to withdrawal. Practical implications for mental preparation and race management are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Based on the course-of-action theory, this study performed a situated analysis of three elite aerial freestyle skiers’ activity. Data were collected by observation, videotaping and self-confrontation interviews retrospectively build the athletes’ activity. The analysis identified units of action, thought, and feelings and described their relationships during each leap. Comparisons of the different courses of action revealed six components of freestyle skiers’ activity: (1) pick up speed in the descent, (2) manage the curve of the tremplin, (3) take-off, (4) manage the exit of the tremplin, (5) perform rotations, and (6) organize the landing. This study revealed the dynamic and situated property of acrobatic activity. As the leap unfolded, the athletes step-by-step enhanced their knowledge of what was occurring and what they would have to do to perform their best and land on their feet. Points of convergence and divergence with other acrobatic performances are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aims of this study were to identify and analyse elite athletes' problems in competition. A situated cognition approach placed the emphasis on athletes' actions (i.e. cognitions and behaviours), which were considered to emerge from couplings with selected elements of the context. Fifty-two exercises performed by 10 elite trampolinists were analysed. Field observations, structured interviews, and self-confrontation interviews were conducted and transcribed, and used together with behavioural descriptions derived from video recordings. Performance problems were selected from these reports and from the major infringements of trampoline rules. Qualitative analysis identified the meaningful units of action and their semiotic components for each problem. Four categories of problem were identified and noted to appear either separately or jointly while performing: (a) finding the best moment to begin the performance; (b) finding and maintaining the best mode of involvement to end the performance; (c) recovering normal sensory-motor capacity to perform; and (d) solving problems quickly and definitively while performing. The results suggest that the study of action – situation couplings in sports, as well as of their constantly evolving dynamics, not only reveals elite athletes' psychological activity, but is vital to a deeper understanding of these couplings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]