Learning to view golfing bodies: developing professional vision through video analysis and embodied reenactments

Abstract

Inspired by recent research that investigates how coaches interpret performance through the support of video tools and analysis, this article explores how the embodied reenactments of a golf coach shape their student’s interpretation of golfing bodies. More specifically, this research investigates a pedagogical encounter a Professional Golf Association (PGA) coach has with their golf student while engaging in collective in-the-moment video analysis of their student’s performance. Using Goodwin’s (1994) notion of professional vision, this article shows how a golf coach’s embodied methods attune their student’s observation of golfing practices to modern and standard methods for viewing and analyzing golfing bodies. I leverage interaction analysis to unearth and interpret the embodied and interactional nature of their pedagogical encounter, and to better understand how the golf coach’s reenactments shape their student’s professional vision. This research suggests that the body is a fundamental element in teaching and developing professional vision in athletic and performance-based contexts, and provides an avenue for better understanding how coaches, and experts in other professional settings, can apprentice novices’ interpretation and professional vision of practices.