Home Medicine Chapter 6. Rock climbers’ communicative and sensory practices
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 6. Rock climbers’ communicative and sensory practices

Routine intercorporeality between climbers, rock, and auxiliary technologies
  • K. Neil Jenkings
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Moving Bodies in Interaction – Interacting Bodies in Motion
This chapter is in the book Moving Bodies in Interaction – Interacting Bodies in Motion

Abstract

This chapter, following Allen-Collinson & Hockey (2011), focuses on intercorporeal sensory perception in sport through verbal, haptic, ocular, and other forms of interaction as displayed and communicated by rock climbers in collaborative (en)action. It takes an ethnomethodological based video-analytic ethnographic approach, using video clips of rock climbers in collaborative (en)action to portray their verbal and non-verbal communicative and intercorporeal mundane practices. The research is based upon participant (my own, if non-expert, climbing) and non-participant observation (watching various others climb). Also interviews and video recordings of rock climbers at various climbing sites in Northumberland, Snowdonia, the Lake District and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom were conducted. Following a brief introduction to rock climbing in general, rock climbing is then discussed as an intercoproreal sporting activity after which the argument for an ethnomethodological approach to its study in this case is then made.

This paper then uses three examples of rock climbing activities: (1) two climbers discussing with a guidebook the various routes on short crag face which they intend to climb; (2) two climbers discussing a route on a boulder route which one then climbs ‘unassisted’; and lastly (3), a quarry sports climb upon which two climbers are top roping. From these we will build up a series of brief analytic descriptions of intercorporeal enaction of knowledge and practices in rock climbing. Practices, which are both verbal and non-verbal with various types of intercorporeal enaction. Thematic to the ensuing descriptions is the role of auxiliary technologies, that alongside the climbers and the rock itself, form part of the intercorporeal matrix. It will be argued that intercorporeal enaction when expertly performed allows that practical action to ‘disappear’ from the content of the ongoing verbal interaction. While the intercorporeal enaction is dropped as a conversational topic, with other non-immediate topics replacing it, the on-going physical enaction practices are still key to understanding members’ intercorporeal enaction of climbing and its performativity.

Abstract

This chapter, following Allen-Collinson & Hockey (2011), focuses on intercorporeal sensory perception in sport through verbal, haptic, ocular, and other forms of interaction as displayed and communicated by rock climbers in collaborative (en)action. It takes an ethnomethodological based video-analytic ethnographic approach, using video clips of rock climbers in collaborative (en)action to portray their verbal and non-verbal communicative and intercorporeal mundane practices. The research is based upon participant (my own, if non-expert, climbing) and non-participant observation (watching various others climb). Also interviews and video recordings of rock climbers at various climbing sites in Northumberland, Snowdonia, the Lake District and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom were conducted. Following a brief introduction to rock climbing in general, rock climbing is then discussed as an intercoproreal sporting activity after which the argument for an ethnomethodological approach to its study in this case is then made.

This paper then uses three examples of rock climbing activities: (1) two climbers discussing with a guidebook the various routes on short crag face which they intend to climb; (2) two climbers discussing a route on a boulder route which one then climbs ‘unassisted’; and lastly (3), a quarry sports climb upon which two climbers are top roping. From these we will build up a series of brief analytic descriptions of intercorporeal enaction of knowledge and practices in rock climbing. Practices, which are both verbal and non-verbal with various types of intercorporeal enaction. Thematic to the ensuing descriptions is the role of auxiliary technologies, that alongside the climbers and the rock itself, form part of the intercorporeal matrix. It will be argued that intercorporeal enaction when expertly performed allows that practical action to ‘disappear’ from the content of the ongoing verbal interaction. While the intercorporeal enaction is dropped as a conversational topic, with other non-immediate topics replacing it, the on-going physical enaction practices are still key to understanding members’ intercorporeal enaction of climbing and its performativity.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. Chapter 1. Intercorporeality, interkinesthesia, and enaction 1
  6. Part I. Interkinesthetic coordination and intercorporeality in team sports
  7. Chapter 2. Practice as a shared accomplishment 27
  8. Chapter 3. Intercorporeality and interkinesthetic gestalts in handball 57
  9. Chapter 4. Visual and motor components of action anticipation in basketball and soccer 93
  10. Chapter 5. Constructing cooperative and antagonistic intercorporeality 113
  11. Part II. Intercorporeal relations with moving bodies and objects in individual sports
  12. Chapter 6. Rock climbers’ communicative and sensory practices 149
  13. Chapter 7. Intercorporeal enaction and synchrony 173
  14. Chapter 8. Sound joined actions in rowing and swimming 193
  15. Chapter 9. “It’s really strange when nobody is watching” 215
  16. Part III. The enactive acquisition of embodied knowledge
  17. Chapter 10. Teaching bodies 245
  18. Chapter 11. Intercorporeal (re)enaction 267
  19. Chapter 12. Ways of relating 301
  20. Chapter 13. Intercorporeality with imaginary bodies 323
  21. Chapter 14. Afterword 345
  22. Index 355
https://doi.org/10.1075/ais.8.06jen

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. List of contributors xi
  5. Chapter 1. Intercorporeality, interkinesthesia, and enaction 1
  6. Part I. Interkinesthetic coordination and intercorporeality in team sports
  7. Chapter 2. Practice as a shared accomplishment 27
  8. Chapter 3. Intercorporeality and interkinesthetic gestalts in handball 57
  9. Chapter 4. Visual and motor components of action anticipation in basketball and soccer 93
  10. Chapter 5. Constructing cooperative and antagonistic intercorporeality 113
  11. Part II. Intercorporeal relations with moving bodies and objects in individual sports
  12. Chapter 6. Rock climbers’ communicative and sensory practices 149
  13. Chapter 7. Intercorporeal enaction and synchrony 173
  14. Chapter 8. Sound joined actions in rowing and swimming 193
  15. Chapter 9. “It’s really strange when nobody is watching” 215
  16. Part III. The enactive acquisition of embodied knowledge
  17. Chapter 10. Teaching bodies 245
  18. Chapter 11. Intercorporeal (re)enaction 267
  19. Chapter 12. Ways of relating 301
  20. Chapter 13. Intercorporeality with imaginary bodies 323
  21. Chapter 14. Afterword 345
  22. Index 355
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 18.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ais.8.06jen/html
Scroll to top button