Volume 12, Issue 2

In sport sciences, standardized sport-specific test batteries and measurement instruments are usu­ally recommended for talent identification. This approach implies that talent is something that is objectively verifiable. In this paper, I have chosen a different perspective on talent identification. In a praxeographic study, I examined coaches' professional talent scouting as a cultural practice that requires a trained practical vision. I consider the group of coaches engaged in talent identification as a ‘Denkkollektiv’ (thought collective) whose visual skills unfold only in specific ‘socio-material ar­rangements’. The praxeographic analysis of the detailed visual and talent identification practices that follows enables me to uncover and reflect on the subjectification processes and the selection criteria and talent attributions that often implicitly underlie these practices.

Bodily movement is one of the fundamental ways in which human beings engage with the world - and movement always differs from one culture and society to the next. Gender and youth cultu­res, age-specific, ethnic, and class-specific cultures, for instance, are both producers and products of different movement practices and movement orders. There are different patterns of movement that correspond to different lifestyle patterns. With the globalization and mediatization of societies, movement practices (e. g., Asian techniques of body awareness and meditation), cultural dances (e. g., tango, salsa, disco, ballet) and culture-specific sports (e. g., soccer, martial arts, surfing, snowboarding) have spread around the world. The globalization of movement practices is usually interpreted either as a process of global homogenization or as one of local differentiation. But what is often over-looked are the questions of how this process unfolds and how to describe the practices that are part of the cultural translation of movement. This article explores these questions, and proposes a prac­tice-theoretical perspective on the global transfer of movement practices based on the concept of cultural translation. Through an examination of selected examples, I sketch out a practice-theoretical approach to the cultural translation of movement.

Drawing on the example of skateboarding, this essay explores the impact of audio-visual media on the production of bodily movements and the constitution of stylistic communities in new sporting practices. Bodily movement and media technology are bound together in an “intermedial constella­tion” (Stern, 2010). Starting with the 1970s, the paper shows how the social use of evolving video technologies initiated and accelerated the informal learning of skateboard maneuvers on which the practice is based. This technological evolution also played a significant role in the communitization of skateboarders into stylistic ‘cultures’ by opening up opportunities for new authors and new genres of representation. The video recorder appears to mark a key turning point in this evolution: It was through this technology that the ‘classic’ skateboard video evolved in the form of “rock videos about sports” (Klein, 2005), which at the same time were used as branding tools by skateboarding companies. By incorporating the physical practices of skateboarding into their own bodies through the viewing of these videos, the paper suggests, those who engage in the practice are placed precisely at the intersection of sport and pop cultures. Thus, the practice can be conceived as one of the technologies of the self that gives rise to the “consumerist creative subject” (Reckwitz, 2006) of the post-modern social order.

Taking a praxeological approach, this paper considers the effects stemming from match analysis software in professional football. Firstly, knowledge practices are outlined which emerged in con­nection with the use of digital match analysis tools and, subsequently, conceptual considerations are presented which are pursued in two directions: On the one hand, they are framed with regard to core assumptions of praxeology. It becomes apparent that it is an important desideratum of praxeology and practice theory to analyse the effect and potential of reflexive forms of knowledge und know­ing how within practices. On the other hand, on the basis of the conceptual considerations regard­ing software-based accounting of football matches, ideas are developed on how they might induce changes in the game of football and in professional football in particular.