1. My Discourse Community Professional Athletes Personal Team

2. Research Question I look into how a professional athletes trainer, mental coach, dietitian and agent communicate between one another and with the athlete himself/herself. I want to find out how they go about tying everything together, for example, if the trainer and dietitian meet up and discuss what they plan on doing with the athlete that particular week and how they can work together to get the best results. I also look into how the athletes team keeps track of everything and what different kinds of ‘lingo’ they use between each other. Lastly, I would like to find out how they all work together to prepare for a game that the player might have coming up.

3. Introduction The main goal of this project was to answer the research question I created. In order to further my knowledge and thoroughly answer my research question a lot of data collection was done. Interviews were held and extensive research was done online. Also coding the interviews was done in order to pull out as much key information as possible. This presentation is guided towards people who are also interested in joining the same discourse community one day or have an interest in learning about how a professional athletes personal team communicates between one another and how that relates to an athlete performing at the top of their game.

4. Data Collection Methods Many dada collection methods were used throughout the process of looking into and researching the discourse community of a professional athletes personal team. The data collection method that was first used was understanding the key concepts of the course and how they are applied to my chosen discourse community. Concepts such as discourse communities, genre analysis, interview coding, and expertise. Each of these concepts gave me a better understanding of my topic and how to find the data that I needed to answer my research question.

5. Discourse Communities Discourse communities was the main topic of this project. A discourse community is a group of people who share a set of values and goals and use communication to achieve these goals. Therefore as introduced earlier, the discourse community I chose to research was a professional athletes personal team. I was to figure out what set of values and goals each individual within the team shared and how they achieve the goals they set for the athlete they work with.

6. Genre Analysis Completing a genre analysis for my topic helped me further understand how all roles that are played within an athletes personal team are tied together. The work that is done by each individual within the team is related to the rest of the group. I found three examples of different types of genres within the discourse community that I chose. A workout plan, a dietary plan, and a athletic trainers notes. Each example used very similar layouts and language. This allowed me to understand that communication is quite easy and fluent between the members of the team. This answered part of my research question about how people within the community communicate and what the language is like between them. The language mainly consists of charts/tables and brief recorded notes. The charts are used for workout plans, dietary plans, and daily schedules for the athlete. The notes that are recorded are used to diagnose an athletes injury or current health status.

7. Interview Coding Throughout the process of collecting data for this project, I was able to hold two interviews. I was able to interview a sports dietitian and an athletic trainer. Both interviews were used to ask each of the interviewee’s about their field and discourse community that they are in. They were both involved with sports teams and athletes so they were within the discourse community that I was researching. After both interviews were held, I was able to use interview coding techniques to pull out key information from both of my interviews. This helped me find most of my answers for my research question.

8. Expertise Throughout the process of this research project, knowing the difference between an expert and a novice was crucial in order to find the knowledge that I needed to find. An expert is someone who can adapt to new situations with greater flexibility than those that are considered a novice and that an expert is able to transfer knowledge to their new and upcoming situations. I was able to find out that in order to become an expert within the discourse community that each individual is well educated and have a great deal of expertise within our field. I know that within my discourse community there are a number of different jobs that all intertwine with one another. I also know that in order for myself to get to where I want to be I have to become an expert within my chosen community and work my way to where I want to be

9. Results Throughout the process of data collection, I was able to answer all of my questions that were asked in my research question. The best information that I found was discovered in the interviews that I held, the example genre texts that I found, and the observation site that I decided to observe.

10. Interviews As touched on briefly earlier in this presentation, I was able to hold two interviews for my research. The people I chose to research were both within the discourse community that I am hoping to be a part of. I was able to interview a sports dietitian and an athletic trainer. Although neither worked with professional athletes, they both worked with college level athletes. Going into the interviews, I had a list of questions prepared to ask for each interviewee. This was where I was able to gain most of my research. I was able to ask specific questions about the language and communication used within the discourse community. The interviews provided much of the knowledge that I needed to answer my research question.

11. Genre Texts I was able to find three examples of texts that are used in my chosen discourse community. I found an example of a workout plan, a diet plan, and an example of an athletic trainers notes about an athletes injury. These three examples were able to show me how each part of an athletes personal team communicates with one another and the language they use in their communication. A lot of the language was similar in each of the examples and a lot of charts were used and formed in the same ways. The diet plan and workout plan were almost identical in the way that they were set up so it would be easy for the athlete to understand both of them. Lastly, the language used was a bit different in the athletic trainers notes compared to the other two examples. It used more big words that are used to diagnose what injury an athlete may have and what they need to do in order to get healthy again. The trainer was able to explain what everything meant though which was key for the communication between everyone.

12. Observation Site The observation site that I decided to go to in order to observe the discourse community that I chose was a college basketball practice. At the practice the coaches were there, the athletic trainers were there, and the strength coach was there. I was able to observe how they all worked together and with the athletes which was very helpful in answering a few of my research questions. Everyone seemed to get along with one another because many smiles were exchanged and there was a smooth flow to the practice. I believe that it is crucial for the athletes team to get along in order to get the best results from the athletes.

13. What I’ve learned All the research that I have done over the semester based on my research question has allowed me to gain enough knowledge to answer my research question. I have been able to learn a lot about what I need to do in order to get where I want to be and what it is like to be within that discourse community.

14. Answering My Research Question To begin to answer my research question I will start by explaining how an athletes personal team communicate between themselves and with the athlete. Within the discourse community of a professional athletes personal team they have specific language that they use. A lot of the terminology that they use has to do with a persons body and the movements that it makes. Each persons language is a bit different than the others but they are able to understand each other because they all have very similar backgrounds when it comes to school and past experience. I also wanted to find out how the athletes personal team goes about tying everything together. Whether or not they meet up to discuss their individual meetings with the athletes or not. After holding my interviews I was able to find out that the members of the team do meet up but not as frequently as you would think. Phone calls are usually made or the information is passed on through the athlete. I was told this still is an effective way to produce the best results for the athlete by both of the people that I interviewed. In both of my interviews I gave the example of a golfer and asked each of the people that I interviewed how they would go about preparing the athlete for a tournament that he or she had coming up and how they would work together with their team to prepare the athlete. Both of the interviewees gave similar responses. Basically they would both go about their own jobs that they have with the athlete but would design the weeks prior to the tournament with everyone on the team. This is used to get maximum performance out of the athlete because they would have regimented schedule and this also allows for the team to agree where they think the athlete needs the most improvement.