The Great Race
Sports
are great examples of discourse communities. There are many and they all pose a
great argument as to why they are strong ones. I believe that my discourse
community is among the strongest of all sports discourse communities. Alpine
ski racing brings together people globally with a common goal. Ski as fast as
possible. Everyone involved does not only compete together but also trains,
lives, and interacts in nearly every hour of their day. Communication comes in
every form and expression imaginable. Although this community is very broad it
is extremely exclusive at the same time. The lexis goes beyond any other with
seemingly almost every word being excusive to the community. All of these
things make ski racing a very special discourse community.
To
help understand much of this community I got help from my friend Henry Maloney.
Henry is a 10-year veteran of the community and had a fantastic insight of it.
I interviewed him to gather information. The interview exposed much more than I
ever imagined it could. Not only did I get answers but also the emotion behind
it came out. This was communication in itself and said a lot.
Here is the interview: Patrick (P) Henry (H)
P: How are you doing today Henry?
H: I’m doing well.
P: How long have you ski raced?
H: (Counting…4..) 10 years.
P: Okay, awesome. So was there anything in ski racing that took
you a really long time to understand? And if you can think of multiple things
what took you the longest to understand?
H: Like techniques!? Or…
P: Anything! Any object that, anything that comes to mind first.
Of what took you the longest to understand. It could be something socially,
techniques, rules, whatever.
H: Ummm…. Well…. Let’s see, what did I get stuck on? Mmm… I was a backseat skier for a long time, so it took a lot
for me to move to stay forward at a certain point. Like I just was always
skiing in the back seat so I had to move forward.
P: Okay. And is there anything that you still do not understand?
H: Fuck ya! Everything!
(laughs from both)
H: But… Specifically I was struggling with…
P: Come on Henry we can find it.
H: Hey fuck you these are not easy questions! Umm.. Jesus come on
I thought these questions were gonna be easier! Like yes or no, true or false,
come on. I still don’t understand how the universities in the NCAA division 1
skiing, how that can be considered fair when they just give away all their
scholarships to racers from out of the country, from Finland and Sweden that
don’t even benefit the country in any way, just move back home and race for
their national team and do whatever after they get a free education in the US.
P: Okay! What were your motives in ski racing?
H: I wanted to be better than everyone because I hate everyone.
(laughs) Just kidding! Uhh… I wanted to race collegiately NCAA division 1.
P: What work did you put in?
H: The fuck kind of question is that?
P: Just answer it God dammit.
H: What kind of work did I put in? I just diddly dicked around and
showed up to races. Umm.. I trained like on snow. I trained on snow 5-6 days a
week and I worked out in the gym 3 or 4 days a week.
P: Are there any rules that bother you?
H: You are gonna need to pause… Well a lot of the so-called safety
rules sort of bother me when it comes to gear and stuff.
P: Like skis and helmets?
H: Ya, like that. Originally it pissed me off of course when they
(FIS) changed the ski length but it ended up
not being that big of a deal because the technology was able to overcome that
rule, but none the less, when you try and limit the sport that much by trying
to keep thing “safe”, they do it in every sport too, that bothers me. It’s like
there is always gonna be a hazard so you might as well allow the sport to
progress.
P: Okay thank you Henry. And so what is the most influential
figure to you? It could be anybody anywhere. Infinite.
H: That would have to be my coach Paul Tronnier from Team Summit
Colorado. He influences everything I do and the way I think about it.
P: Fantastic. So I asked you earlier what were your motives. But
this question is similar but different and I hope you can see the difference
there. So why did you do it? Why did you ski race?
H: Because I enjoyed it. Umm.. It was something that I was good at
and something that I actually enjoyed doing. I didn’t really feel forced to be
there so it was something that I wanted to do.
P: Alright, so what do you feel is the most important document to
ski racing?
H: Document?
P: Yes.
H: What the fuck does that mean? What do you mean DOCUMENT!?
P: A document
H: Like paper, like something written down important to ski
racing.
P: Yes!
H: Probably the fucking FIS rule handbook. That seems pretty
fucking important.
(Laughs)
P: I just want you to know this is going to be submitted to my teacher.
H: Oh shit sorry.
P: Are there any weird habits within the community?
H: Weird habits? Oh my god. Uhh ya people do weird shit all the
time. Let’s see… I need a good example now. What’s some weird shit people do.
Oh ya! Huuuuge amount of tobacco use in the population. Incredible amounts of
chewing tobacco! I don’t know why and I don’t know where it came about but ya
that’s, that’s a big part. There is definitely some weird pre-race rituals.
Almost everybody has one and they are all really fucking weird and like mine.
P: What’s yours?
H: I don’t always do all of them but they are things that like if
I fuck up on the run somewhere I’m definitely like that’s why. Like I have to
buckle my boots from the top down. Like if I buckle them from the toes up like
that will fuck everything up.
P: I always buckle them from the toes up.
H: Oh god! No!
P: should I quit or should I just start changing the way I buckle
my boots.
H: You should definitely. Booster
strap and then all of the way down to the toes.
P: that is completely backwards but that is okay.
H: No. No.
P: this is why Henry Maloney is slower than I am.
H: Nooo. This is why Patrick isn’t on the ski team here (Montana
State). Because he is buckling his boots the wrong fucking way. Um ya people do
weird shit all the time in the start gate and before their race. All the pre
race rituals are weird as shit.
P: Is there anything else you would like to say that’s you think?
H: No I’m pretty much done here.
P: Okay thank you so much Henry.
This interview
speaks for itself and the whole discourse community in so many ways. It
addressed the extensive lexis words, single most important document, goals of
the community, who is experienced, difficulties, conflict, habits, and rituals.
The ski racing
lexis is very extensive. The interview with henry introduced many of these
words. I am also going to reference a training journal I created last year to
address this collection. The words used that are specific to the ski racing
lexis from just these two pieces are backseat, FIS, Booster Strap, crossblock,
driving, line, arc, counter, edge angle, DNF, ruts, leveling, linking, bring
from behind, round, straight, tempo, and pinch. Many of these words can likely
be interpreted correctly and others you will probably have no idea what they
mean if you are not part of the community. Some are acronyms such as FIS
(Federation International Skiing) and DNF (Did Not Finish). There are many
acronyms beyond these that are used all the time.
Different areas
and levels of ski racing follow different documents and rules. The racing I
have done the past four years had been FIS sanctioned. All of these races must
follow the FIS rulebook to exact specifications. Without these rules the sport
would be nothing, or close to because there would be no continuity between
races or ways to compare results. This also outlines safety and conduct.
Besides rules there are other documents such as my training journal and race
times
The first and
foremost goal of ski racing is for every racer to ski as fast as they can. This
needs work from everyone. The athlete, coaches, officials, trainers, and
equipment manufacturers must all contribute to this. Without everyone doing
their part nobody will be satisfied and athletes will not reach their
potential. After the goal of the athletes there are people trying to make
careers and they may have other sub-goals for their lives.
All of these
people who help the athletes are very important. As an athlete I often idolize
them and have great appreciation. Some of these people are much older and some
are only slightly older than myself. Regardless they all contribute all of
their knowledge and expertise. Some who have more experience become legendary
and can be considered the great oldtimers. I have been lucky enough to work
with one of these oldtimer coaches. Hermann Gollner, originating from Austria,
is now 71 years old and has a list of accomplishments too long to list. Being
able to receive knowledge and wisdom from his was invaluable. Henry also
mentioned how his coach, Paul Tronnier, was the most influential figure to him.
Without coaches we could not acquire the knowledge to succeed.
Overcoming your
problems in ski racing can be extremely difficult and they may always haunt
you. Making technical change can be very difficult and requires communication
from athletes to coaches and back the other. Way some things can be felt while
others can be seen. There is never any one solution and every method of
communication must be explored to overcome those.
Henry spoke on
how certain rules and procedures upset him. He is not the only one concerned
with these things and those are not the only conflicts. The NCAA rules and FIS
ski rules only touch the surface. There are also rules about helmets and what
is legal. Many of these rules do not benefit anyone or the sport but help manufacturers
sell more equipment.
The community has
many weird habits that in many other places would be seen as absolutely crazy.
Henry mentioned the one about how chewing tobacco is ever so popular within the
community. There are also many others such as ski tuning and wearing skin-tight
suits to ski in. The two latter are very necessary to be successful in the
sport though. Without making these normal practice you will not be prepared on
race day.
Athletes’ rituals
can be very weird. Henry has his and I have mine. Every athlete has his or
hers. Henry is concerned with how he buckled his boots. I have to shake my head
a particular way in the start gate. Without these athletes would lose their
minds. These help them keep calm and confident in themselves. The start of a
ski race is the most stressful event I have ever experienced. I will do close
to anything to take that edge off while keeping my aggression. Some athletes
will discuss their rituals and others will not. I even have some rituals I will
not discuss or do not even realize I do.
After reading
this you probably think ski racing is absolute madness. Well frankly, that’s because
it is. The lexis is never ending and the communication is very hard to figure
out. Ski racing is very difficult and fueled by passion. This passion brings
everyone together to be very tight knit. Ski racing is both the greatest and
worst thing I have done with my life.
