Kieran File, "How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams: Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

Apr 5, 2024

Dr. Kieran File discusses how language shapes relationships in a New Zealand rugby team, exploring power dynamics and communication strategies. The podcast delves into language dynamics in high-performance sports teams, the impact of language choices on power dynamics, communication dynamics, the power of linguistic practices in team unity, surprising hierarchical structures in rugby teams, and the significance of language in sports and broader applications.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Unlocking Language Dynamics in High-Performance Sports Teams

02:19 • 14min

Language Influences on Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a Rugby Team

16:31 • 2min

Exploring Communication Dynamics in Professional Sports Teams

18:33 • 13min

The Power of Linguistic Practices in Sports Team Unity

31:59 • 11min

Exploring Surprising Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team

42:57 • 2min

Language Use in High-Performance Sports

45:20 • 6min

While the topic of relationships in professional sports teams is gaining greater attention from researchers and practitioners, the role that coach and athlete language plays in shaping these relationships remains largely unexplored. How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams: Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team (Bloomsbury, 2022) by Dr. Kieran File addresses this gap by examining how every day, authentic language patterns used by coaches, captains and players shape relationships in a professional New Zealand rugby team. More specifically, through a discourse analysis of taken-for-granted ritual language practices in training sessions, team meetings and match-day interactions, the chapters of this book illustrate how coaches, captains and players shape particular interpersonal dynamics of power and solidarity between themselves in and through language and, in the process, reflect and reconstruct shared and underlying ideologies about how relationships of power and solidarity work in their team.

Offering an evidence-based discussion of the silent and pervasive ideologies that underpin how relationships work in professional sports teams, this book extends research on this important topic by providing largely missing illustrations of consequential interpersonal dynamics that actively shape professional relationships in sports teams. Written in an approachable style, this book offers linguists, social scientists and sports practitioners a frame of reference for greater understanding of how language directly shapes relationships of power and solidarity.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.

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