The serious business of instructional humor outside the classroom: a study of elite gymnastic coaches’ uses of humor during training

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study documents the use of humor in an instructional setting outside traditional classrooms. Specifically, it studied the use of instructional humor in training elite and aspiring gymnasts. Analysis of practice recordings, firsthand observations, and interviews with coaches, staff members, athletes and their guardians, revealed that coaches employed instructional humor in patterned ways and at patterned times to encourage the learning process. This study is the first to document that coaches used humor to address athletes’ potential identity harm due to failure during practice (labeled here, ‘identity distracting function’) and to reaffirm athletes’ relational standing with coaches and peers in spite of those failures (labeled here, ‘relational reaffirmation function’). The study also identified situations in which humor is inappropriate during training. Thus, this study identified new functions of instructional humor used during the learning process for aspiring elite athletes. The transferability of findings to other settings is also described.