Understanding 'Alternative' Sport Experiences: A Contextual Approach for Sport Psychology (Company Overview) (Report‪)‬

In the 1990s, some U.S. corporations grouped a number of formerly marginalized, youth-dominated activities, such as skateboarding, BMX (bicycle motocross) riding, and BASE (building, antenna, span, Earth) jumping, under a new label: "extreme" or "alternative" sports. Participants in these sports allegedly sought risks, thrills, and new skills and subscribed to an "outsider identity relative to the organized sports establishment" (Kusz, 2007, p. 359). Over the past decade, so-called alternative sports have experienced rapid growth in many Western, and some Eastern (e.g., China, Japan, Korea), countries (see Booth & Thorpe, 2007). In 2003, for example, five of the top 10 most popular sports in the United States were alternative sports, with inline skating ranked first, skateboarding second, snowboarding fourth, BMX biking eighth, and wakeboarding ninth (Survey Says, 2005). As alternative sports continue to grow in popularity, they are garnering more attention from sports psychologists (e.g., Boyd & Kim, 2007; Self, Henry, Findley, & Reilly, 2007). Much of the existing psychological research, however, pays scant regard to the distinctive socio-cultural and historical contexts of these sports; this deficit is apparent in discussions surrounding the Lindsey Jacobellis incident at the 2006 Winter Olympics. When American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis fell near the end of the boarder-cross course in the 2006 Olympic final, the mass media asked psychologists to explain why an athlete willingly risked a certain gold medal by performing a showy stunt in the final stages of the race. Ignoring the distinctive cultural values held by snowboarders (and, indeed, the sport's complicated historical relationship with the Olympics), some sport psychologists described this incident as a classic case of distraction and loss of attention and focus, leading to a mistake (Harrison, 2006; Sachs, 2006). Such statements were widely circulated via newspaper and television coverage. Jacobellis admitted that she was overly excited (see below). However, her explanation that she was "having fun" and wanted to share her "enthusiasm with the crowd" (cited in S. Jenkins, 2006, [paragraph] 18) (1) went largely unheard, even though some snowboarding greats endorsed her justifications. Professional snowboarder, commentator, and ex-Olympian Todd Richards (2006), for example, commented: "I would have probably done the same thing. Snowboarding is all about style" ([paragraph] 2). My key point here is that in-depth knowledge of alternative sports cultures, their development, and the values of cultural members (e.g., snowboarding is "all about style" and "having fun") is an essential prerequisite for those hoping to understand and explain the behaviors of athletes and practitioners in alternative sports such as snowboarding. This is not, however, a particularly new argument. Horn (2002), for example, proclaimed that individual behavior cannot be completely understood without an accompanying analysis of "the [sporting] cultures in which the individual subscribes, the value systems inherent within those cultures, and the degree to which the individual subscribes to or endorses those cultural values" (p. 281). Thus, in this article, I set out to extend the work of various feminist, cultural, and critical sport psychologists by advocating the need to carry out more systematic and psychological analyses of the impact of the broader social, cultural, and historical context on individuals' sporting behavior. I argue that understanding of the cultural context is particularly important for those attempting to explain and enhance the experiences of alternative or extreme sport athletes.