Keeping the Tradition Alive: Ageing Men in the Masters Highland Games
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Transcript of Keeping the Tradition Alive: Ageing Men in the Masters Highland Games
KEEPING THE TRADITION
ALIVE: AGEING MEN IN THE
MASTERS HIGHLAND GAMES
James Bowness
My Sporting History
My ResearchWhat can we
learn from Masters sport?
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MYSELF
• PhD Research at Glasgow Caledonian University
• GB Representative at the European Indoor
Championships, Prague 2015
• Research interests; sporting lives, the experience
of injury and illness, engagement with risk in sport
A BRIEF SPORTING HISTORY
• Started in 2002 aged 10
• England U12 Fell Running Champion 2003
• Specialised in middle distances (400-1500)
• First national final 800m – 2008
• England and GB Junior debut 2010
• St Mary’s University – 2010-2013
• Glasgow Caledonian University 2013- Present Day
• GB Senior Debut – Glasgow International Jan 2015
• European Indoor Championships 2015
• Ranked 9th in Europe and 19th in World indoors.
ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY 2010-2013
Various injuries; broken scapula,
back alignment issues, neural
problem in the hamstring, Achilles
tendonitis, jumpers knee, occult
fracture in the elbow
Various health concerns; heart
murmur, anaemia, overtraining
syndrome, frequent cold and flu viruses
Leading to reduced performance –
no 400/800/1500 pb’s for 3 seasons
Challenged identity
Reflection on the social
environment of a university athletics
group
Sociological studies as a cathartic experience
MY CURRENT RESEARCH
Master athletes in the Highland
Games.
How they experience bodily ageing in a strength based sporting event.
How ageing men and women
engage with injury, illness and risk.
How participation in this niche sport
gives the individuals a sporting
identity.
MASTERS IN THE HIGHLAND
GAMES
• World Masters Highland Games Championships
• Formally began in 2001
• Take place annually – 14 editions, 3 in Scotland –
11 in USA
• Open to athletes over 40 years old
• Categories for men (above and below 200lbs)
and women
14TH MASTERS HIGHLAND GAMES
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, INVERNESS
September 11th-14th 2014
169 competitors – 14 countries
34 women 135 men
Various age group categories
Weight categories for men
8 events throwing weights for height
and distance as well as caber toss
METHODS
12 unstructured life-history interviews
lasting from 25 – 55 minutes
4 days of participant observation
Daily reflective diary entries
6 men and 6 women interviewed
Transcribed verbatim before
analysis
Field notes typed up
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Need for more data
Difficulty in finding time for interviews with the participants.
Geographical location of the participants.
Technical terms which required clarification.
More interviews – via Skype
E-mails with those without access to skype
Respondent validation
Contact with some Scottish Masters
THEMES SO FAR..
Support for women in the games
Stories of initiation into the games
The ageing body and risk
National and cultural identity
Community and the membership of a ‘brotherhood’
RELATIONS WITH THE WOMEN
Generally supportive
Men often handing out advice to the women
Not all supportive
HS; Arr it is a sport lets you have to have physical strengths and erm the girls the girls going for that sport are not the slim ones err they are the (makes noise with mouth) let’s say yeh. Erm see coming from track and field and you know the fitness and how the girls look like and erm and apart from the shot put women and so forth and now is another let’s say point of view and I and I mean that erm the girls seeing here they should do the sports and err it is err yeh I won’t say I dislike it but I don’t like it.
WOMEN KEY TO THE FUTURE OF THE GAMES
The need for the games to become more liberal
Elaboration of age categories when required
BR; We encourage them, we solicit them, we train them, you know I mean over in Scotland I don’t think they ever encouraged women to take part, in Scottish athletics it was basically a way for the men to train to be ready to fight.
BR; When it evolved around, originally women wernt even allowed to wear a kilt, they had to wear a kilted skirt, because Scotland considered it cross dressing. We’re a little bit more liberal in the states, and so when I first started messing around with this, there were no women throwing at all, we got it started, there was a bunch of women who wanted to try it and they did good you know
SPORTING HISTORY
Is there a trend between those who participate in the highlands games
and their sporting history
The variety of ways into Masters sport.
Some of the life events which created the environment for this to take
place
Trends in the way these participants arrived at competing in this niche
sport.
SPORTING HISTORY - 1
Continuum of those who had always been physically active and those who ‘randomly’ found the sport later in their lives.
CN; When I was in America we have junior high, then high school then college, in junior high I played the basic American sports which were baseball basketball and track and field things, erm I didn’t enjoy them as much when I got through high school, when I got to leave for university I started playing volleyball fell in love with that as a sport, so at the university level I played NCAA volleyball. Erm I played that for four years and then ended up coaching for 2 years after that. And so ever since then volleyball has been my main sport, but I golf a lot, I play softball like baseball, I bowl and I’m a good competitive bowler, so erm I am involved still in all of those sports but volleyball is my main sport and then I would say just below that I’d say the highland games and then all the others I do for fun with my friends.
SPORTING HISTORY - 2
In contrast to those who had taken a break from physical activity and sport after
formal education had ended
DS; Err no I didn’t do any lifting or track and field and stuff when I was younger, ermI played baseball and American football in school and stuff like that, and then I
was in my late 20s before I started this, so I had a big break in between where I
didn’t really do too much of anything and I didn’t really start working out again
until I got into this.
SPORTING HISTORY - 3
‘Random’ events which sparked participation in the games.
CM- I’ve been watching the games since I was about 18, erm I found I always wanted to compete but figured I wasn’t big enough to compete and then my son, when he was young and I was getting married, I mean when I was getting measured for my new kilt, we were at a games and he said ‘so dad does that mean you’re going to do what those guys do’. Err so he kind of shamed me into it, because I always like to tell him you can’t tell me you can’t do something until you’ve tried it, so a year later I went ahead and tried it-
HS; From the age of about 10 I was involved in that and I finished up in my late 20s, finished up. And then I start again just jogging coming back in the 50s and then in the 60s I start further on with these German masterships in the team business. They called me and well why not come to us and err go with us and throw for us so I said yes ok and so I do I do let’s say sports continuously.
SOCIAL REPRODUCTION – 1
INTERGENERATIONAL
BR; they all join me! My daughter is
a certified highland dance teacher
and she has had as many as 80
dancers perform, we take them all
over the country and err my son is
an athlete, his oldest son is a
Scottish athlete and we’re on the field together we’re the only 3
generation family in the world
throwing
Participation in the games is passed
down through generations within the family unit.
SOCIAL REPRODUCTION - 2
INTRA-GENERATIONAL
DS; Err my wife thinks it’s pretty cool that I do this, you know my kids come out and watch a lot of the time and stuff like that, I’ve even got my wife to do it before, just to try it out, she didn’t, she likes to sit and watch and she didn’t like to compete and my daughter dances and stuff like that so it’s a family event once we got involved and everything like that you know.
CN; Yes she competes some times, err she’s not excited about it, but she enjoys coming and you know it’s like what someone said its sort of like a family, when you go to, when you start going to more and more of them you meet the people and you just enjoy being able to go and the events are usually held in nice park like settings so they are family friendly, so you can bring the family, and friends sit around and have a few beers so yes she enjoys it.
EXPERIENCES OF THE BODY
Discourse of decline (Gullette, 1997)
BR; The ageing process you can deny it, but it’s an accepted fact and when you keep track of the distances you throw or the heights you throw you can say as the years pass how..and of course in athletics is tough on the body and you know you have knees that give you problems and elbows and shoulders and what have you.
Physical activity for maintenance
HS; Well I have no problem doing lets say the sports with the heavy weights for certain but this has to be come along with training err otherwise you can’t handle it, the training Is more or less provides for any endurance, no injuries not endurance. So keep err your body trained and you can go on. Otherwise as much as you can do ok without keeping the erm body getting up in the warming process then going on cold and just throw is absolutely nonsense
BODY MANAGEMENT
Precautions taken with the ageing body
DS; Err yes, I wear a braces and stuff on like my knees and err my wrists and stuff like that to try and keep them healthy and it helps support me so I don’t blow anything, I’m lucky because a lot of these guys at this age have had multiple surgeries and I’m yet to have any so I’ve tried to take pretty good care of myself.
Preparing the body to avoid injury
BR; Yes, arr I’ve got machines err different weight machines and all that sort you know and I got cables up in trees hooked up anvils where you pull and raise the handle up and down the neighbours think im nuts ill be out there pulling on it. But I mean you know we do it all the time, if you don’t you hurt yourself, you know I didn’t do anything worth a darn this morning but I didn’t hurt myself and so that’s good.
THE BODY AND RISK
Ageing of the body as an obstacle or challenge
CM- We have a thrower, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, he has leukaemia most people with leukaemia kind of give up, he is still here competing and has actually gotten bigger and stronger and because that’s our nature, we don’t let, we power through injuries and everything and other things like that we tend to look at it like it’s just another challenge, it’s not an obstacle it’s not a problem its just another challenge
How they talk about pain and risk
Who they talk to regarding pain
Use of sports medicine
PAIN AND MASCULINITY
Pride in injury
Injury to social capital
Victory of mind over body
Somatic intimacy between competitors
Controlled aggression – emphasized masculinity
BR; And our games you will never see anybody throwing a fit, or you’ll never see anybody cussing if they don’t do well. You know its family, and fellowship it’s friendship and that’s why there are so many people here.
THE REORIENTATION OF COMPETITION
Competition perceived as against
ones self
Less intense than non-masters
competition
Possible link between age and
competitiveness?
Collection of data to track individual progression
Use of age groups to encourage competitive spirit
SURROUNDING CULTURE
Culture which is not necessarily
beneficial to health
Surrounding practices, eating
drinking etc
CM; Some of us we just drink,
because this is one of the few sports
where not only is drinking and
smoking allowed, it’s encouraged. Speaking of which, that’s made me
forget the bottle of whiskey I had for
everybody.
THE PERFORMANCE OF NATIONAL
IDENTITY
Wearing of kilts etc.
Consent forms
Genealogy as practice
Some participants no genealogical
link to Scotland
HOMECOMING 2014
Cultural identity and diaspora
Generation of pride amongst the
Scottish and positioning of Scotland
on the global stage
Visceral nature of cultural identity
BR; I tell everybody err Scotland is
not a place it’s a feeling of the
heart, you know you might be 5000 miles away from it but the feeling is
still there, and like I say to people
who wanted to come to inverness
to walk down the river ness and you
know hopefully see nessy you know
it’s a dream they’ve had all their
lives since they were little.
SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF
NATIONAL IDENTITY
Highland games as a male preserve
passed down from father to son
Desire to maintain a national
identity in the USA’s ‘melting pot’
Difficulties in reproduction of
practices
DG; Yes! Yes! Absolutely, the threat of losing it to the next generation
we don’t have the competitors
coming up like there were before,
there’s maybe 8 or 10 juniors
coming up and that’s it and I’m
looking round saying I’m not going
to allow this to happen in my
lifetime
FEELING PART OF A ‘BROTHERHOOD’
Community important for the men
Networks across the world via the internet
Integral to participation in masters sport
DS; Oh I mean I hope to still be doing it at 80 years old like some of these, you know those two guys who are throwing today, I really hope I’ll still be able to do it and all that other stuff even if I don’t throw I can see myself coming and hanging out, you know a lot of times it’s not the competition you know with these other guys, we will come and hang out and it’s like a brotherhood.
‘A BIG FAMILY’
Delegation of parenting activities to
other parents
Negation of barrier to activity
CM: outside the competitions, me
and my son and he would always
be like 6, I can feel safe enough to
be competing and be like oh where
is our son, and be like oh he’s alright
he is with someone else, everyone
else is watching out for him, if he
does something wrong
BEYOND THE COMPETITORS
Support from wives, friends etc.
Linked to group identity and value
system
Somatic intimacy
CM; We keep it amongst ourselves
but it’s not just the athletes, it’s the
wives, the husbands, the other
spectators, like Erica who got in the
accident, they were like Ching, you
know where she’s at? We need you to go get her, bamm I went and got
her. We all look out for one another.
SOCIAL CLASS
Financial requirements
Time off work
Disposition to physical activity and
travel
‘THE MIRACLE OF PARTICIPATION
Financial barriers to competing
Commodification of time
Underpinned by a national identity
Refusal to comply with ageing
discourse
LIMITATIONS
Is this healthy?
What chance do those with less
economic capital have?
Hegemonic masculinity
Competitive opportunities
CONCLUSIONS
Variety of ways into the sport
Body management with age
Risk taking behaviour and the
avoidance of injury
Re-orientation of competitive desire
Communal feel operating as a
‘family’ unit
Somatic intimacy and brotherhood