Du « faire agir autrui » au « faire ensemble » : les instructions comme moyen de soutien du mouvement corporel lors d’entraînements d’escalade avec des athlètes malvoyant.es

This article elaborates on the concept of “getting others to do things” by focusing on instructions and their use in paraclimbing with visually impaired athletes. In this setting, the climb is accomplished thanks to the cooperation between the athlete and their sighted guide. The guide helps the athlete to physically progress on the route by providing them with instructions concerning the direction and distance of foot- and hand-holds. Based on the analysis of the formats and sequential organization of instructions in paraclimbing, the article illustrates the functioning of instructions as a means for distributing action (Enfield and Sidnell 2017) within the guide-athlete pair. The results of our analysis illuminate a hitherto unexplored function of giving instructions—namely, offering assistance. Hence, our analysis moves beyond the conception of instructions as actions aimed at “getting others to do things” (along with directives and requests, Drew and Couper-Kuhlen 2014; Floyd, Rossi, and Enfield 2020) and encourages a view of instructions as resources whose distribution locally constructs and confirms the institutional roles of the guide and of the athlete needing to be guided in a context of an institutionalized offer of assistance.