Adam Evans

From ‘just a swimmer’ to a ‘swimming mother’: women’s embodied experiences of recreational aquatic activity with pre-school children

Increased academic attention on the gendering of leisure pastimes in recent years has highlighted the centrality of the gendered body in influencing how leisure is accessed, experienced and transformed. To date, however, little attention has been paid to how women experience aquatic leisure activity, the second most popular form of leisure activity in the UK, and where female participation predominates. This paper presents results from research investigating the aquatic leisure experiences of 22 women, with children aged under 3, in the North-East of England. A number of key themes emerged from the data, which highlighted the centrality of the gendered, lived body as a key social construct contouring participant perceptions in the swimming pool environment. Women reflected upon their self-perceived physical deficiencies when wearing revealing swimming costumes, particularly under the critical gaze of ‘other’ bodies, whether present or imagined. The co-presence of other bodies was also central in shaping lived experiences, and the presence of ‘dependent’ children’s bodies shifted bodily intentionality away from the self towards perceived maternal responsibilities and the management of perceived risks, including ‘dirt’ and ‘germs’ and the negotiation of the tacit rules of the swimming pool. Results also suggest that the emphasis on maternal responsibility in aquatic leisure activity and timing of parent-toddler sessions could lead to reproduction of gender inequalities and the exclusion of some fathers from participation.

Designing Movement-based Play With Young People Using Powered Wheelchairs

Young people using powered wheelchairs have limited access to engaging leisure activities. We address this issue through a two-stage project; 1) the participatory development of a set of wheelchair-controlled, movement-based games (with 9 participants at a school that provides education for young people who have special needs) and 2) three case studies (4 participants) exploring player perspectives on a set of three wheelchair-controlled casual games. Our results show that movement-based playful experiences are engaging for young people using powered wheelchairs. However, the participatory design process and case studies also reveal challenges for game accessibility regarding the integration of movement in games, diversity of abilities among young people using powered wheelchairs, and the representation of disability in games. In our paper, we explore how to address those challenges in the development of accessible, empowering movement-based games, which is crucial to the wider participation of young people using powered wheelchairs in play.

‘Some of these people aren’t as fit as us …’: experiencing the ageing, physically active body in cardiac rehabilitation

There is a dearth of research on how the physically active body is experienced during rehabilitation from serious illness. The present study investigated older adults’ embodied experiences and changing perceptions of self in one cardiac rehabilitation (CR) scheme in the East of England. Fourteen interviews were completed with participants in a CR scheme. A figurational approach was utilised which emphasised the need for participants to delineate their own logic of experience from the perspective of their active body during CR. Data were thematically analysed and individual experiences were situated in wider power relationships within and beyond the exercise class. Recurring themes emerged including participants’ perceptions of lost control during illness, the centrality of embodied sensations during rehabilitation and the interdependence of their embodied experiences with those of other bodies through overt and covert monitoring of physiological, emotional and psychological responses to rehabilitation. During rehabilitation, participants negotiated a complex interweaving of identities which centred upon their changing sense of embodied ‘I’ in relation to other bodies in the rehabilitation figuration, who were conceptualised according to fluid ‘we’ and ‘them’ relationships. Self-images were socially produced and moderated by health and exercise professionals and other participants. The extent to which participants were empowered within the exercise setting was highly heterogeneous. Findings suggest that the messages participants receive about CR must reflect the heterogeneity of recovery trajectories that could be experienced.

Why ‘the best way of learning to coach the game is playing the game’: conceptualising ‘fast-tracked’ high-performance coaching pathways

ABSTRACT At the beginning of the 2013/2014 season in England and Wales, 90 head coaches of the 92 mens national professional football league clubs and 20 of the 22 mens professional rugby union clubs had tenure as a professional elite player in their respective sports. Moreover, Rynne [(2014). ‘Fast track’ and ‘traditional path’ coaches: Affordances, agency and social capital. Sport, Education and Society, 19, 299–313] has claimed that many former elite athletes are ‘fast-tracked’ through formal accreditation structures into these high-performance coaching roles. The reasons why former elite athletes dominate head coaching roles in professional sports clubs and why a ‘fast-track’ pathway from elite athlete to high-performance coach is supported remain unclear. Thereby the present study sought to address this issue by investigating the basis for ‘fast-tracked’ head coaching appointments. Eight male directors of mens professional football and rugby union clubs in England were interviewed to examine how particular coaching skills and sources of knowledge were valorised. Drawing upon Bourdieus conceptual framework, the results suggested that head coaching appointments were often based upon the perceived ability of head coaches gaining player ‘respect’. Experiences gained during earlier athletic careers were assumed to provide head coaches with the ability to develop practical sense and an elite sporting habitus commensurate with the requirements of the field of elite sports coaching. This included leadership and practical coaching skills to develop technical and tactical astuteness, from which, ‘respect’ could be quickly gained and maintained. The development of coaching skills was rarely associated with only formal coaching qualifications. The ‘fast-tracking’ of former athletes for high-performance coaching roles was promoted by directors to ensure the perpetuation of specific playing and coaching philosophies. Consequently, this may exclude groups from coaching roles in elite mens sport. The paper concludes by outlining how these findings might imply a disjuncture between the skills promoted during formal coaching qualifications and the expectations club directors have of elite coaches in these sports.

Creating wheelchair-controlled video games

Although participatory design (PD) is currently the most acceptable and respectful process we have for designing technology, recent discussions suggest that there may be two barriers to the successful application of PD to the design of digital games: First, the involvement of audiences with special needs can introduce new practical and ethical challenges to the design process. Second, the use of non-experts in game design roles has been criticised in that participants lack skills necessary to create games of appropriate quality. To explore how domain knowledge and user involvement influence game design, we present results from two projects that addressed the creation of movement-based wheelchair-controlled video games from different perspectives. The first project was carried out together with a local school that provides education for young people with special needs, where we invited students who use wheelchairs to take part in design sessions. The second project involved university students on a game development course, who do not use wheelchairs, taking on the role of expert designers. They were asked to design concepts for wheelchair-controlled games as part of a final-year course on game design. Our results show that concepts developed by both groups were generally suitable examples of wheelchair-controlled motion-based video games, but we observed differences regarding level of detail of game concepts, and ideas of disability. Additionally, our results show that the design exercise exposed vulnerabilities in both groups, outlining that the risk of practical and emotional vulnerability needs to be considered when working with the target audience as well as expert designers. First participatory study designing games for young people using wheelchairs.Reflection on relative contribution of game design expertise and experience.Explores representation of mobility disability by participants in design process.Reflection on how vulnerability of participants exposed through design process.

‘It’s a long way to the Super League’: The experiences of Australasian professional rugby league migrants in the United Kingdom

This article investigates the embodied experiences of a group of professional sports labour migrants whose experiences have largely been ignored by sociological literature: southern hemisphere rugby players playing professional rugby league in the United Kingdom. The migrant pathway from Australasia to the UK is well established. Moreover, rugby league is a sport in which debate concerning the merits of employing labour migrants from Australasia is prevalent and ongoing. The study used interview and questionnaire data to investigate the embodied experiences facing this group of migrant professionals. Migrant experiences prior to migrating were contoured by access to resources and by the formal and informal relationships developed through professional and personal careers. The embodied and complex nature of contractual negotiations is highlighted. The centrality of embodied migrant identity and habitus is noted in relation to acculturation strategies adopted over time and space, both prior to and during a foreign sojourn, in terms of established and outsider groups. The paper also highlights how subgroups within a more general group of labour migrants can emerge. Furthermore, the complex influence of personal and professional relationships was found to be both enabling and constraining. These differences between subgroups are considered in light of previous work on acculturation strategies and the existential nature of migration. Future research requirements in the sports labour migration field are suggested.

Older adults’ lifelong embodied experiences of leisure time aquatic physical activity in the United Kingdom

Aquatic physical activity has considerable benefits for older adults. However, participation rates remain low in the United Kingdom (UK). Recognition of the importance of embodied and narrative elements of ageing has increased in recent times. Old age is considered a life stage interdependent with other, earlier life stages, rather than as a distinct period. This study uses a figurational perspective to investigate older adults’ changing perceptions and embodied experiences of aquatic activity throughout their life courses. Selective memories of perceptions were contextualised by completion of a literature review relating to the development of recreational aquatic activity in the UK. Participants were cognizant of changes in provision and envisaged purpose of aquatic activity during their lifetimes. Previous embodied experiences of aquatic activity contoured present perceptions and helped participants rationalise their experiences in the present context. Descriptions of positive early experiences emphasised the social and spatial context of aquatic activity. Also, negative experiences were recounted in which the olfactory and haptic elements of embodiment were described. Participants were able to recount detailed experiences of poor pool hygiene and threatening experiences of learning to swim during early experiences. The importance of support from family members in the pool environment was also outlined. The significance of lifelong experiences is discussed in relation to figurational principles, including the interweaving of long-term socialisation and short-term, magnified moments and their effects on habitus development. The implications for physical activity provision are discussed in relation to the development of older adults’ perceptions.

The ‘wild and woolly’ world of exercise referral schemes: contested interpretations of an exercise as medicine programme

Abstract Exercise Referral Schemes (ERS) are programmes commonly implemented in the United Kingdom to increase physical activity levels and ‘treat’ ‘sedentary’ individuals and those diagnosed with non-communicable chronic disease. The views and interpretations of stakeholders are currently under-researched, however. This paper addresses sociologically this research lacuna, presenting data from interviews with 17 ERS stakeholders (seven exercise professionals, five health professionals and five strategic managers) in a case study English county. A figurational sociological lens was adopted to provide novel insights into the meanings attached to ERS, and their contestation through service delivery models. Thematic analysis generated salient themes regarding divergent interpretations of ERS goals, and conflict within both service delivery pathways and perceptions of programme impact. Data highlighted conflicting and inconsistent stakeholder accounts within and across groups, suggesting participants attached specific, interdependent and sometimes contradictory meanings to ERS. This created conflict and generated interesting unintended consequences. Perceived divisions between strategic and local levels, and between professional groups emerged strongly. The consequences of such divisions are discussed, together with implications for future analyses of exercise as medicine programmes. Results suggest that an excessive focus upon programme impact and end-user experiences may overlook the influence of stakeholder interpretation on how and why exercise is employed as medicine, by whom, for whom and in which circumstances.

Personal goals, group performance and ‘social’ networks: participants’ negotiation of virtual and embodied relationships in the ‘Workplace Challenge’ physical activity programme

Abstract County Sports Partnerships (CSPs) epitomise the growing reliance upon building networks and partnerships in sports delivery. This study investigated how social networks were created and contested in a CSP-led programme entitled the ‘Workplace Challenge’ (WPC). The WPC used a web-platform to encourage workplace-based teams to engage in physical activity by self-recording their activity over an eight-week period. Points were awarded for activity completed and a peer-challenge facility was promoted via online league tables, prizes and the opportunity to ‘challenge’ other users. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of seventeen participants recruited from one public and one private sector workplace and from a sample of participants registered as individuals. Two programme planners employed by the CSP also took part. A figurational framework was utilised to investigate participants’ negotiation of networks of embodied and virtual relationships within the programme. Findings suggest the messages promoted in the WPC were disseminated and transformed according to the organisational structure of these networks. Embodied social relationships within workplaces reinforced peer support in professional I–We identities, whereas virtual networks sometimes highlighted participants’ isolation. Moreover, emphasis upon competition within and between teams caused some participants to question their performance. Often, competition motivated engagement. For less active participants, constant comparison could prove discouraging, particularly if participants felt they had let their colleagues down. Planners of similar programmes must be cognizant of the uneven manner of programme dissemination. Contextual differences at the point of delivery including existing organisational structures and power hierarchies have an impact upon participants’ perceptions of a programme.

Risky bodies, risky spaces, maternal ‘instincts’: Swimming and motherhood

Swimming and aquatic activity are fields in which gendered, embodied identities are brought to the fore, and the co-presence of other bodies can have a significant impact upon lived experiences. To date, however, there has been little research on sport and physical cultures that investigates how meanings associated with space impact upon women’s embodied experiences of participating in swimming, specifically in the presence of their young children. Using semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations, this qualitative study employed a Foucauldian-feminist framework to explore self-perceptions and embodied experiences of aquatic activity amongst 20 women, who were swimming with children aged under four. Results highlight that through ‘felt’ maternal responsibilities, the co-presence of babies’ and children’s bodies shifted women’s intentionality away from the self towards their child. Mothers’ embodied experiences were grounded in perceptions of space-specific ‘maternal instincts’ and focused upon disciplining their children’s bodies in the lived-space of the swimming pool. Key findings cohere around mothers’ felt concerns about hygiene, water temperature and safety, and elements of intercorporeality and ‘somatic empathy’.