Embodying understanding: drawing as research in sport and exercise

Abstract

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As researchers in the arts embrace drawing as a means to facilitate new encounters with the external world in order to reveal and create new embodied knowledge, drawing as a research approach in sport and exercise science has yet to be examined. Using an ethnographic case study conducted in art and design and the sport of figure skating, I introduce drawing as an interdisciplinary research method that could enhance research in this field. Focusing on drawings of the performing body, I discuss the external visualisation of an internal thought process through mark‐making. I outline the strengths and weaknesses of using this approach and contextualise this dialogue using Lecoq's understanding of the relationship between the physicality of mark‐making and performance training practices. I conclude by suggesting how, through the provision of training in drawing as research, both the sports researcher and participant can further understand the complexities of human lives.

Keywords:

• drawing
• embodiment
• mime
• phenomenology

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Brett Smith for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper, and Simon Jenkins, Laura Gonzalez, Jill Gibbon and Lucy Lyons for their support.