Suchergebnisse

From a floury encounter on a baker's work table to the art of sitting backwards on chairs; from budgie training to spontaneous human combustion; from learning to read to learning to swim - Swimming to the Moon is a selection of favourites from Robert Drewe's regular column 'The Other Side', which appears weekly in the West Weekend magazine. With warmth and wit these pieces encompass suburban portraits and coastal living, affectionate nostalgia and the absurdity of the everyday. They are endearing and often hilarious snapshots of Australian life from a master novelist who has turned the column into an art form

Instantaneous and mean static thrust levels were measured for eight underwater swimmers restrained in a submerged force platform. Swimming was examined barefoot and with two types of fins. The main beneficial effect of the fins was to eliminate the substantial negative thrust component associated with barefoot swimming. Higher maximal thrust outputs were achieved with curved fins than with straight-bladed ones. There were also significant differences between barefoot and finned swimming in the relationship of instantaneous thrust to leg position during the kick cycle. Kick rate and foot acceleration were both proportional to thrust output, but the relationship depended on diver size and experience.

Wild swimming is currently experiencing a surge in popularity as people avowedly attempt to reconnect with the natural world. Previous research has positioned wild swimming as a solitary pursuit whereby individuals retreat from society to connect with or overcome nature and better themselves. This article draws on an ethnographic examination of a wild swimming group in Australia and reveals that while being in nature and personal fulfillment are key motivations for these wild swimmers, it is the social interactions that facilitate a deep engagement with their local "bluespace." We argue that rather than swimming away from the world, by "wayfaring" together these swimmers become connected to their environment, and each other, simultaneously. Such findings indicate potential social, health, and environmental benefits of collective wild swimming.

This survey is part of the larger BODYRULES study that has been financed by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF, Grant number: 01UM1811BY). Its goal is to study how organizations adapt to migration-related changes, in particular to an increasing religious diversity. The larger project compares three organizations (hospitals, schools, swimming pools) that have to regulate the human body, building on the idea that human body practices significantly differ across religious communities. While the sub-study on schools is conducted at the University of Potsdam (PI Maja Apelt) and the study on hospitals by the Charité Berlin (PI Liane Schenk), the study on swimming pools is conducted by the WZB Berlin Social Science Center (PI Ines Michalowski).

Despite a developing literature on various facets of sporting embodiment, there is currently a research lacuna with regard to in-depth analyses of actually 'doing' sporting activities within specific physical cultures. In this article, we address that gap by drawing on a developing theoretical literature in sociological phenomenology to investigate a particular physical–cultural domain. Here, we present and analyse data from an ethnographic study of competitive swimmers undertaken in the UK. Responding to calls to explore the domain of 'body pedagogics', we investigate the embodied work involved in the skilled practice of 'doing' and learning how to 'do' competitive swimming. This embodied work plays a key part in the swimmers' ability to inhabit the competitive swimming lifeworld. In the analysis, we highlight how the acquisition and 'habituation' of these body techniques and skilled behaviours are not achieved simply through the repetitive rehearsal of coherent movements over time. These processes are complex, demanding practical experimentation, discovery and the ability to adapt constantly to changes in the environment and the swimmer's own corporeality.

abstract

This article offers a historically informed answer to the question why are Black Americans less likely to know how to swim than Whites. It contends that past discrimination in the provision of and access to swimming pools is largely responsible for this contemporary disparity. There were two times when swimming surged in popularity—at public swimming pools during the 1920s and 1930s and at suburban swim clubs during the 1950s and 1960s. In both cases, large numbers of White Americans had easy access to these pools, whereas racial discrimination severely restricted Black Americans' access. As a result, swimming never became integral to Black Americans' recreation and sports culture and was not passed down from generation to generation as commonly occurred with Whites.