Unlocking Purpose, Meaning, and Motivation through Embodiment and the Aesthetic Sport Experience View Digital Media

Workshop Presentation
Elaine Foster,  Sharon Kay Stoll  

We discuss how whose body is considered highlights the objectification of humans in society. When viewed as an object or an it, bodies are things to be controlled, trained, shaped, and owned. As objects, athletes become a means to an end; to sell a product, provide entertainment, and to win. Alternatively, when people are understood as embodied beings who have subjective experiences, new meaning is born. An embodied perspective sees a body not as “…an object which [a human] possesses, rather it is [a human] and [a human] is [their] body” (Meier, 1979/1995, p. 91). Embodied athletes can experience the Aesthetic Sport Experience (ASE) or the inside, subjective experience of playing sports (Thomas, 1983). ASEs reveal purpose, meaning, and identity (Kretchmar, 2006). This presentation will challenge the objective view of athletes (whose body is it). Through dialogue with the presenters and exploration of their own experiences, participants will learn to (a) consider athletes as embodied beings, (b) recognize ASEs, and (c) promote subjective experiences as the purpose of sport.