Abstract
Multi-dimensional fitness gyms constitute important cultural spaces where bodies are touched in a specific manner and for specific purposes. They are also spaces where instructors use touch, imbuing touch practices with specific meaning and initiating their own creative uses of touch. Thus, fitness clubs appear to be the right environment to examine the role of touch in teaching and learning fitness practices. Touch has been positioned both as a social practice and sensory experience. While many different types of touch may occur within the space of a gym, this paper focuses solely on ‘professional touch’. It is understood in relation to two interconnected spheres: 1) the ethics of touch, and 2) professional know-how. Professional touch always starts from the client’s need, is justified by the context, and associated with professional identity. The aim of this presentation is to explore professional touch used by female fitness instructors in teaching and learning movement practices from their perspective. The study discusses how instructors manage the use of touch in the process of transmitting tacit knowledge in productive ways. It concludes with discussing the consequences of touch deprivation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact the process has had on the work of instructors. The results of the research add complexity and a nuanced understanding of the role of professional touch in knowledge transmission, as well as in the development of professional identity in fitness instructors. This work is based on ethnographic qualitative methods, including: observant participation, interviews, informal conversations, autoethnography.
Presenters
Dominika CzarneckaAssistant Professor, Center for Ethnology and Contemporary Anthropology, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
Embodiment, Fitness instructors, Learning, Touch, Knowledge transmission, Teaching
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