Where Mind Meets Body -- It's Not Just a Workout: A Phenomenological Analysis of Sport Experience, Human Movement, Play, Exercise and Body/Self Wholism through Storytelling

In today's competitive and performance oriented culture many athletes are faced with mind and body separation and objectification. Even physical education programs at the universities are changing into more scientific based names like kinesiology and movement sciences. Movement based degrees are viewed as being subservient to other hard science degrees. Sport and exercise educators are faced with various issues influencing the implementation of adequate programs which would educate the physical and the mental to meet the needs of this group of students. This qualitative study utilizes phenomenology to engage the experience and the experiencer while in sport, human movement, play, and exercise. The focus of this study was to understand the lived experiences in the field of sport and movement to provide a description of how participants find meaning and mind/body connection in sport, human movement, play, and exercise. The data are presented in the words of the participants. Merleau-Ponty (1964) and Reid (2002) argue that to better understand sport and/or exercise phenomenology, one must refer directly to the source and learn from individuals who have experienced in the past. In addition to the body/self participants selected for this dissertation study, the lived sport and exercise experience examples can be located in Appendix E. This dissertation study will explore the phenomenological connection between mind and body and a description of sport experience, including human movement, play, and exercise through storytelling (life narrative approach). The lived experiences conveyed common themes including: (1) competition; (2) play; (3) passion; and (4) enjoyment. The themes were derived from the literature review. For example, what does your literature review tell you are the current themes in mind and body connection and do your interviews mirror, challenge, or add to these themes? Interviews with study participants revealed implications and application of study findings. The approaches suggested by the study results support (1) transformation towards the Natural Athlete and an (2) Appendix for sport and exercise educators.