Embodying understanding: drawing as research in sport and exercise

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.