Arlene and the Machines

As a former international endurance running athlete, now Foucauldian coach education scholar, Joe's research has highlighted the most profound contradictions in endurance running coaches’ body-machine cultures. Cultures assumed to enhance performance, but cultures that also serve to hyper-control the act of running, something that reasonably might be considered an inherently “freeing” activity. One of his students, Arlene, a high-performing triathlete, experienced and appreciated Joe's theoretically driven body-machine critiques. In this chapter, we both explore the tensions between Arlene's growing awareness and her ability to take those critiques to the real world: an immersed body-machine culture. Narratives and dialogues reveal numerous layers of tension as we collectively negotiated and wrestled through her learning. Arlene grappling with a new vision of her immovable culture, and Joe grappling with how to press, push, and challenge her, and also to hold back.