Slow learners: Body pedagogics and learning slow ways in sport and physical cultures

This article addresses recent calls for sociological investigation into the embodied incorporation of non-normative cultures, employing the emergent conceptualization of ‘slow’ in sports and physical cultures. In contrast to sports that valorize quantification and maximization of performance via speed, skill and/or endurance, the concept of slow helps analytically explore the pleasures and benefits of slower ways of engagement with sport and physical cultures. Drawing on original findings from three auto-/ethnographic research projects, here we investigate the sensory dimension of learning slow in two distinctive sports/physical activities that were found to share many sensory pleasures (and some corporeal challenges): countryside walking in England and coastal sea walking ( longe-côte ) in northern France. Employing conceptual insights drawn from Chris Shilling's work on body pedagogics, we highlight the importance of learning to ‘do slow’, which often requires considerable somatic and sensory (re)learning to reconceptualize and transform our experiences of ‘fast’ sporting embodiment.