A natação na ponta: encontros do corpo e educação no mar

Abstract

Swimming is an exercise that is rarely tested in school physical education classes and is often learned and practiced in other educational settings, such as sports schools or clubs, under professional guidance or in lay knowledge sharing that involves swimming in pools or open water. At Ponta Negra beach, in Natal/RN, the different swimming patterns observed prompted research into the pandemic scenario and the personal experience of a swimmer-researcher. The purpose of this research was to analyze the education of the body based on swimming in the sea, relating it to the thoughts of Michel Serres. The specific objectives were identifying the relationships of the body with swimming in the sea; to discuss the knowledge that guides swimming in the sea, especially its contribution to the education of the body. The methodology used was based on the assumptions of autoethnography. The field diary was the main ally in this process of recording, fed by the days in which I swam and observed the movement that surrounded the landscape of the research. Swimming was a choice and became fundamental in trying to understand the phenomenon under study. The visits to Ponta Negra beach were constant from November 2020 to December 2021. In total, I spent 143 days there and swam. Narratives about my experiences and about the other(s) accumulated in this field diary that dealt with swimming on the beach (daily life and events), the characteristics of the place (elements of geography, occupation of space) and the interaction of people (goers, practitioners, workers), in addition to the personal dimension of feeling that involved swimming and observing in different circumstances. Image capture and access were also used to outline swimming profiles as practices, knowledge and arrangements emerged. Based on the results found, the thesis is stated, in the context listed: Swimming in the sea is an education of the body based on relationships with nature, access to the city, partnerships that constitute a lifestyle. Learning to swim in the sea implies learning to relate to different groups and intentions of this swimming (utilitarian; recreational/contemplative; competitive), helping to realize that bodily practice offers opportunities for contemplation of the landscape and reflections on the city, in addition to the latent possibility of meeting, expected or not, in an exercise of living and sharing that tends to be incorporated as a lifestyle.