Fitness & Disability

Focused Free Write

All the readings about centering disability, eugenics, the ideal body, and centering in the normal have me rethinking fitness. I've been interested in physical training only the past couple years--before that, I resented the body, sports, and health (another post for another time). Currently, I am very interested in fitness, health, and the intersections between web-based training and accessibility and usability and disability studies. Given the aging population, health concerns, and how all these things intersect with issues of class and the web, it seems ripe for discourse. But, what I have to ask, is fitness?

What does it mean to be fit?
What is ability?
What is skill?

Is it the accomplishment of a specific task?
Is it fulfilling a specific range of motion?

From what I can tell, the most viable and reasonable approach to fitness or ability is fulfilling your potential--whatever your potential is. That makes it pretty difficult to compare competitively, but I don't know that competitition is necessary in all situations or for all folks. Competition is a great way for testing actual ability and for gauging progress in skill development, but I don't think it is the end all be all.

While I find that I agree with a lot of criticisms about the construction of health and fitness, I don't think that the endorphin release I experience or the sense of accomplishment from increased flexibility or agility are totally socially constructed. There is something that just feels right about being able to feel, use, and explore my body in a variety of different ways. It's visceral, and there's no amount of theory which can accurately or effectively address that.

If ability/disability is determined on how much of our potential we are--or are not--fulfilling, such as how great is our range of motion versus what our bodies in their current state are capable of, then I think we would find that a lot more people are impaired or incapable than we currently label as disabled. Similarly, I wonder how many people who are impaired and labeled as disabled are actually using or employing or fulfilling a greater level of their physical potentials than so-called able people.

Obviously, this is largely speculation. But I cannot continue to work with physical training, martial arts, and bodily training with fitness aspects and not consider how disability studies impacts them. If I tried to keep my own personal interests "safe" from the critical theories or investigations, then my work would be a sham. Thanks, but no thanks. If ideas and praxis cannot stand up when challenged, if they can't evolve and develop, then I see little point in continuing to invest in them.

If it's dead wood, cut bait.

Notes post 5386 chat; final project

(this is a rough draft record/flow to keep track of some of the ideas)

Here are some notes from the chat to keep the flow going:

locate a fitness product/service(s) which can/are used by not just martial artists
joints, flexibility, mobility--training that does not require a lot of muscle, agility, or current mobility; in part, these things should cultivate health, balance and stability

reasoning for choosing these: a much larger market share, more people throughout all age spans can or could use these materials than focusing upon martial arts/ training (tiny sub market of fitness)

illness, aging, and disability have interesting overlaps/intersections as well, and these materials could potentially be used by all these audiences

if all these audiences could potentially use these materials, they are added to the potential customer base for the people who already purchase and consume these items--thus they are an under or not served population.

i need to find some kind of numbers about fitness sales, training, video training, etc. in order to establish the current power/value of the market.

i need numbers about the aging population, the disabled population, and the numbers of people who train in order to get some kind of ratio

i need to establish some kind of ethos and fact based appeal about the facts of life with disability and what, if any, fitness/health options are open

[this begs an entirely different time and place interrogations of notions of fitness, health, and training, and what exactly those mean. if we move away from norms and, instead, look at the amount of potential used, I think the public would be astonished. people barely get close to using the full range of motion with their joints. if we measured ability based upon the ability to achieve full range of motion with joints, what percentage of the population would be disabled?

when we train, what are we training for? the normal? the ideal? full mobility? this just smells like ripe, open turf to explore and discuss]

establish a set of three to five sites which generate/produce/sell these materials--flexibility, etc.--and explore them with simple heuristics looking for usability and/or accessibility. Then, explore some of their products--or samples of their products at YouTube--and see how accessible those are. Thus, it is a brief analysis of the content as well as the delivery methodology and representation of those products online.

Then, once I have an overview, generate a theory-based and market-viable accessible and usable web-based rhetorical appeal for greater accessible/usable training materials online.

Selting: Conversations with Technical Writing Teachers: Defining a Problem

Selting, Bonita R. “Conversations with Technical Writing Teachers: Defining a Problem.” TCQ, Summer 2002, vol 11, no. 3 (251-266)

A teacher lore based discussion of the standard positions held on just how much technology and software to teach in the TW classroom. The key issue: how to balance instruction in rhetoric, editing, writing, and reading of the documents with familiarity with the actual tools (software and hardware) that students will use in the TW jobs. Related: what should have a priority since some skills and not others can carry over in to other fields—especially since not every student in a TW course is going to be a TW. 261

Few deny the importance and role of technology, but nobody seems sure of just how to make sure the students obtani the necessary set of skills and abilities they need. Some folks spend minimal class time on it; others teach students, others have students teach students and still other think students should learn it elsewhere. 258

The machine and software is taught by some as an integral art of the course and is engaged with rhetorically.260

Most useful, I thought, was that some instructors incorporate the writing of instructions for software to context-specific applications. This seems to engage both the rhetorical concerns as well as the students' need to develop their familiarity with software. 262

Author: too many folks treat the issue as not problematic too regularly. 263

Get Selber, Stuart. “Beyond Skill Building: Challenges Facing Technical Communication Teachers in the Computer Age.” TCQ 3 (1994): 365-90.

Rich: A Rhetoric of Fitness: Persuasion and Perspiration

Rich, Susanna. “A Rhetoric of Fitness: Persuasion and Perspiration.” Et cetera. Fall 1996. 266-274.

Very accessible voice—not formal academic.
267 cites three rhetorical routines on contemporary fitness: divide and conquer; measure up

267 forms of measurement: time; weight; counts from a trainer; numbers of reps; heart rate
268 states a core message is More, Farther, Faster, Now
268-9 the pressure generates/ results in a form of dependence upon externals like videos, gyms etc
270 “Instead of getting into it, we are always struggling to get it over with.”
271 fitness conversations are one way, from the instructor or trainer down to the person—it is not a dialogue
272 we are isolated from one another; genders are often isolated; muscles are often isolated for development (spot exercises)

273 sisyphus as model for current fitness programs
274 put out makes us self-conscious and dependent
divide and conuer keeps us vulnerable and malleable
measure up helps to calculate and collocate thousands of clients.
we are meant to work for the programs, they are not meant to work for us (almost literal quote)

Pritchard: Sport, War, and Democracy

Pritchard, David. Sport, War and Democracy in classical Athens.
from In Press Sport in the cultures of the ancient world. Special issue of the Int'l journal of the History of Sport
downloaded PDF

Overall, this is an incredibly well-documented and thorough discussion of some of the basic issues which interest me regarding sports, war, and Greece. There are over one hundred footnotes and an extremely useful list of works cited.

Key points:
3 sport atheletes had some of the highest esteem in Athens
3 athletes were rarely targeted by playwrights for abuse
5 athletics were closely associated with justice and moderation
6 two primary roles of athletics in classical athens: festival based agonesand physical education classes
7 athletics one of three traditional subjects in male education; grammar/letters and music were the other two
7 education privately funded; only the wealthiest could afford to send their boys to all three forms of training
8 Athenians held that athletic training was necessary in order to perform well in sports; the result is that only those boys who had been trained were encouraged to compete; hence the athletic heroes of athens were the sons of the rich
9 discussion of role of public schools in England preparing boys to lead the country
10 Orwell: int'l sport creates int'l ill will,not good will
11 popular culture regards sports as safe way to blow of steam & reduce anger
11 steam blowing related to Konrad Lorenz's aggression as innate drive and aggressive activities are drive-discharge catharisis—thus the more sport, the less aggression and war
12 social sciences discredit drive-discharge
12 psych & physiologists for simplifying aggression; phys anthros & biologists for fallacious extrapolation from animals toohumans; cult. anthros for ignoring observed cultural variation in responses to threats
12 multiple studies listed where watching violent sports resulted in agitated folks
12 study of students who responded differently; those who worked out their agg via punching ended up being the angriest and most aggressive
12-13 Berkowitz: aggression related experiences form network in memory and thus current agg potentially summons up past agg
13-14 Sipes finding that war/sport support each other's presence; study on 20 pre-modern culutres found 9/10 violent cultures had combative sports as well

14 battles and sports events were both considered agones
15 agones tested the moral fiber and confirmed/demonstrate the arete of the competitors
16 if men lost in the games, they deserved to receive abuse in the Athenian pespective
17 bc fifth century Athens democratized war
18 poor citizens now experienced war; shared that in common with elite
20-1 experiencing war and that form of agone enabled the poor to identify with the agones of the elite wealthy athletes “As a result, lower-class citizens came to beliee that upper-class athletes exhibited te same moral qualities and experienced the same ordeals as they did when fighting battles.

Review the bib for articles to order/get copy

Aristotle: Rhetoric: Book 2: notes

Chapter 1
1378 a

There are three things which inspire confidence in the orator's own character -- the three, namely, that induce us to believe a thing apart from any proof of it: good sense, good moral character, and goodwill. False statements and bad advice are due to one or more of the following three causes. Men either form a false opinion through want of good sense; or they form a true opinion, but because of their moral badness do not say what they really think; or finally, they are both sensible and upright, but not well disposed to their hearers, and may fail in consequence to recommend what they know to be the best course.

Chapter 3

The reason is that it is shameless to deny what is obvious, and those who are shameless towards us slight us and show contempt for us: anyhow, we do not feel shame before those of whom we are thoroughly contemptuous.

At the end of Ch. 3

It is now plain that when you wish to calm others you must draw upon these lines of argument; you must put your hearers into the corresponding frame of mind, and represent those with whom they are angry as formidable, or as worthy of reverence, or as benefactors, or as involuntary agents, or as much distressed at what they have done.

Chapter 4

We may describe friendly feeling towards any one as wishing for him what you believe to be good things, not for your own sake but for his, [1381a] and being inclined, so far as you can, to bring these things about. A friend is one who feels thus and excites these feelings in return: those who think they feel thus towards each other think themselves friends. This being assumed, it follows that your friend is the sort of man who shares your pleasure in what is good and your pain in what is unpleasant, for your sake and for no other reason.

Things that cause friendship are: doing kindnesses; doing them unasked; and not proclaiming the fact when they are done, which shows that they were done for our own sake and not for some other reason.

Chapter 5

Fear may be defined as a pain or disturbance due to a mental picture of some destructive or painful evil in the future.

... we can also see what Confidence is, about what things we feel it, and under what conditions. It is the opposite of fear, and what causes it is the opposite of what causes fear; it is, therefore, the expectation associated with a mental picture of the nearness of what keeps us safe and the absence or remoteness of what is terrible: it may be due either to the near presence of what inspires confidence or to the absence of what causes alarm. We feel it if we can take steps -- many, or important, or both -- to cure or prevent trouble; if we have neither wronged others nor been wronged by them; if we have either no rivals at all or no strong ones; if our rivals who are strong are our friends or have treated us well or been treated well by us; or if those whose interest is the same as ours are the more numerous party, or the stronger, or both.

Chapter 7
1385b

In considering this subject we must look at all the "categories": an act may be an act of kindness because (1) it is a particular thing, (2) it has a particular magnitude or (3) quality, or (4) is done at a particular time or (5) place. As evidence of the want of kindness, we may point out that a smaller service had been refused to the man in need; or that the same service, or an equal or greater one, has been given to his enemies; these facts show that the service in question was not done for the sake of the person helped. Or we may point out that the thing desired was worthless and that the helper knew it: no one will admit that he is in need of what is worthless.

Combative Sports in Aristotle

Rhetoric: Book I: Chapter 11

Victory also is pleasant, and not merely to "bad losers," but to every one; the winner sees himself in the light of a champion, and everybody has a more or less keen appetite for being that. The pleasantness of victory implies of course that combative sports and intellectual contests are pleasant [1371a] (since in these it often happens that some one wins) and also games like knuckle-bones, ball, dice, and draughts. And similarly with the serious sports; some of these become pleasant when one is accustomed to them; while others are pleasant from the first, like hunting with hounds, or indeed any kind of hunting. For where there is competition, there is victory. That is why forensic pleading and debating contests are pleasant to those who are accustomed to them and have the capacity for them.

Aristotle: Rhetoric: Book I: Ch 9

Consequently, whenever you want to praise any one, think what you would urge people to do; and when you want to urge the doing of anything, think what you would praise a man for having done.

I need to think about this, but it seems like a masterful approach to manipulation. Again, this needs consideration.

Praise is the expression in words of the eminence of a man's good qualities, and therefore we must display his actions as the product of such qualities. Encomium refers to what he has actually done; the mention of accessories, such as good birth and education, merely helps to make our story credible -- good fathers are likely to have good sons, and good training is likely to produce good character. Hence it is only when a man has already done something that we bestow encomiums upon him. Yet the actual deeds are evidence of the doer's character: even if a man has not actually done a given good thing, we shall bestow praise on him, if we are sure that he is the sort of man who would do it. To call any one blest is, it may be added, the same thing as to call him happy; but these are not the same thing as to bestow praise and encomium upon him; the two latter are a part of "calling happy," just as goodness is a part of happiness.

Reading this made me wonder what we have currently which is similar to or functions as an encomium. Does a positive 30 second news spot count as one? Do media representations of good deeds actually have the same cultural important that formal encomiums did in ancient Greece? I wonder just how important or lost the role of praise and honor have become in modern culture. Again, more to think about.

Riffs on the Diss

My Working Topic:
How can the scholar/warrior traditions of Greece, Asia, and Japan contribute positive training models and influence to the composition classroom?

I know that it is terribly early, and I also know that my dissertation topic will probably mutate a number of times. Still, I have found it very useful in my experience to explore, work through, and contemplate materials earlier rather than later. This is one of the reasons why I spent so much time putting my application together and why I did not apply to PhD programs for some time: I wanted to know what I would read and write about. When in the program, I wanted to be able to work towards my diss with every class (if possible, of course).

Still, it is important for me to think through some of the ways that this can apply. For example, rather than just work on with one culture's tradition of scholar warrior, by finding three different cultures I'll be able to compare values and training traditions. I hope to pull the strongest traits from each one, and I also hope to find some common themes in each of them. If they are common between the three cultures, then there is probably a lot to be said for them.

One way I see this kind of work manifesting in a "real" academic career is an awareness of the importance of working with student athletes, non-traditional writing classes--such as doing field work--and the potential for offering hybridized classes that have training elements ala Lerner and his Aikido/sociology blend. The last is unlikely, or it may require a strongly funded school or significant seniority. Regardless, they are options worth considering.

When I look at WPA work, I see a very hybridized position of scholar, manager, boss, and intellectual. The confluence of these roles, and their potential fragmentation or implosion, is also a position which could benefit or be strengthened by viewing outside models which balanced multiple, and potentially conflicting, roles. Thus, as an aspiring WPA, these analyses of scholar/warrior could inform my future decisions and ability to achieve my work in a more stabile and strategic fashion.

In the classroom, I see a number of iterations from the scholar/warrior. Greatest, of course, is personal accountability. Second, reintroduction of blatant classical rhetorical methodologies. This does not mean the full rhetorical program. Instead, after a couple years of my own reading and review of works already done in the field, I will have a better notion of how rhetoric has been applied in the comp classroom and then will be able to contribute my own views on this approach.

One of the more important positions I see coming from S/W is the pronounced ethos, and the value of ethos in action in students and instructor. Given some of the work done by hooks on passion--and I am sure others have done related work--I wonder about how I could research or write about returning ethos, honor, and accountability into the classroom.

It sounds very archaic, and it is probably too roughly worded there. Still, it needed to be said. Similarly, I think people might take offense and say that there is accountability in the classroom, that people are behaving in honorable ways. Yes, there are individuals who are honorable, and they surely know that. However, given the incidents of cheating, the treatment/abuse of workers on college campuses, the outspoken desire of many students to get grades without earning them, the demonstrated-largely-by-anecdote trend of instructors desiring pay while teaching poorly, and on and on all show a system where people do less than they need or ought to simply because they can get away with it. There is no honor in that.

That is one of my major motivations: to develop a sense of honor and integrity as a professional. Then, can I figure out how to communicate this to my students...? I do not think you can force anyone to be honorable; rather, leading by example is the way to go. And it does not hurt to have relevant readings and policies in place. Still, it is a complicated issue.

The blending of scholar/warrior is similar, too, to my interests in composition and technical communication. Writing is so terribly important to me, and I do not think that splitting it up or dividing it up is a good thing. Sure, it can be a useful approach at the start, but I do not have a solution to propose. That is another reason I'm in the program. I hope to get enough reading, writing, and thinking done so that I can evaluate and consider various modes of teaching writing as well as how to manage a writing program that has all of these various facets.

Undergirding all of this work is my experience as an adjunct. I am not sure how that will play out or influence matters, but I am certainly looking forward to the research and publication potentials surrounding issues of adjuncts in comp, TC/TW, and how they compare. I am also looking forward to more consideration and discussion of the experiences of WPAs running tc/tw and comp programs when compared to just comp.

Reading List

This is the start of my reading list and short justification notes.

My Working Topic:
How can the scholar/warrior traditions of Greece, Asia, and Japan contribute positive training models and influence to the composition classroom?

Locate history/evolution of rhetoric into composition.
Locate history/discussion of scholar/warrior paradigms in Japan, China, Greece.
Locate comparisons/discussions of sports and war.
Locate definitions/histories of humanitas.
Locate definitions/histories of paedeia.
Locate current coaching pedagogies

Books
Artistotle. Rhetoric.
It is not possible to discusses rhetoric without Aristotle.

Dao, Deng Ming. Scholar Warrior.
Introductory and source for materials on Chinese scholar-warrior.

Draeger, Donn F. Classical Bujutsu.
Top-notch martial arts scholar Draeger's take on Bujutsu. Useful as a source of definitions, terms, and general history.

Draeger, Donn F. Classical Budo.
Top-notch martial arts scholar Draeger's take on Budo. Useful as a source of definitions, terms, and general history.


Articles

Levine, Donald.

Paper Topics 5364

I like to start thinking about things early.

From TOPIC:

The term paper will be a typical academic study of about 4000-5000 words, or about 16-20 pages double spaced, 12 point New Times Roman. Obviously, the primary subject will be classical Rhetoric, but your thesis may extend beyond just our time period, 500 BC to 400 AD, and beyond the tradition of oral political and judicial oratory. What I mean by this is that you may apply the precepts we will study to other times and even other genres of expression. We will talk more about this in the coming weeks, but if you’ve read my slightly incendiary little essay, “What is Classical Rhetoric?” (item 1.1), you should realize that I take Rhetoric, even classical Rhetoric, as the essential element (beyond language itself) of what I somewhat clinically refer to as the “negotiated society,” more easily understood as the “free society” or democracy.

and more:

In these ways, classical Rhetoric should not be thought of as existing in an isolated time period “back then,” but instead seen as the original paradigm of how society functions when it functions well. This paradigm, or these paradigms, are applicable to a wide range of human endeavors -- politics, art, war, education, business.

Your principal subject must be classical Rhetoric, of course, but you may either further explain something you find interesting in the period or compare-and-contrast with something operating entirely outside the period. What you should avoid is a "report," or a summary of what scholars have already summarized.

The key points that have my attention are in bold.

Potential Topics:
Compare/contrast current/classic rhet surrounding olympics (broad)
same but combat sports, i.e. classic pankration and current MMA
rhetoric of sports or combat
rhetoric re: warriors/atheletes

focus on the epideitic rhetoric of sports?

Google Scholar produced a number of good results, and views, on pankration

TTU's Dissertation Advice

Official dissertation advice from TTU. I find it useful to remember things like this.