This second part brings together five texts that address the theme of BT in martial arts and combat sports in very different ways from a methodological point of view. The lived bodily experience, in which data constantly interacts with the actor, thereby modifying their perception, dominates here over previous historical, sociological, or epistemological analyses. But here too, the approaches used are very diverse, as the methodologies at work can vary in their degree of instrumentalization, sometimes requiring cutting-edge technologies.
Thus, Dov Ganchrow’s work aims to generate creative actions from strikes on a connected bag, thereby triggering a process leading to the production of a new three-dimensional object. Admittedly, computers also feature heavily in the work of Agnès Roby-Brami, Océane Dubois, and Emmanuel Guigon, but the process of recording the slow, codified movements of the Taichi sword (Jian) used is where the comparison ends. While the former artist wants to make it an act of original creation opening up new perspectives in terms of craftsmanship, the latter aim to identify the mentalization of intention through future experiences. Similarly, Éric Margnes and Benoît Catala offer another approach in their experiment aimed at improving Thai boxing training. It is based on an approach inspired in part by the teaching of scientific and technological disciplines on the one hand, and clinical teaching on the other. Its aim is to compare the effects of a fairly transmissive model of tactical decisions with a self-adaptive model that allows coaches to enhance their strategic and tactical knowledge. David S. Contreras Isla’s study of a capoeira class as a repetitive practice approached as a formative experience (bildende Erfahrung) of re-practice (Umüben) is quite different, as is Ai-Cheng Ho’s study, which attempts to achieve syncretism based on a theoretical framework drawing on a variety of references. While the former author draws inspiration from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of motor experiences, and in particular the theory of practice (Übung) that derives from it, the second bases her work on her past as a professional actress, her training at the École Jacques Lecoq, her experience with Kunqu (崑曲), and her ongoing practice of Taijiquan in the Yangjia Michuan (楊家秘傳太極拳) tradition. David S. Contreras Isla’s phenomenological experience leads to transforming the individual through motor relationships that can be used in martial arts to design practice situations where formative experiences are achieved, while Ai-Cheng Ho’s original approach allows for the transformation of the individual through motor relationships that can be used in Contreras Isla leads to transforming the person through motor relationships that can be used in martial arts to design practice situations where formative experiences are achieved, while Ai-Cheng Ho’s original approach allows us to postulate, through reading writings and exchanges with student-actors, that awareness of their bodies facilitates their availability for acting, or in other words, their stage presence.
