Qi Liu

The softness of water precisely constitutes the realm where steadfast determination takes shape. With its formless and resistance-free fluid nature, water creates a perceptual field fundamentally distinct from land-based physical activities. It is within this "soft" environment—where bodily agency is continuously "emptied" and subjected to counter-pressure—that swimmers are compelled to mobilize more intensive volitional resources than in land-based exercises, thereby regaining fundamental control over their bodies. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body, this paper systematically analyzes the pathways of bodily adaptability in college swimming instruction through three dimensions: the reorganization of "body schemas," the reconstruction of bodily intentionality, and the restoration of the "body-subject" relationship. The study reveals that willpower does not function as an external "virtue" but rather serves as an intrinsic driving force underlying the body's self-reconstruction in response to environmental changes. Research demonstrates that overcoming fear in swimming instruction is not a process of will "conquering" the body, but rather one where "body schemas" regain coherence and comprehensibility in an unfamiliar weightless environment. The formation of willpower should be understood as a self-generating event marking the body's transition from fragmentation to coherence. The fundamental mission of swimming education lies not in cultivating "willpower qualities," but in enabling learners to "reclaim" their bodies within the perceptual field of water—a process where softness and rigidity achieve a dialectical unity in their sensory manifestation.

University swimming; Phenomenology of the body; Body schema; Bodily adaptability; Willpower cultivation; Merleau-Ponty

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