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This personal essay aims to make use of rhythmanalysis as a creative critical methodology to give an account of a visit to the French Riviera town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. In so doing, it attends to the spatial, experiential and sensory dimensions of tourism, of individual physicality and of writing. The place of the rhythmanalyst as defined by Lefebvre is naturally aligned with that of the creative writer. The necessity of being at once immersed and at a remove, of attending to rhythms by ‘getting outside them, but not completely’, of taking the position of ‘the observer, simultaneously centre and periphery’; the ‘abandon[ment to] duration’; the transgression of limits (Lefebvre, 2004, pp. 17, 46, 37): this might describe the space and time of writing. As such, the experience of the act of writing is brought to the fore and considered as a subject in its own right; rhythm is central to the composition and form. This essay takes its cue from ‘Seen from the Window’, but moves through different thresholds and allows that motion to shape the text; and from ‘Attempt at the Rhythmanalysis of Mediterranean Cities’, in its concern with the intersection of public and private in the urban environment, but with a greater attention to the inhabited, present body, and particularly the sense of smell (Lefebvre, 2004). It seeks to work with and against Lefebvre's example by placing a feminine body at its centre, while recognising the particularity of that authorial body: a white woman and a tourist, at leisure (Lyon, 2019; Reid-Musson, 2018). As a work of creative writing, it privileges the subjective, narrative and impressionistic over the analytical and abstract.

This paper aims to explore how varsity football athletes and coaches negotiate meanings when faced with the unmet expectations of a new head coach brought into lead a turnaround process. It also aims to pay particular attention to the role of history in this meaning making process.

This paper draws on semi‐structured interviews with players and coaches at two points in time. To preserve the richness of their experiences and illuminate the historical aspects of change, it focuses on the stories of three players and one supporting coach.

Numerous symbols of change emerge that have multiple and contradictory meanings. The meanings around success and failure are renegotiated over time as individuals struggle with the unmet expectations of change. Moreover, individuals are unable to shed the failures of the past and move forward.

Change is a complex and messy process of managing multiple meanings. Understanding change entails more than a snapshot picture of an organization. New leaders have no control over the past, yet they need to be aware of how individuals experienced the past in order to increase the likelihood of success in the present.

Success and failure are experienced as an ongoing process as athletes and coaches experience, reflect on and interact with others. In illuminating the role of history in how change is experienced in the present, the paper demonstrates that the past can serve as both an immobilizing force, as well as a comparative point enabling individuals to rationalize their emotions.