The impact of Game Sense pedagogy on Australian rugby coaches' practice: a question of pedagogy

Abstract

Background: Recent developments in games and sport teaching such as that of Teaching Games for Understanding, Play Practice and Game Sense suggest that they can make a significant contribution toward the development of tactical understanding, ability to read the game, decision-making and a general ‘sense of the game’, yet empirical research conducted on their application in sport coaching lags behind research on their application in physical education. This article redresses this oversight by drawing on a study that inquired into the impact that Game Sense has had on elite-level rugby coaches in Australia. Aims: The purpose of the study was to inquire into the ways in which elite-level rugby coaches interpret and used the Game Sense approach to coaching and to explore the reasons for this. Method: This study comprises four case studies on Australian rugby coaches who were working, or had worked at, provincial and/or national levels. Data were generated through noted observations and a series of extended, semi-structured interviews conducted over a four-month period. A constant-comparative approach used in grounded theory was employed to analyse the data from the interviews. The analysis involved identification of themes and ideas and the development of substantive theory that was tested in subsequent interviews and connected to formal theory later in the analytic process. Results: The coaches in this study value games-based training using them to: (1) test skills in game-like situations; (2) develop decision-making and aspects of a ‘sense of the game’ through implicit learning that cannot be directly taught to players; and (3) develop match-specific fitness. However, Games Sense pedagogy has had a relatively limited influence on their coaching, with none of them familiar with either Game Sense pedagogy or the concept of pedagogy in general. Conclusion: This study suggests that while elite-level rugby coaches in Australia value games as part of their training, the distinctive, player-centred, Game Sense pedagogy has had little impact upon rugby coaching. This suggests that implementing significant change in coaches' pedagogical practice, such as that required for implementing a Game Sense approach, is not an easy task. A lack of attention to pedagogy in Australian rugby coach education programmes seems to have limited the impact of Game Sense on rugby coaching in Australia and is an area in need of attention in both coach education and the coaching literature.