We're delivering Game Sense … aren't we?

Abstract

Although the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) introduced Game Sense pedagogy into its coach education courses in the mid-1990s, at the time of writing a definitive and consistent approach to it remains elusive. This paper highlights the experiences of RFU coaches and coach educators as they attempted to apply Game Sense pedagogy in their practice. Qualitative data were collected via questionnaires, field notes, and semi-structured interviews from coaches and coach educators on RFU Level 2 courses. Findings suggest that fundamental challenges exist when introducing Game Sense pedagogy to coaches: which include conceptual and pedagogical misunderstandings associated with the model as well as the structural mechanisms and support network surrounding the provision of mediated learning within coach education courses.