Game Sense for Teaching and Coaching International Perspectives

Sport coaching has grown significantly as an area of research interest with an expanding number of sport coaching programs offered. The past decade or so has also seen significant interest in games-based approaches to coaching and teaching games. On a global level, Game Sense is one of the most recognized athlete-centred approaches for team sports, probably close behind Teaching Games for Understanding.

Game Sense for Coaching and Teaching provides an understanding of how an Australian approach to coaching has grown and developed as it has been taken up across the globe. While the focus is on Game Sense, the book also offers insights into how any coaching or physical education (PE) teaching approach changes as it is adapted to different contexts across the world, examining the theoretical, historical and philosophical foundations of sport coaching and teaching in schools.

This book is particularly useful for undergraduate and post-graduate sport coaching and PE courses but is also likely to be of interest for all practicing sports coaches or physical education teachers and lecturers.

Introduction

1. Game Sense: Its History, Development and Future

Part 1: Theorizing Game Sense

2. Humanism and Holism: The Philosophical Foundations of Game Sense

3. Reconciling Approaches: Informing Game Sense Coaching Pedagogy with a Constraints-led Perspective

4: The Body and Learning through Game Sense

Part 2: Game Sense and Culture

5. Game Sense, Culture and Learning: A Focus on Asia

6. The Influence of Context on Teachers’ and Coaches’ Use of GBA

7. The Influence of Games and Culture on Indigenous AFL and NRL Players’ Development of Expertise

8. Adapting a Game Sense Approach to Coaching Rugby in Chile

9. Ako and Indigenous Athletes: Kaupapa Māori Principles and Game Sense Pedagogy

Part 3: Coaching and Teaching Issues in Game Sense

10. Teaching Decision-making and Creativity as a Vital Issue for Teacher Education – A Qualitative Intervention Study with German Trainee Teachers

11. A Bigger Picture: Aligning Game Sense with Curriculum Standards

12. Discovering Game Shape through Cooperative Team Adventures

13. English and Australian Teachers’ Interpretation and Use of GBA

14. What Do Children Learn from the Game? A Study of Elementary Physical Education in Aichi, Japan

15. Applied Game Sense and Positive Pedagogy in High School Rugby

16. The Utility of Game Sense for PE Teachers, Sport Coaches and Policy-makers: A Models Based Narrative

Part 4: The Development of Game Sense

17. Implementing TGfU in an Australian Independent School: An Affective Journey

18. The Use of Coaching Pods for Coach Education in Croquet Coaching Pods: Possibilities for Game Sense

19. What’s in a Name? The Influence of Game Sense on a New Zealand Basketball Coach’s Practice

20. From the Games Concept Approach to Game Sense to Positive Pedagogy: My Pedagogical Journey

21. Learning from Adaptation Games in a Japanese Basketball Unit

Concluding Thoughts: Game Sense for Teaching and Coaching Globally

Richard L. Light is author of Game Sense: Pedagogy for participation performance and enjoyment (2013, Routledge) and Professor of Sport Coaching in the College of Education, Health and Human Development at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is a prominent international figure working in sport pedagogy with a focus on athlete-centred approaches. He is well known for his research and writing on Game Sense over the past twenty years and has published many high impact research books on sport coaching and learning. His most recent books include: Applied Positive Pedagogy in sport coaching (2021, Routledge) and Positive Pedagogy for sport coaching (2nd edn) (2019, Routledge), both with Stephen Harvey; Stories ofIndigenous success in Australian sport: Journeys to the AFL and NRL, with John Evans (2018, Palgrave MacMillan); and Positive Pedagogy for sport coaching: Athlete-centred coaching for individual sports (2017, Routledge).

Christina Curry PhD is a former Head of Health and Physical Education Department at a secondary school in Sydney, Australia. She completed a PhD in 2013 on the implementation of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) at an independent secondary school in Sydney. She is at Western Sydney University, Australia, where she was Director of Secondary Education and now teaches and conducts research on Leadership, Health and Physical Education, with a focus on Game Sense. She is regularly invited to conduct workshops on Game Sense and Positive Pedagogy for sport coaching, and was involved in its early development.