Understanding the pedagogic underpinning and knowledge sources of game form coaching in high-level team sport coaches

Across a breadth of underpinning theories, the use of game form training has been advocated as a feature of effective team sport coaching. However, a number of issues have emerged, including naïve interpretations of game-based pedagogies. As a result, there are questions regarding the utility of theory in practice. Using semi-structured interviews with 17 high-level team sport coaches, this study explored the pedagogic knowledge informing game form training and the sources of this knowledge. Participants reflected on a range of different theoretical positions that influenced their practice and suggested that knowledge came from a variety of mediated, unmediated, and internal sources. Thus, the findings seem to suggest that at the highest levels of team sport coaching, game form training is used in a highly individual and contextual manner. Thus, we suggest the need for mediated learning to move towards a more nuanced and deeper pedagogic understanding of game form training.