The influence of cultural context on rugby coaches' beliefs about coaching

Growing appreciation of the complex ways in which coaches learn to coach has identified it as a long-term, social and situated process within which experience forms the most powerful influence. Despite recognition of the significance of learning through experience, and its broad implications for coach education, the phenomenon remains under-researched. This study adopted a grounded theory (GT) methodology to investigate the impact culture has on beliefs and dispositions about coaching. The study this paper reports on focused on three rugby coaches working in an Australian city but who learnt to coach in three different countries. It suggests the strong influence of the specific socio-cultural contexts within which they learned to play and coach on beliefs and dispositions, in addition to the powerful impact exercised by sets of values associated with the resilient notion of the ‘amateur ideal’.