ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how approaching coach development through the theoretical lens of ecological dynamics relocates coach learning to become a multi-layered, person-in-environment process that shapes the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and dispositions of becoming and being a coach. While traditional unidirectional pedagogies provide coaches with ready-made tools for rapidly improving their practice, they also downplay the development of vocational identity and the in-situ elements and habits of mind involved in further fostering their craft. Alternatively, framing becoming and being a coach through ecological dynamics offers an alternative approach for coach development that recognises the inherent relationship between a coach, their environment, and the athletes they work with, including the socio-cultural aspects involved in developing their craft.
