ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we argue that an important part of the development of coaches must take place in rich interactions between different actors (social learning spaces). To achieve this, sport organisations need to develop a culture that fosters safe but demanding learning environments. Such organisations are called “deliberately developmental organisations”. The challenge for those who work in coach education is to determine how best to integrate the principles of social learning and deliberately development organisations into large-scale firmly entrenched coach education programs. Solving this problem is difficult because these two types of learning opportunities have very different characteristics and assumptions: one based on the co-creation of situated knowledge and the other on the transfer of universal coaching truths. It seems essential, therefore, that everyone involved in coach development recognise both the strengths and limits of these two types of learning opportunities and demonstrates an openness to novel coach education solutions.
