ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experience of a coach using the Game Sense coaching approach for the first time. The Game Sense coaching approach (Australian Sports Commission, 1996) is the pedagogical foundation of the Australian sport Playing for Life Philosophy (Australian Sports Commission, 2016). The Game Sense coaching approach has been linked to athlete-centred coaching as a method that empowers athlete decision-making due to its emphasis on the coach use of questions to shape and focus player thinking (Kidman, 2001). The Spectrum of Teaching Styles (Mosston & Ashworth, 2008) is used to provide important pedagogical perspectives on coach instructional decision-making that occurs in creating a practice environment in which players are deliberately taken across the ‘discovery barrier’ to develop thinking players. To explain what it means to be a ‘thinking player’, action specific perception theory is used to describe the relationship between visual perception and motor skills.
