Background: In 2006, Oslin and Mitchell published a review of the game-centred approaches (GCAs) to teaching and coaching literature highlighting a number of core concepts thought to provide justification for the use of GCAs including (a) its potential to enhance participant motivation, (b) potential for tactical transfer, and (c) development of…

Background: While there is significant interest in coach behaviour during training sessions and recognition of what it could add to existing knowledge on coaching, in-game coach behaviour has received little attention. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify coaches' in-competition communications with rugby players, through a…

Background and significance: The notion of transferability (i.e. sampling) has been put forward as one of four core pedagogical principles for games teaching. The sampling principle was based on the premise that it may be possible to show the existence of tactical similarities between apparently dissimilar games, leading to a much better overall…

Background: Previous research examining the effectiveness of the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) approach has been equivocal. This has been hampered by a dependence on a comparative (i.e., "which method is best?") theoretical framework. An alternative "practice-referenced" framework has the potential to examine the effectiveness of TGfU…

Background: Coaches' knowledge and actions are both the product and manifestation of a personally experienced involvement with the coaching process; they are linked to the coach's history and both are attributable to how they were learned. Changing established coaching practice can be problematic, particularly as coaching lacks a critical…