Learning the trade – recognising the needs of aspiring adventure sports professionals

Abstract

This paper aims to stimulate debate and prompt further research regarding the training, development and Higher Education (HE) of aspiring adventure professionals (AP's). The design of the paper draws on 10 years of observations and trends within the HE outdoor degree teaching sector, in tandem with the authors' own extensive professional outdoor careers. Initial findings indicate the role and significance of Professional Judgement and Decision Making (PJDM) in professional practice within adventure sports (AS) coaching and leadership. Consequently, PJDM is found to be a vital element of the education of the AP. The training and practice of these PJDM skills is a situated cognition that is conspicuous in its absence within many coach and leader education programmes where the AP is required to balance pedagogical and welfare demands in consequential environments. A cognitive apprenticeship approach is advocated which builds on recent articles highlighting the importance of PJDM in such domains.

Expertise in Coach Development: The Need for Clarity

“…The coach can be engaged in the dynamic region beyond their current ability, their Zone of Proximal Development (the Zone of Proximal Development refers to the difference between what an individual can achieve by themselves with no help versus their achievement with the help of a teacher or their peers) [71], with support from a coach developer, a 'master' coach, developing cognition and practice in context [72]. However, this development is reliant on the 'master' recognising and understanding their own coaching and being able to articulate why, drawing on the evidence, practice and experience and, importantly, their metacognition [73].…”