Making Sense of Skill - A personal narrative at becoming more skilled at skill

Abstract

Skill learning is an extremely complex concept with conflicting theories, practices and concepts promoted by academics and practitioners alike. As a coach for more than 30 years and ex-PE teacher, I have been influenced, adopted, rejected and finally integrated many of these apparent contradictory ideas. By using a personal narrative approach, I hope to bring my journey to life, to share my lived experiences and how I have finally made sense of skill. I present a Skill Learning Chain as a framework that now guides my coaching practice and hope that this helps coaches to avoid some of the many mistakes I have made along the way.