A race to space: reconceptualising coaches’ knowledge and understanding through collective interactions

The aim of this study was to explore how rugby union coaches collectively reconceptualised their understanding of the game in preparation for a competitive season. Drawing on a Cultural-Historical Theory methodology, we examined how coaches developed systematised, concept-driven knowledge through critical dialogue. A coaching team of four people, at a rugby union club, engaged in weekly conversational episodes over a 3-month period. The findings suggest a more explicit and systematised understanding of the game, illustrated by the coaches identifying eight interrelated concepts of rugby union moving beyond experience-based accounts. The clearest evidence was the reconceptualisation of space, which shifted from a broad experiential term to a differentiated account of open, half-open and closed situations. This development, however, was not sustained in the game plan as established playing shapes, organisational expectations and experiential frameworks remained influential. The study illustrates both the possibilities and fragility of collective conceptual development in coaching contexts.