Abstract:
The data presented in this paper was generated as a part of a PhD study on adolescent girls’ experiences of being in a New Zealand school basketball team that identified the importance of their relationships with their peers and their coach for their enjoyment of being in the team. Using a combined ethnography and grounded theory approach, conducted over a six-month basketball season, the study identified how the coach use of features that reflected a Game Sense approach (Light, 2013) contributed to the development of meaningful relationships between the girls and their coach, even without the coach being aware that she was using aspects of Game Sense. This study demonstrates that by using questioning and by making the girls on this team discuss game related situations, with each other and the coach, helped them develop a deeper understanding of the game while developing a closer bond, with each other, as a team and with the coach. This study is supported by the literature on game-based approaches to coaching sport that continuously shows the positive effects on athlete-athlete and coach-athlete relationships and suggests that the influence of Game Sense and other GBA on coaching practices may be more well-known than has been promoted (see, Pill, 2011).