It’s not what, but where: how the accentuated features of the adventure sports coaching environment promote the development of sophisticated epistemic beliefs

This paper forwards the position that the adventure sports coaching environment contains features that are accentuated in comparison with traditional sports coaching contexts, and that these accentuated features are conducive to the development of sophisticated epistemic beliefs. We consider the manner in which physical, social and temporal factors combine to create a complex and dynamic coaching environment. Within this environment, the adventure sports coach (ASC) must contend with an array of difficult decisions with serious consequences. This environment compels the ASC to continually compare, contrast, prioritise and evaluate information. Such cognitive processes are conducive to a conceptualisation of knowledge synonymous with a sophisticated epistemology. We explore this position from three theoretical perspectives: personal epistemology, pedagogy and ecological psychology.