Abstract
The stories of all 16 participants suggest that the foundations of expertise were established by around the age of 12. This aligns with the sampling phase (5–12 years) in the Development Model for Sport Participation (DMSP) to support research suggesting that interaction between participation in sport and social life facilitates and shapes the development of expertise in sport across different cultural contexts (see, Berry et al. 2008; Côté et al. 2005) This study offers detailed examples and accounts of how this occurred for Indigenous athletes and how it was profoundly shaped by culture. Their stories collectively suggest the ways in which socio-cultural environments where Aboriginal culture formed a highly significant influence generated distinctly Aboriginal ways of playing rugby league and Australian football (see, Stronach et al. 2016; Hallinan and Judd 2007) that Danny (National Rugby League [NRL]) describes as ‘playing with flair’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Araújo, D., Fonseca, C., Davids, K. Garganta, J., Volossovitch, A., Brandão, R., and Krebs, R. (2010) ‘The role of ecological constraints on expertise development’, Talent Development and Excellence, 2(2): 167–179.
Baker, J., Côté, J., and Abernethy, B. (2003a) ‘Sport specific training, deliberate practice and the development of expertise in team ball sports’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 15: 12–25.
Baker, J., Horton, S., Robertson-Wilson, J., and Wall, M. (2003b) ‘Nurturing sport expertise: Factors influencing the development of elite athletes’, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2(1): 1–9.
Berry, J. Abernathy, B., and Cotē, J. (2008) ‘The contribution of structured activity and of expert perceptual and decision-making skill’, Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 30(6): 685–708.
Bourdieu, P. (1986a) Distinction. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Bourdieu, P. (1986b) ‘The forms of capital’, in J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp.241–258). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Bruner, J. (1996) The culture of education. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Bunker, D., and Thorpe, R. (1982) ‘A model for the teaching of games in the secondary school’, Bulletin of Physical Education, 10: 9–16.
Butcher, T., and Judd, B. (2016) ‘The Aboriginal football ethic’, Griffith Review: Our Sporting Life, 53: 167–184.
Carlson, R. C. (1988) ‘The socialization of elite tennis players in Sweden: An analysis of the players’ backgrounds and development’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 5: 241–256.
Cassidy, T., and Rossi, A. (2006) ‘Situating learning: (Re)examining the notion of apprenticeship in coach education’, International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 1(3): 235–246.
Cobley, S., Hanratty, M., O’Connor, D., and Cotton, W. (2014) ‘First club location and relative age as influences on being a professional Australian Rugby League player’, International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 9(2): 335–346. https://doi.org/10.1260/1747-9541.9.2.335
Côté, J. (1999) ‘The influence of the family in the development of talent in sport’, The Sport Psychologist, 13(4): 395–416.
Côté, J., and Frazer-Thomas, J. (2008) ‘Play, practice, and athlete development’, in D. Farrow, J. Baker, and C. MacMahon (Eds.) Developing sport expertise (pp. 17–28). London: Routledge.
Côté, J., and Hay, J. (2002) ‘Children’s involvement in sport: A developmental perspective’, in J. M. Silva and D. E. Stevens (Eds.) Psychological foundations of sport (pp. 484–502). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Côté, J., Baker, J., and Abernethy, B. (2003) ‘From play to practice: A developmental framework for the acquisition of expertise in team sports’, in J. Starkes and K. A. Ericsson (Eds.) Expert performance in sports: Advances in research on sport expertise (pp. 89–110). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Côté, J., Ericsson, K. A., and Law, M. P. (2005) ‘Tracing the development of athletes Using retrospective interview methods: A proposed interview and validation procedure for reported Information’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17(1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200590907531
Dewey, J. (1911) ‘Environment and organism’, in P. Monroe (Ed.) An encyclopedia of education (Vol. II, pp. 486–487). New York: Macmillan.
Evans, J. R., and Light, R. L. (2016) ‘The roots of exceptional performance: Indigenous players’ early development in Australian football’, in M. Drummond and S. Pill (Eds.) Advances in Australian football: A sociological and applied science exploration of the game (pp. 128–135). Hindmarsh, South Australia: ACHPER.
Fonseca, H., and Garganta, J. (2008) Futebol de rua, um beco com saída. Jogo espontâneo e prática deliberada [Football on the street, an alley with escape. Spontaneous game and deliberate practice]. Lisbon: Visão e Contextos.
Hallinan, C., and Judd, B. (2007) ‘”Blackfellas” Basketball: Aboriginal identity and Anglo-Australian race relations in regional basketball’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(4): 421–436.
Hallinan, C., Bruce, T., and Burke, M. (2005) ‘Fresh prince of colonial dome: Indigenous players in the AFL’, Football Studies, 8: 68–78.
Kirk, D., and Kinchin, G. (2003) ‘Situated learning as a theoretical framework for Sport Education’, European Physical Education Review, 9(3): 221–235.
Kirk, D. (2005) ‘Physical education, youth sport and lifelong participation: The importance of early learning experiences’, European Physical Education Review, 11(3): 239–255.
Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated learning, legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Light, R. L. (2013) Game Sense: Pedagogy for performance, participation and enjoyment. London and New York: Routledge.
Light, R. L. (2016) Children, young people and sport: Studies on experience and meaning. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Maynard, J. (2012) ‘Contested space – The Australian Aboriginal sporting arena’, Sport in Society, 15(7): 987–996. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2012.723368
Renshaw, I., Davids, K., Chow, J-Y., and Hammond, J. (2010) ‘A constraints-led perspective to understanding skill acquisition and game play: A basis for integration of motor learning theory and physical education praxis?’, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 15(2): 117–131.
Rogoff, B. (1990) Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development in social context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rogoff, B. (1994) ‘Developing understanding of the idea of communities of learners’, Mind, Culture & Activity, 1(4): 209–229.
Rogoff, B. (2003) The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sheets-Johnston, M. (2000) ‘Kinetic tactile-kinesthetic bodies: Ontogenetical foundations of apprenticeship learning’, Human Studies, 23: 343–370.
Stronach, M., Maxwell, H., and Taylor, T. (2016) ‘“Sistas” and aunties: Sport, physical activity, and indigenous Australian Women’, Annals of Leisure Research, 9(1): 7–26.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wackerhausen, S. (1997) ‘Apprenticeship, experts and intuition: An interview with Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus, Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley’, Nordisk Pedagogik, 17(3): 204–207.
Wattie, N., MacDonald, D., and Cobley, S. (2015) ‘Birthdate and birthplace effects on expertise attainment’, in J. Baker and D. Farrow (Eds) The handbook of sport expertise (pp. 373–382). London and New York: Routledge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Light, R., Evans, J.R. (2018). 12 Laying the Foundations of Expertise. In: Stories of Indigenous Success in Australian Sport. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66450-7_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66450-7_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66449-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66450-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)