ABSTRACT
We have collectively been teaching in higher education and supporting coach development for over ten years. In this time a recurring theme has presented itself: students and inexperienced coaches who are embarking on a coaching or related career have significant difficulty understanding and making sense of theoretical concepts. This is not surprising. Why would it be? We reflected back on the early stages of our coaching careers and engagement in academic study and remember feeling completely lost and confused by some of the academic theory presented. It was only when we started coaching on a regular and consistent basis that we could make sense of these concepts. We felt this was because we could see the theory manifest itself through our practices. Once this started to happen, we, like many others used these as thinking tools to help us understand why things were happening in the way they were. The use of theory also helped us to think, rationalise and then implement certain types of coaching that we felt was best for our learners and specific context. And so, some time ago we started talking about how we could help our students and coach learners better understand the importance and relevance of theory despite having limited practical and/or academic experience. It was from these discussions that the idea for this book was born.
