Skill Transmission, Sport and Tacit Knowledge

Teaching the skills necessary to play sport depends partly on transmitting knowledge verbally, yet non-verbal or tacit knowledge also has an important role. A coach may tell a young athlete to "move more dynamically", but it is undoubtedly easier to demonstrate with the body itself how this should be done. Skills such as developing a "feel for the water" cannot simply be transmitted verbally; they are embodied in the tacit knowledge acquired from practice, repetition and experience. This is the first sociological study of the transmission of skills through tacit knowledge in sport.