She'll be right? An Australian perspective on caring for young people in physical education and sport

This chapter explores issues surrounding practice, pedagogy, and policy relating to touch in physical education teaching and sport coaching in Australia. It is a contribution to the open discussion of touch inspired by the work of Heather Piper and her colleagues in general and the publication of a special edition of the journal Sport, Education and Society (Piper et al. 2013a) in particular. It refl ects the view that discussions about touch must acknowledge contextual complexity and nuance, at a time when ‘common sense is itself a problematic and disputed idea’ (Piper et al. 2013b: p. 578). Given Australia’s cultural diversity, it is important that any discussion of touch in teaching and coaching is sensitive to this reality (Santoro et al. 2011).