Shared representations and coordinated action, in both team sports and for individuals with specific roles, have a big impact on performance outcomes in a wide range of sporting domains. Within team sports, perceptual and decision-making issues are key; performers must both see things in similar ways and make similar or mutually compatible decisions if appropriate action is to be taken and performance optimised. To do this, an athlete must interpret perceptual information effectively, applying an implicit ‘weighting scale’ to determine the pertinence of key factors. Such a commonality of perception across a team allows the formation of a shared mental model (SMM) through a process of both time-pressured and deliberate thinking and action, along with appropriate feedback. As individuals, referees and match officials must apply a consistent weighting scale to both formal decision making (i.e. applying the rules of the game) and more informal game management. The implementation of SMMs has been shown to increase consistency and coherence in leading referees, with shared representations resulting from both training and more ‘natural’ processes. Selection panels have also demonstrated substantial and rapid improvements in coherence, through exposing and agreeing operational definitions of key criteria, developing common weighting scales, monitoring and regular feedback. Such shared representations also carry benefits for support personnel within interdisciplinary teams and for team cultures; common features in high performance sport. It is clear that socially based or developed shared representations are crucial to effective performance in sport, and the various examples considered here offer considerable potential for future research.