Rod Thorpe trained as a Physical Education teacher in the early 1960's, taught in schools and then returned to the then Loughborough College, now Loughborough University, to train teachers in 1968. During his 35 years at Loughborough, as well as his academic work, (most notably pedagogy, skill acquisition and sports psychology), Rod coached ruby (for 10 years) and tennis (for 27 years).

He was central to the development of 'sports leadership' programmes in the UK, he was one of the first National Coaching Foundation (now Sports Coaching UK) faculty and served as Director on the Boards of Sports Coach UK and the Youth Sports Trust. As co-author of a physical education initiative "Teaching Games for Understanding', Rod has been invited to present to Physical Education Conferences worldwide.

In the 1990s, he worked with the Australian Sports Commission and Australian Coaching Council to adapt this initiative to coaching. The result was Games Sense, an approach now used by many sporting bodies.

Rod retired in 2003 as Director of Sports Development and the University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate, for his work in teaching and coaching children and not least, for his role in developing a World Class Training Venue at the University,