Abstract A large body of literature has highlighted the role of exploration in skill acquisition, with much of it showing that variable practice conditions encourage exploration. However, how learners make sense as they explore contrasting learning conditions remains unclear. Our study, rooted in the enactive approach tested a twofold hypothesis: (1) exploration takes different forms specified by the general dimensions of sense-making activity and (2) the specification of these general dimensions is related to the practice conditions. Our study focused on a climbing task over a 10-session learning protocol. Twelve sports sciences students participated under variable and constant practice conditions. First, two steps were drawn from the course-of-action research program: (1) documenting the climbers’ lived experience during previews and climbs with video recordings of their activity and self-confrontation interviews and (2) identifying the general dimensions of intentions, perceptions and actions using thematic analysis. On this basis, a quantitative analysis was then conducted to identify phenomenological clusters (PhC) through a hierarchical cluster analysis of the general dimensions. Last, the distributions of these PhC for the first and last sessions of the learning protocol were compared. Our results showed singular distributions of the four PhC identified in both previews and climbs between the first and last learning sessions. This supports our first hypothesis by highlighting the four PhC, two for the preview and two for the climb. Our results did not support the second hypothesis, however, of a link between PhC and practice conditions in that no condition-specific PhC were identified.