The United States Sports Academy welcomed a group of students from the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) to the United States in July 2022 for the resumption of the Sports Study Tour portion of the International Certification in Sports Management (ICSM) and International Certification in Sports Coaching (ICSC) programs.
Thai students visited the World Games 2022 in Birmingham, Ala., and sports sites like Mercedes Benz Stadium, took in an Atlanta United soccer match, visited Bobby Jones Golf Course, and other sites in Atlanta, Ga. They also took part in sport education seminars directed by Academy faculty.
Sports education cooperation between the Academy and Thailand goes back to the 1980s and the Academy and the SAT have a Memorandum of Understanding to work together in sports education and training.
The Academy traditionally taught its ICSM and ICSC programs in person in Thailand. In 2020, the program was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ICSC program includes a wide range of coaching and related administrative skills, and the ICSM program includes sports event planning, marketing and public relations, and facilities. For 15 consecutive years between 2005 and 2020 the Academy taught its international certification program to provide advanced sport education to prepare students in Thailand for careers in sport. Each year under the program approximately 100 students are drawn from the SAT and its affiliated sport organizations around the country to attend the certification programs — typically 50 for each certification. Following the conclusion of the classroom portion of the program in Bangkok, which is provided by Academy instructors, the SAT selects the best students from each program for a special study tour of sport in America.
Founded half a century ago, the Academy has delivered quality sport education and service programs in 67 countries around the world. These have varied in scope from the full-charge conduct of a nation’s entire national sport effort to individual coaching clinics, seminars and symposia. As a not-for-profit, independent school of sport, the Academy has been able to provide a combination of expertise expected from a sports university combined with the experience gleaned from applying expertise in this field.
