United States Sports Academy instructor Marty Floyd, far right, with students in Bahrain. Floyd taught the Academy’s certificate program in disabled and adaptive sport for the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities (BSFD).
The United States Sports Academy is continuing its longstanding relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain by teaching in a national program to help physical education teachers and coaches there develop better skills in working with athletes with adaptive needs.
Academy National Faculty member Marty Floyd recently traveled to the island nation in the Middle East for an extensive teaching stint for a certificate program in disabled and adaptive sport for the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities (BSFD). This is Floyd’s second visit to Bahrain to teach this program for the Academy in 2018.
A resident of Gulf Shores, Ala., Floyd is teaching courses related to sports coaching methodology, inclusive recreation services and nutrition and ergogenic aids to physical education teachers in Bahrain.
The Adaptive Sports program is a unique course of advanced study designed for coaches and physical education teachers who have or want to have experience working with athletes with varying degrees of adaptive needs. The program has a two-pronged approach that includes working with competitive athletes and developing inclusive programs for recreational athletes.
“Teaching in Bahrain has been a truly exciting and rewarding experience,” Floyd said.
Students in Bahrain learn wheelchair basketball coaching skills during class taught by United States Sports Academy instructor Marty Floyd. The students are taking part in the Academy’s certificate program in disabled and adaptive sport for the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities (BSFD).
“These students’ skill sets afford us the perfect opportunity to provide even more skills to their teacher toolbox. The concepts presented in the daily lessons and practical activities provide a springboard to increased development as teachers and being able to provide meaningful activities to both the able and disabled students in their classes.
“While teaching about the nature of disabilities and their characteristics, we also immerse them into the real-life situations and barriers that the disabled encounter in their everyday lives. Giving the teachers strategies to remove barriers and obstacles for the disabled and ways to remove the myths associated with the disabled has opened the minds and hearts of the teachers.”
Floyd has more than 40 years of experience in the sport, education, training, leadership, instructional design and management fields.
“I am honored to be a part of this great program and to be a part of the United States Sports Academy,” Floyd said.
“The Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities, under the leadership of Sheik Mohammed and many dedicated volunteers, has opened tremendous opportunities to allow Bahrainis who have disabilities to participate in recreation and competitive sports.”
Floyd has worked in athletic and education administration since 1980.
“I found that students are the same, whether in the United States or Bahrain,” he said. “They want to learn, they want to succeed, and they want to become better at their craft.
“I am honored to be a small part of the United States Sports Academy.”
Students in Bahrain hone their adaptive sports skills during a class taught by United States Sports Academy instructor Marty Floyd. The students are taking part in the Academy’s certificate program in disabled and adaptive sport for the Bahrain Sports Federation for Disabilities (BSFD).
The program is notable because it marks the return of the Academy to Bahrain after a hiatus of several years. The Academy’s involvement in Bahrain goes back more than 40 years to the beginnings of the Academy’s international instruction, research and outreach programs. In 1977, the Academy worked with the Bahrain General Organization for Youth and Sports to develop a physical fitness test used to gauge the fitness of every school-aged child in that country, providing the first profile of youth fitness in Bahrain. A descendant of that test is still used today. For three years after, the Academy had full charge conduct of Bahrain’s national sports effort including sports medicine and human performance research laboratory. Since then, the Academy has conducted numerous programs in Bahrain focusing on physical education in schools, fitness, recreation, youth sports, the Bahrain National Olympic Committee, and fitness programs for police officers, among others.
Floyd is a consultant for the South Alabama Research and Inservice Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. Floyd previously worked as an associate scout for the Chicago Cubs baseball organization and as a certified trainer for non-violent crisis prevention. He has served as a baseball and softball umpire at the youth and high school levels and has taught hitting, pitching and fielding. He has also worked as an instructor for high school and middle school volleyball camps.
Floyd earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education from the University of South Alabama (USA), where he also earned a Superintendent/Principal Administrative Certification.
For a video on the Academy’s adaptive sports program in Bahrain, go to https://youtu.be/HvgnelYHuSg.
Since its founding nearly a half-century ago, the United States Sports Academy has leveraged its role and resources as a special mission sports university to make a global impact through quality sport instruction, research and service programs in 65 countries around the world. These contributions have varied in scope from the full-charge conduct of a nation’s entire national sport effort to individual coaching clinics, seminars, and symposia.
