2009 ICSC Opening Ceremony

Monday 16 February marked the opening of the Sport Authority of Thailand's 2009 class for the International Certificate in Sport Coaching Program. Since I am the first instructor for the new cohort, I was privileged to by involved in the Opening ceremonies. The cohort is made of 42 coaches and sport association officials from about 30 different sports ranging from the widely known basketball, volleyball, and soccer, to the more obscure netball and sports climbing, to the primarily southeast Asian sports of Sepak Takraw, and Pencak Silat. The primary speaker was Mar. Jaturaporn Na Nakorn who is the Deputy Governor for Sports Promotion for the Sports Authority of Thailand (seated on my left in the photo (if it manages to upload). I was also welcomed by the the Director of the Sports Authority (she is seated on my right). First sessions seemed to go pretty well. I am blessed with a very gifted translator, Picheet (seated next to the Deputy Governor in the blue shirt). He is a local faculty member, who spent some time in Ann Arbor Michigan when his father was doing his graduate studies, then returned to earn his own masters degree at DePaul in Chicago. Picheet's doctorate is from Victoria University in Australia. I thought that this was going to be a long week as there was very little participation from the group during the first morning session. Picheet said that the cohorts normally did not warm-up until the third or fourth course (which will be taught by other faculty sometime in April). So we came back and did a good old PCA ice breaker and we were off and running after that (see the other photo if it loaded). Yesterday we talked about developing a coaching philosophy primarily. It is interesting just how much influence the Chinese system has here considering that it is a system built on having an enormous number of people as potential athletes and massive governmental intervention which basically can not be incorporated in just about any other country and yet that was the center of the open discussion before lunch. Today we talk mostly about motivation.
The mornings are relatively easy, but after lunch my body realizes that it is the middle of the night and by 2:00 PM local, it wants to be asleep. Of course that is balanced by being wide awake at 4:00 AM local. The upside on the early morning alertness is I have been able to have several very enjoyable Face Book Chats with many people back in the states.
Food has been good. I have been eating way more fresh fruit then I have in a long time and have started each morning with a couple of glasses of guave juice. Hard to turn down the green juice :-)

The poor internet connection however has been a source of frustration.
I have also learned that I can handle most of the spicy food that they are providing for the cohort as long as I don't consume the actual chiles that are included on some dishes. Today I am planning on actually venturing out this evening following the last afternoon session.
Thanks to all that are following along and to those who have e-mailed, and chatted facebook or skype) and please feel free to leave a comment here on the blog as well.