An ESEI Excursion to C.A.R. Sant Cugat 

On November 25th, 2022, Frank Hendrickx, professor of ESEI’s Master in Sports Management arranged an excursion to the Center d’Alt Rendiment (C.A.R) Sant Cugat. This represents what ESEI International Business School of Barcelona stands for, allowing students to not only develop their skills in class but in excursions by experiencing real-world environments.

What is Center d’Alt Rendiment Sant Cugat?

Who are we talking about? Well C.A.R is a High-Performance Sports Centre based in Catalonia. The purpose of this organization is to support the sports industry to improve its competitiveness at the international level with the help of resources of the highest technical and scientific quality. 

The institution continuously opens its doors with the purpose of training athletes and providing valuable knowledge to the community through the activities programmed.

 Identical to ESEI’s values and culture C.A.R values academic and personal development for the interested collaborators. As such, CAR provides essential tools for the academic progress of athletes. CAR athletes can attend high school and compulsory education (ESO) classes at CAR’s on-site laboratories and receive instruction from eminently certified teachers.

What did our Sports Management Students gather from the Excursion at C.A.R?

The excursion was not just a visit to a sports center but an opportunity for the Sports Management master students to develop their skills by learning and experiencing a sports management institution on many different levels.

 The idea of the visit was to see firsthand how a High-Performance Center is operating and contributing to the development of young national and international athletes, offering them all kinds of services that go from school-level education, access to top-notch training facilities, coaching, nutrition, physical and mental health support, etc.

The students were lucky to witness some training sessions with athletes from different Olympic sports disciplines (table tennis, taekwondo, water polo, artistic gymnastics, artistic swimming, athletics, sport climbing, trampoline, and rhythmic gymnastics), which gave them a good idea about the intensity and passion these young people apply to their sports. 

In a private session, the sports management students were briefed on the international activities of the Association of Sports Performance Centers (ASPC), offering services to talented athletes all around the world.

ESEI is grateful to Xavier Andreu, Xavi Balius, and Pep Escoda of CAR Sant Cugat for their hospitality during the sports management excursion.

What skills do ESEI Students gain from Sports Management Excursions?

One of the main values in our culture at ESEI is Project-Based Learning, thus when our professors who are experts in their industry plan an excursion, it is meant for our students to gain valuable skills. The types of skills our students had the opportunity to develop with this excursion were:

 Athlete development: 

1. 1. Attention to detail, as C.A.R. Sant Cugat is a High-Performance Center for Athletes. Our students were able to see in person how much effort is being dedicated to not just the sports side of the business but everything else surrounding management. Factors such as giving athletes a good level of education concerning how they can reach the top level using the facilities provided. 
   2. Compassion for the Athletes, our students were able to experience the compassion the athletes have for their sport. Thus a good skill to have is to match that compassion to help them grow and develop.

• Listening skills, our students also learned a valuable skill which is listening. C.A.R. Sant Cugat is made up of different departments and one of them is the CMT Unit, which is the Unit of Science, Medicine, and Technology. With that comes the importance of making sure you listen to the athlete in hopes to prevent injuries and get ahead of necessary treatments.

High-Performance Coaching

• Leads by example, our students understood the importance of leading by example. If you are preaching a vision to someone, you have to follow it yourself. Thus when it comes to a high-performance coach, the standards of mentoring need to be as high as the standard the athlete is giving out. 

• Profound thinkers and visionary, the sports industry is saturated and millions of people would enjoy becoming professional athletes. With a high-performance coach that is a profound thinker and visionary, it is a benefit for the athlete as it is necessary to get ahead of the game.

• Educates others and shares knowledge, just as our students received a vast amount of information on how the operations are at C.A.R. Sant Cugat. It is necessary to have an innate passion for educating others and sharing your knowledge with the world. Which was one of the great things about the center.

How do you start developing new skills in 2023? 

Our Master in sports management is programme aimed at improving our students in various aspects of the industry, which is why we focus on having as many excursions to sports facilities around Spain and other countries. To achieve this, we expose our students to real-world environments in hopes to spark an interest in a niche within the masters that they might not know they would have enjoyed pursuing. 

Does that sound like you? 

You know you want to study a topic related to sports but you don’t know what exactly. It is completely fine! You should do some research on which masters could help you with that. In the meantime check out our Master’s Programme in Sports Management!