SHO-Prague app for iPhone and iPad

SHO offers a new approach to the study of sport and exercise sciences in an exciting, practical, and academically-minded way – creating a rich and dynamic balance of learning attained through dialogue and academic study as well as practical learning and immediate experience. Moreover, in each SHO course, students learn how to improve their own skills as well as the effective means and methodology to teach them to others. Year-round outdoor sports and deep appreciation of nature have long traditions in the Czech Republic. The Faculty offers various courses of high quality, taught by experienced teachers, relating and reflecting these inherent cultural values and knowledge particular to the Czech context. By the program’s end, each distinct but unified component of SHO – sports, health, and the outdoors – will be understood by participating students both theoretically and experientially. SHO students will be introduced to the humanities-centered notion of Sports as it relates to the Czech and the more general European contexts. Students are first familiarized and then involved in both popular and conventional sports research methods, topics and tactics in coaching and developing athletes and training programs, as well as ethical and philosophical questions concerning sports governance and policies, sports trends and problems, and other contemporary sports-related matters and developments. Students will then activate this same process (learning and doing) in a series of different sports and physical activities ranging from different forms of self-defense, cycling, parkour, slackline, climbing, as well as have multiple occasions to attend live events and the trainings of professional Czech sports teams. SHO students also develop technical and practical awareness and skill in the field of Health as it relates specifically to the world of sports and athletic training, but as it can also be used more generally in everyday life. Well-balanced with the opportunity to both learn and then do, as well as participate in hands-on assessments and practicums, the courses relating to the Health component of SHO take students in and out of the gym to familiarize them with safe and teachable practices and specialized knowledge in strength training and conditioning geared toward multiple populations and aims; the complex world of dealing with sport-related injuries and what we can do to prevent them; as well as learning the life-bettering and life-saving services of soft-tissue massage and basic first aid. These courses are meant to form a deeper, more scientific understanding of our bodies and its systems, the know-how to condition and strengthen them, and to inspire the confidence to push them forward in situations in which we can help, assist, or preserve the health and well-being of those around us. The Outdoors theme of SHO is brought to the fore by courses in Rope Activities, Natural and Artificial Environments, Hiking, and Outdoor Sports, many to be held in the gorgeous countryside of Southern Bohemia. This gives students the distinct opportunity to experience not only the well-known atmosphere of Prague, but of the diverse and abundant beauty which characterizes the Czech landscape. The theoretical half will introduce students to the study of the outdoors and the field of experiential learning, with a pointed interest in understanding and facilitating outdoor games and related programming for various groups of people and purposes. The experiential component features activities designed to verse students in a score of fun and useful activities such as orienteering, Nordic walking, climbing, cycling, and other various outdoor activities belonging to or highly valued in the Czech context.