Course Syllabus

DIS Sports Practicum: Bridging the Gap

Sport does not stand still, and neither do the roles responsible for identifying, developing, and realizing human potential. Coaches, scouts, health specialists, researchers, analysts, economists, and performance staff have traditionally occupied distinct spaces within the sports ecosystem, but the modern sports professional needs to work across disciplines: Coaches must engage with data, analysts must translate insights into practice, health and performance specialists must understand the demands of sport, and business professionals must understand the specific environment in which they operate.

The competitive advantage will not come from knowing one field alone, but from knowing how to connect different forms of expertise to improve performance and create value.

The DIS Sports Practicum is designed for students who want to connect academic knowledge with applied work in sports. You will test research and academic perspectives against the realities of Danish sport by working directly with athletes, health institutions, teams, educational organizations, businesses, and sports environments.

Denmark provides a unique setting for this experience. It combines an innovative sports technology sector and athletes competing at the highest international levels with a deeply rooted culture of volunteering, associations, education, and everyday participation in sport.

The Practicum Model: Hands-On Experience

This course is built around experiential learning. You spend at least one day a week embedded in a Danish grassroots or elite club, performance setting, sports business, or academic institution. Learning takes place through engagement with the people, challenges, and practices of an organization, complemented by course modules, peer discussion, and regular feedback sessions with your instructor that provide a framework for making sense of your experience. Classroom perspectives on sport, society, culture and policy are connected with professional practice as you develop practical skills, professional networks, and cross-cultural competencies.

Partner organizations represent a range of clubs and institutions across the sports sector. You are matched based on your interests, skills, and profile, with one or more students placed in each setting. Specific roles and responsibilities are developed case by case and in dialogue with the host organization.

Learning objectives

By the end of the DIS Sports Practicum, students will be able to:

• Apply academic knowledge and professional skills to real-world challenges within a sports organization.
• Develop and manage a meaningful role within a professional setting by demonstrating initiative, adaptability, and strong interpersonal skills.
• Integrate perspectives from coaching, sport science, analytics, business, sociology, psychology, and pedagogy to address complex challenges in contemporary sport.
• Create tangible value for a partner organization by identifying opportunities, solving problems, and delivering relevant outcomes.
  
  

Faculty

Michael Perlt brings 10 years of coaching experience in soccer and 50 years of experience as a player. He holds a UEFA B license and a Talent ID license, and he currently works as a performance coach specializing in cognitive training. His academic background is Religion and Sociology with a B.A. and M.A. in Theology from the University of Copenhagen and a Pre-doctoral fellowship in Cultural Sociology from Yale University. 

Expectations of the Students

As a student you are expected to:

• Own the outcomes of your practicum. The value you gain is directly related to the effort, initiative, and commitment you invest.
• Contribute the agreed number of hours each week to your assigned grassroots or elite club, business, or academic institution.
• Define the project’s goals, tasks, expectations, and final deliverables in collaboration with your host organization. This is your project, facilitated by DIS and grounded in a real-world sports setting.
• Manage your project and time with professional rigor. Lead rather than wait to be led.
• Prepare for and engage actively in every class. DIS is an academic setting, and unexcused absences from classes, activities, visits, or assigned work will affect your final grade.
• Complete all assigned work by the stated deadlines and arrive prepared for each class session.
• Demonstrate punctuality, professionalism, and consistent engagement across all scheduled activities.
• Pitch actively into classes, site visits, and group activities, and strengthen the collective learning of the group through your knowledge, experience, questions, and insights.
  
  

Preliminary Teaching Modules

Module 1

Association Denmark and Equality in Sports

This section/module explores the relationship between cultural identity, equality, and participation in physical activity, with a particular focus on Denmark. It examines how factors such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, social status, and geography shape experiences of sport and physical activity, and how cultural values influence participation.

In Denmark, sport is closely connected to broader ideals of equality, inclusion, and universal access. Public funding supports community sports clubs that seek to make participation accessible across socioeconomic and demographic differences. These clubs also serve as important spaces for social interaction and integration, allowing individuals to express and negotiate aspects of their identity through shared physical activity.

The “Danish approach” provides a useful contrast to systems in which access to sport is more strongly shaped by individual economic resources or institutional structures. Studying this model highlights how cultural values, education and public policy can shape participation, while also demonstrating how sport can contribute to broader social cohesion.

From this perspective, physical activity is more than an individual pursuit. It becomes a microcosm of society, reflecting and reinforcing cultural priorities surrounding equality, inclusion, diversity, and community.

 

Module 2

Are We All Individuals? Team Spirit and Identity Construction in Team Sports

Team sports provide a powerful setting for exploring the tension between individuality and collective identity. Each player/athlete brings distinct skills, personalities, and motivations, yet success depends on integrating these differences into a cohesive team. In this sense, teams offer a microcosm of a broader social question: how do individuals maintain their identity while becoming part of something larger than themselves?

The balance between individuality and collectivism also varies across cultures. Western cultures such as the United States often emphasize individual achievement, reflected in the attention given to star players, statistics, and awards such as MVPs. More collectivist cultures tend to place greater emphasis on team success, shared responsibility, and a common sense of purpose.

For coaches, teams, and others working in sports settings, the challenge is to develop individual strengths while building collective commitment. Strong leadership and team culture must create space for autonomy and personal expression without losing sight of shared goals. Too much emphasis on either the individual or the collective can undermine team functioning.

 

Module 3
Can You Do It on a Rainy Night in Stoke? Deep Learning and the 10,000-Hour Rule

“Can you do it on a rainy night in Stoke?” has become a sports metaphor for performing under adversity, whether environmental, psychological, or competitive. Popularized by soccer pundits Richard Keys and Andy Gray, the phrase suggests that true expertise is not simply about technical ability, but about resilience, adaptability, and consistently performing under pressure.

This idea connects closely to two influential frameworks in sports and human development: deep learning and the much-debated 10,000-hour rule. Together, they offer a useful lens for understanding how expertise develops not only in moments of success, but through the demanding conditions that ultimately test and shape performance.

 

Module 4
The Ménage à Trois of Sports Management: Athletes, Clubs, and the Economy

Modern sports management operates at the intersection of three key stakeholders: athletes, clubs, and the broader economy. This dynamic “ménage à trois” reflects the competing interests that shape decisions and outcomes across the sports industry, from athletic performance and player agency to organizational priorities and financial pressures.

Understanding these relationships is essential to understanding modern sports management. The interplay among individual talent, institutional strategy, and global economic forces creates both tensions and opportunities, shaping how athletes, clubs, and the sports industry evolve.

Selected Readings

Aggerholm, Kenneth. Talent Development, Existential Philosophy and Sport. ed., Routledge, 2014, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315775050. Talent Development, Existential Philosophy and Sport | On Becoming an

Anderson, Sally. Civil Sociality: Children, Sport, and Cultural Policy in Denmark. IAP-Information Age Pub, 2008. Civil Sociality: Children, Sport, and Cultural Policy in Denmark | Books Gateway | Emerald Publishing

Cassidy, Tania, et al. Understanding Sports Coaching: The Pedagogical, Social and Cultural Foundations of Coaching Practice. Fourth edition, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023. Understanding Sports Coaching | The Pedagogical, Social and Cultural F

Coyle, Daniel. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. The Culture Code - Daniel Coyle

Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How. Bantam Books, 2009. The Talent Code - Daniel Coyle

Curry, Christina, et al. Applied Positive Pedagogy in Sport Coaching: International Cases. Edited by Richard Light and Stephen Harvey, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021. Applied Positive Pedagogy in Sport Coaching: International Cases - 1st

Eime, Rochelle, et al. “The Sport Participation Pathway Model (SPPM): A Conceptual Model for Participation and Retention in Community Sport.” International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, vol. 14, no. 2, Apr. 2022, pp. 291–304, https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2022.2034913. Full article: The Sport Participation Pathway Model (SPPM): a conceptual model for participation and retention in community sport

Giulianotti, Richard. Sport, Civil Liberties and Human Rights. Routlrdge, 2008. 10. Sport, Civil Liberties and Human Rights - 1st Edition - Richard Giulia

Hughson, John, et al., editors. Routledge Handbook of Football Studies. Routledge, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. Routledge Handbook of Football Studies - 1st Edition - John Hughson -

Jarvie, Grant. Sport, Culture and Society an Introduction. Routledge, 2006. Sport, Culture and Society: An Introduction - 4th Edition - Grant Jarv

Jones, Martin I., and David Lavallee. “Exploring the Life Skills Needs of British Adolescent Athletes.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise, vol. 10, no. 1, 2009, pp. 159–67, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2008.06.005. Exploring the life skills needs of British adolescent athletes - ScienceDirect

Romar, Jan-Erik, et al. “Athlete-Centred Coaching Using the Sport Education Model in Youth Soccer.” Journal of Physical Education and Sport, no. June 2016, 2016. DOI:10.7752/jpes.2016.02060 Microsoft Word - art 60, pp 380 - 391.doc

Storm, Louise Kamuk, and Annemari Munk Svendsen. “Conceptualizing Cultural Leadership in Physical Education and Youth Sport: Outlining a Pedagogical Concept.” Sport, Education and Society, vol. 28, no. 7, Sept. 2023, pp. 797–810, https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2022.2065670. Conceptualizing cultural leadership in physical education and youth sport: outlining a pedagogical concept: Sport, Education and Society: Vol 28, No 7

Tin, Mikkel B., et al., editors. The Nordic Model and Physical Culture. Routledge, 2020. The Nordic Model and Physical Culture - 1st Edition - Mikkel Tin - Fro

Walsh, Vincent, et al., editors. Sport and the Brain: The Science of Preparing, Enduring and Winning, Part B. First edition, Academic Press, 2017. Progress in Brain Research | Volume 232: Sport and the Brain: The Science of Preparing, Enduring and Winning, Part A | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

 

Grading

Bridging the Gap - The DIS Sports Practicum	Percent
Active participation (debates and discussions)	25%
Practicum: pro-activeness and commitment	40%
Performance assessment by the company, club or academic institution (The grade will be given after feedback)	15%
Final Report and Presentation	20%
Total	100%