What is the CISM Academy ?

The CISM Academy today

 

The CISM Academy (ACISM), following the strategic decisions made during the BoD meeting 2024-3 in Punta Cana, stands today as a pivotal think-tank dedicated to advancing military fitness and sports science within CISM. As an integral part of the CISM Sport Science Commission (SSC), its primary objective is to support and enhance CISM's activities in these domains, particularly through academic auspices and scientific research initiatives.

 

Central to its mission is the consult and support the SSC in key events like the CISM International Symposium, ensuring precise academic standards and fostering international collaboration in military sports. In coordination with the SSC, the Academy plays a crucial role in overseeing the scientific aspects of the CISM academic activities sanctioned by the Board of Directors.

 

Composed of world-renowned sport scientists and academic experts, ACISM collaborates closely with the SSC President and members to promote excellence in sport science education across CISM member nations. This collaborative effort extends to selecting research projects, publishing academic papers, and developing guidelines on various sport science topics, thereby reinforcing CISM's position as a leader in military sports science on the global stage.

 

Together, the Academy and SSC strive to achieve comprehensive goals such as enhancing CISM's educational activities, expanding academic partnerships, and translating research findings into practical applications that benefit military personnel worldwide. As the academic Ambassador of CISM, the CISM Academy serves as a cornerstone of excellence in military sports science, fostering innovation, research, and education to strengthen the physical and mental resilience of armed forces worldwide.

 

CISM Academy Members

 

• Professor Thierry Zintz

• Professor Annette Schmidt

 

CISM Academy History

 

 

 

During the presidency of Major Arne THORBURN (Sweden), from 1953 to 1956, impregnated with the fundamental idea that the practice of physical training and military sport must recline towards medical sports and technical progress, it provokes and upholds all initiatives permitting fruitful contacts between sports doctors, technicians and athletes. It is the reason why the Academy, organism scientific and pedagogic, was born in a near future.

Under the impulsion of Colonel Henri DEBRUS (France), re-elected as President in 1956, the Secretary General Raoul MOLLET made a proposal at 11th General Assembly in Cannes, on 8 September 1957, regarding the creation of CISM Academy. A unanimous vote established the ACISM, that represents a scientific and educational that connects CISM with the most relevant researches, publications with the aim to study different doctrines of physical training and sports training to formulate theories that enable armies to apply as effectively as possible.

 

In 1958, to celebrate its 10th anniversary, CISM organized its yearly program on a very large scale, highlighted by the founding of ACISM, a medical sports association devoted to the research in the field of sports, and the first issue of CISM Magazine, a quarterly review read currently in some 35 countries at that time, and specially meant for the military and sport circles.

Although, after years developing a good work in the military sports field, ACISM lost space in scientific scenario and in 1998, during 2nd Board of Directors Meeting, in Windhoeck-Namibia, it was decided to finish its formal activities.

 

 

Despite this decision, CISM International Symposium kept its existence and presentations as well CISM website opened, in 2008, a “Sports and Science Forum” as an open and democratic space to discuss sports related matters in a scientific standard.

In this scope, the appropriated environment was created within CISM to relaunch ACISM. Fortunately, during CISM International Symposium, on September 21st 2009, in Prague-Czech Republic, during General Gianni GOLA presidency, ACISM was declared reborn, with a ceremony with the attendance of all authorities and lectures of the Symposium.

 

This ACISM rebirth was presented to the CISM Board of Directors, during its third Meeting, in Ljubljana-Slovenia, between 3 and 5 November 2009, by the Sports Director, Lieutenant Colonel Suzana TKAVC (Slovenia). After, its approval these components of the highest level of CISM structure signed the testimony book for the rebirth of ACISM.

 

 

Since that, the main vision of that new Academy was to:

- Establish science as one of the basic and important elements in CISM;

- Improve the development of this field in different areas;

- Reach more effective management and application of knowledge from research to practice;

- Share different experience and reach better connections and cooperation between armed forces;

- Establish cooperation with international institutions and create synergy at international and national level between military and civil structures;

 

 

- Support different working CISM groups (commissions, committees and others) with scientific findings.

And the reborn ACISM had as main goals:

- Create a network of experts to manage the knowledge originated form researches within armed forces on sports related matters;

- Share experiences with other institutions and scientific body, as the International Olympic Committee Academy, United States Sports Academy, International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education and others;

 

 

- Support CISM authorities in the decision-making process providing scientific information concerning CISM future challenges.

In this way, in the occasion of the 70th anniversary of CISM, in 2018, ACISM had its structure, inside the Sport Department, reestablished, in the scope of the Project Memory, Heritage & Legacy embracing Sports and Science Commission, Symposium, publications/library and other functional areas of CISM.