By Rachel van der Schaaf

Being the professional athlete that Herbert Cool is, he leads a very busy life. But, next to physical training, this does not stop him from exercising his brain. On a Sunday afternoon Herbert finalizes his ‘reduced week of training in the Netherlands’ with an eight hour drive to the biathlon city Ruhpolding in Germany. An outstanding opportunity in these passing hours for Rachel van der Schaaf of Team Cool to ask Herbert about his reasons to keep on studying.

"When you are involved in top sports this means that you are more or less forced to give up all social aspects in life. In my opinion this is not how it should be. After my sports career I would like to give back that what my sport has given to me. What's more, I find it very important to achieve something meaningful in the future in public life. And I need the right instruments to accomplish this, like an education and knowledge.”

Herbert has been searching for the right instruments for a long time. Initially he was interested in studying commercial economics but he did not want to give up biathlon to do so. For a long time this appeared impossible. “When I informed the education department that it was necessary that I would be abroad for six months all opportunities disappeared and it came down to it that I had to adapt to their fixed structure.”

Suddenly a solution came from an unexpected source. Some months ago Danny Nelissen, production manager with the Eurosport TV network, told Herbert that Eurosport was going to make available scholarships for (ex) professional athletes with the Johan Cruyff Institute (JCI). “As per his suggestion I asked to be considered as a candidate. With the selection procedure over Eurosport approved my request and now I am studying for a Master International Sport Management (MISM). This course is fully paid for by Eurosport. The education for a MISM degree lasts a year and is conducted in English and has been internationally certified. I find it absolutely fantastic that Eurosport understands how important this is for me and that they respect what I do. I would not have been able to personally pay for this and am so grateful that Eurosport offered me this opportunity.”

Herbert feels totally at ease with Johan Cruyff’s vision. “Johan thinks that sports organisations, both large and small, should be managed by people with a professional sports background. During the Master course we learn what it takes to have a leading position in ‘their’ world. When I told JCI about my impossible search for a proper education and that it should not be an obstacle for my sportive activities they reacted totally opposite and regarded my busy life with the constant travel as a challenge and immediately started searching for a solution. That was rather special for me.”

The solution for combining travelling and an education is Skype. When Herbert is abroad he follows his evening classes from his hotel room with the help of a laptop. At first his professors and fellow students could see and communicate with Herbert using a small laptop screen but next Panasonic stepped up and provided a flat screen TV with a small HD camera.

"Now I can even be more actively involved and be a better part of the group. I make the group assignments alone but also have to present my findings in front of my fellow students, just like the other students do. The tutors are really actively involving me in the class, they truly make a difference. All PowerPoint slides are forwarded to me in advance and this enables me to prepare for the lessons. This really works very well. And if I end up somewhere in Siberia where there is no internet connection we can always fall back on an emergency solution. The lesson is being recorded and is uploaded online so that I can study it on a later date.”

In spite of the geographical separation Herbert can perfectly combine his sport career and education and does not have to miss anything. Although there was one occasion where he would have preferred to be in the Netherlands. “It was a real pity that I did not have the chance to meet with and introduce myself to Johan Cruyff during the introduction day of the Johan Cruyff Foundation. I could not be there because I needed to train again, of course… But hopefully I will get another chance to do so soon after all.”

> www.herbertcool.com
> International Master of Sport Management