SIRC articles provide evidence-based and actionable insights from sport researchers, athletes, coaches, sport organizations and thought leaders to advance sport in Canada.
Concussions and Confidence: Why Mental Readiness Matters in Recovery
For most of her career, Jen Kish was known as one of the best and most fearless female players in rugby sevens. She captained Canada’s women’s team to an Olympic bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. And, she also endured more than 30 concussions with only five of them formally diagnosed. “Your brain health…
In the world of sports, we often celebrate the visible: the gold medals, the game-winning goals, the perfect routines executed under the bright lights of competition. But beneath the surface of every athletic performance lies a complex web of forces—psychological,...
In a sports culture obsessed with early success, Canada may be missing out on some of the best athletes, sleepers, those who develop later, defying the traditional timelines of talent. Dr. Joe Baker, a leading expert on talent development and...
Introduction and Context Over the past two decades there has been increasing interest in evidence-based approaches to talent selection and identification. This is often coupled with an emphasis on the early identification of ‘talented’ athletes, based on the assumption that...
In sports, some athletes currently under-perform compared to others, but end up excelling later in life, while some who currently perform well, end up under-performing later on. In other words, current performance is not necessarily a good predictor of potential...
Aaron Koenigsberg, Jesse Korf, and Lou Farah, York University
Early Talent Identification (TID) describes the process of identifying, evaluating and selecting athletes for sport programs in early adolescence (ages 10-14). This practice has created a contentious issue in sport. On one hand, early selection may eliminate late bloomers from...
Project summary Sport Canada’s Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model acknowledges that there are limitations to ensuring appropriate development of team sports, especially with regards to selecting into chronological age (CA) bands. Adolescent of the same CA can be 4...
To support the identification and development of future Olympians and Paralympians, two Canadian programs have been developed to fuel the Canadian pipeline of future hopefuls. RBC Training Ground and the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Paralympian Search are athlete identification programs designed...
Project Summary Hockey has a profound impact on the values, attitudes, and behaviours of Canadians (Earle, 2002; Gruneau & Whitson, 1993; Nixon, 1976). Youth hockey in Canada has been the target of much recent criticism, with attention being called to...
Laura Chittle, Jess C. Dixon, Sean Horton, and Joe Baker
On October 17, 2018, Relative Age Effects: An International Conference was hosted at York University where leading international scholars gathered to discuss the implications of athletes’ dates of birth on sport, health, and education. This article highlights the history of...
Despite some important ethical and developmental concerns, early identification and selection is the modus operandi of high performance sport. Most sport systems internationally have limited resources for high performance athlete development and, as a result, have to make predictions about...
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