SIRC articles provide evidence-based and actionable insights from sport researchers, athletes, coaches, sport organizations and thought leaders to advance sport in Canada.
Team Unbreakable: The transformative power of running for youth mental health
Mental health challenges among Canadian youth are a growing concern. It is estimated that up to 20% of children and youth in Canada, which is more than 1.2 million young individuals, are affected by a mental health disorder. Addressing the mental health needs of these children and youth lays a crucial foundation for their lifelong…
Brynna Kerr and Reema Shafi, University of Toronto
Highlights Concussion recovery depends on many factors, including biological factors (for example, anatomy) and gender-based factors (for example, societal norms in sport). Research shows that female athletes have a higher risk of concussion than male athletes, male and female athletes...
Some coaches rely on de facto drills that seem to be an essential part of their sport as a foundation for their practices; others turn to the latest gadgets and technology to drive their practice plans. Before integrating tradition or...
Whether you are a high performance athlete training for the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games in Tokyo, or a weekend warrior working on a personal best, learning to manage heat stress should be a priority. Heat stress and fatigue can...
At a time when athletes and coaches have been inundated with pseudoscientific ideas about the importance of accumulating 10,000 hours of practice, the importance of practice quality often does not receive the attention it should. Contrary to popular belief, there...
It might be surprising to hear concussions are a serious risk in the sport of volleyball. But data collection from Volleyball Canada—dating back to 2016—has revealed exactly that. “Our research has shown that about 1 in 10 youth athletes in...
Once considered a fringe activity, weight training has grown in popularity in the last 20 years due to its benefits for improving health, physical fitness, and performance. Weight training is often included in high school physical education classes and promoted...
Parents who dream of their children becoming professional athletes, and coaches who believe that single-minded dedication is the only way to reach the top of their sport, have contributed to an increase in early sport specialization. However, there are many...
Current views on recovery Recent research by Nash and Sproule (2018) asked coaches for their views on recovery in training. While recovery was widely understood as crucially important, results revealed that few coaches think about psychological and cognitive recovery with...
SIRC’s Athlete Perspective series provides insight and recommendations on key issues from an athlete’s perspective. The collection of blogs and SIRCuit articles profiles Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes and taps into their lived experience. Success isn’t accomplished alone. It takes...
Endurance athletes need to persevere through pain in training and competition. According to Kent University’s Samuele Marcora “our mind is what dictates our physical limits”. Exhaustion is not caused by muscle failure, but by the conscious decision to disengage from...
