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SIRC articles provide evidence-based and actionable insights from sport researchers, athletes, coaches, sport organizations and thought leaders to advance sport in Canada.

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Cirque du Soleil: Bridging the gap between athletes and artists

Cirque du Soleil is renowned for its breathtaking performances, combining artistry, athleticism, and storytelling to create unparalleled spectacles. But how does this world-class organization find and transform its talent? André Lachance, Senior Director Casting and Artist Contract Management at Cirque du Soleil, shared insights into the fascinating process of talent acquisition and development, where elite…

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Using stakeholder engagement as real-world data to inform organizational change

June 15, 2022
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Lara Schroeder and Nora Sheffe
Over the past 6 months, we’ve seen ongoing news of alleged maltreatment of athletes who compete at national and international levels. These reports of maltreatment in artistic swimming, gymnastics, bobsleigh and skeleton, and most recently boxing have sparked increased discussion by...

Training for Effective Mentees: Supporting mentorship experiences for coaches

March 16, 2022
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Catalina Belalcazar, Andrea Johnson and Bettina Callary
Sport organizations are increasingly turning to mentorship programs as a powerful way for coaches to learn from their own experience by working with a mentor. To support the development of women in coaching, the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) has...

Less is more: Programming interval training for endurance performance

January 12, 2022
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Michael Rosenblat, Simon Fraser University
More isn’t always better. This couldn’t be truer than when it comes to designing an interval training program geared to maximize endurance sport performance. At least that’s the conclusion of our most recent meta-analysis. This blog discusses findings from our...

2021 year in review: How SIRC embraced the “new normal”

December 22, 2021
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SIRC
After 2020 surprised us all with a global pandemic, many of us looked to 2021 with hope for a gradual return to our pre-pandemic “normal.” And with the widespread rollout and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines across the country, the activities...

A real-life Moneyball: How to identify, select and integrate members into your team

November 3, 2021
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Michelle Istead and Luc Martin, Queen’s University
Whether people are baseball fanatics or just Brad Pitt fans, they’ve most likely seen the film Moneyball. It’s based on the true story of Billy Beane, the former General Manager of the Oakland A’s in Major League Baseball (MLB). Beane changed...

How 2 sports came together to enhance player development in the North

October 6, 2021
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Adam Steiner and Veronica Allan, SIRC
From February 23 to April 4, 2021, in Hay River, Northwest Territories, 7 minor hockey goalies traded in their hockey sticks for table tennis rackets. In an exciting collaboration between Table Tennis North, Table Tennis Canada, Hockey NWT, Hockey North, Hay River Minor...

Data-driven decision-making: Easy as 1, 2, 3

September 15, 2021
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Kyle Rich, Andrew Backer, Jeff Boggs and Ann Pegoraro
In 2017, The Economist boldly published that data, not oil, was the world’s most valuable resource (Parkins, 2017). Sport organizations produce more data than most organizations, ranging from athlete training and performance tracking to business-related information, such as memberships and...

Ask the experts: Q&A with Chris Penrose about learning from and communicating evaluation findings

September 8, 2021
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Corliss Bean, Caroline Hummell and Chris Penrose
You’ve carefully planned your evaluation, collected data and compiled results. Now what? Brock University’s Corliss Bean and Caroline Hummell spoke with Chris Penrose of Lay-Up Youth Basketball for SIRC’s Experts in the House mini-series on Mastering the Art of Evaluation,...

Three recommendations for sport organizations when engaging in evaluation

July 14, 2021
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Caroline Hummell, Corliss Bean and Maji Shaikh
The sport sector considers evaluation an essential organizational practice. Through evaluation, sport organizations can gain insights and solicit feedback about their programs. Evaluation can also inform decision-making, guide program improvements, and build stakeholders’ value and advocacy for programming (Holt et...

Building capacity for evaluation with students and volunteers

June 7, 2021
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Sarah Lawrason, UBC Okanagan
An essential part of improving sport service delivery is program evaluation. Program evaluation allows sport organizations to understand how their programs or initiatives work in different ways. However, many organizations receive insufficient training or lack the capacity (staff, funding or time) to engage in evaluative work (Carman & Fredericks, 2010).  One...
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