SIRC articles provide evidence-based and actionable insights from sport researchers, athletes, coaches, sport organizations and thought leaders to advance sport in Canada.
Concussions in Sport: What Parents Need to Know About the Youngest AthletesÂ
Each year in Canada, more than 200,000 athletes experience a concussion. The numbers are striking, and so is the fact that until recently, the youngest athletes were almost absent from research and public conversation about these injuries. Dr. Miriam Beauchamp is a professor at the University of Montreal, a researcher at Sainte-Justine Hospital, and Canada…
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...
Johann Windt and Ben Sporer, Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Over a coffee, we recently reminisced about different sporting environments we’ve worked in and how many times we’ve seen expensive technological solutions sit in a corner, collecting dust. Perhaps you can relate to the pattern. A new technology hits the...
Highlights An organization’s culture involves the values, attitudes and goals that are shared by a group of people. These values, attitudes and goals influence how the group interacts and operates as its members work toward a common goal. Within and...
Highlights This article addresses the next steps in the Safe Sport journey; specifically, how to move from a focus on prevention of harms to a focus on optimizing the sport experience for athletes and sport leaders alike. This journey involves...
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 Youth development research has examined the antecedents, processes, and outcomes that occur in sport contexts. One common finding that consistently emerges is that influential adults, such as teachers and coaches, play instrumental roles in facilitating the developmental process....
Project summary Sport team membership provides people with opportunities to work together toward a common goal and build supportive social relationships. Quite simply, being a member of a sport team is associated with a host of psychosocial benefits. However, joining...
Mary Cain, a former record-breaking phenom, made a different type of headline when she spoke up about the pressure she faced to lose weight that caused her to disappear from the running scene (Cain, 2019). Cain’s willingness to speak up...
Diane Culver and Tiago Duarte, University of Ottawa
The global knowledge society is one in which we can never know everything we will need to know to be successful – something the pandemic has brought into sharp focus. Sport leaders need an agile method capable of gathering knowledge...
Bradley Young, Scott Rathwell, and Bettina Callary
Paradoxically, Masters sport is equally celebrated and ignored. Masters athletes are celebrated because they are motivated, goal-oriented, and determined to thrive at ages when sport participation has traditionally waned – they defeat stereotypes and allow us to rethink possibilities. Yet...
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