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…
Tanya Forneris, University of British Columbia Okanagan
Increasing attention in research and practice has focused on the physical and psychological impacts of trauma and violence, for example from living in conflict zones or experiencing family violence. In North America, such work has led to an increased understanding...
Corliss Bean, University of British Columbia Okanagan
This is the first blog in a series on positive youth development in sport. If this is your first visit to this series, considering taking a few minutes to read the other two posts: Teaching Life Skills Through Sport and...
The “aggregation of marginal gains” has become such a catchphrase that people have stopped questioning what it means. Science is meant to question, not to follow, and to look for the truth where it otherwise might be missed. What are...
Many coaches in youth sport understand the positive benefits of sport participation, in helping youth adopt social relationships, perseverance, and building life skills. However, it isn’t enough to simply thrust a child into sport and hope they develop character. It...
In his teens, Eric Mihalovic was a promising young hockey player. He was tough, a solid player with good hands. “I don’t think we even called the first one a concussion,” he said. “I was hit and my head bounced...
Vicki Harber, PhD and Paul Jurbala, PhD, Sport for Life
You’ve probably heard of the Relative Age Effect – the concept that when children are placed into groups such as school classes or sports based on their chronological age, those born early in the cohort may have physical or intellectual...
Katherine Tinkler, Senior Advisor, Policy and Planning – Insight, Sport Canada
The purpose of this presentation by Sport Canada was to provide an overview of the retrospective analysis of the first 10 years of the program encouraging sport participation research in Canada. The review was intended to understand: Amount of research...
In today’s rapidly changing sport landscape, it’s critical to make every decision count – and make sure every dollar has impact. Many organizations are seeking ways to use data to inform decisions and assess outcomes. But how exactly do you...
Debra Gassewitz, CEO, SIRC and Dr. Ann Pegararo, Laurentian University
This article presents a case study of how stakeholder collaborations can maximize engagement. The case is based off of a collaboration between the Sport Information Resource Centre and Dr. Ann Pegararo from Laurentian University exploring an analysis of social media...
The purpose of this project was to explore issues surrounding segregated sport for people with impairments and to address the question of whether or not segregated sport perpetuates inequity (Fay & Wolff, 2009). The specific objectives included: (1) Identifying the...
News travels fast. Stay connected to sport and physical activity-related knowledge, news, jobs and resources through SIRC’s daily newsletter — The Canadian Sport Daily — delivered straight to your inbox.