Knowledge Nuggets

On top of having many physical benefits, sports participation can improve athletes’ abilities to cope with difficult situations. Research from the University of Alberta found that sports can provide athletes with higher confidence, positive distractions, and social support, all of which can help them handle adversity in their everyday lives. Highlighting the benefits of sports...

Have you ever been on a run and suddenly started experiencing pain in the side of your abdomen? Many people refer to this as a side stich, but the proper name is exercise-related transient abdominal pain (ETAP). To help decrease the chances of ETAP, don’t eat a large meal an hour before your run, avoid...

Para sport has grown substantially in the past decades with increases in athlete participation as well as training intensities and sport performance (Patricios & Webborn, 2021; Fagher et coll., 2016). Yet, there is still limited research to help inform practice, especially concerning sport physiology and health in Para athletes (Gee et coll., 2021). This blog...

The Responsible Coaching Movement (RCM) is an initiative from the Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. The RCM has 3 pillars: the rule of 2, background screening, and ethics training.

What is okay and what isn’t when it comes to safe sport? Sport Manitoba has compiled a handy checklist for athletes to remind them of appropriate boundaries that should exist between them and sport coaches, officials or administrators. The list identifies green light behaviours and red flag behaviours for athletes to keep in mind.

Athlete transfer is a tricky topic within the Para sport system. Athlete transfer refers to when an athlete chooses to pursue a new sport, take on an additional sport, or their circumstances compel them to change sports. Athletes may transfer for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to: competitive opportunities, age, injury, or...

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has worked with the Coaching Association of Canada to offer the Commit to Kids program. This program includes tailored resources for sport organizations, coaches, officials, parents and volunteers to promote awareness about boundaries and best practices for keeping sport safe and fun for kids.

How do we know a female athlete’s energy availability is in a good place? Until recently, menstrual cycle patterns were touted as one of the main indicators of energy availability status in female athletes. So, what has changed? Menstrual cycle patterns remain an important element in understanding energy availability status, with missed menstrual cycles ringing...

Exertional heat illness (EHI) is heat illness experienced during physical activity. It first presents as symptoms that only a participant will be able to detect, like headache or nausea. It takes the organs and the skin a longer amount of time to reset after a heat episode so it is especially important that if EHI...

While Canadians are used to severe winter weather, 9 of the 10 warmest years on record in Canada have occurred in the last 25 years. This has real world implications for outdoor sport events. For example, even the best triathletes in the world struggled with the extreme heat in Edmonton in July of last year,...