Athlete Perspective: How to manage social media during competition
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. While social media can have many positive uses for athletes, such as interacting with fans, creating a brand, and providing value…
Curling Brush Head Technology
In 2016, after a season of controversy, the World Curling Federation (WCF) and Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) investigated the effects of curling brush head technology on ice surfaces and their potential effects on where stones come to rest. During three days of testing, the NRC’s ice and materials technologies experts analyzed various manufacturers’ broom…
Skating Ice
Whether you’re skating on the historic Rideau Canal or your local pond, ice skating is a Canadian tradition. Learn more about the process of ice formation and creating the ideal surface for skating on the Rideau Canal in this blog by the National Capital Commission.
3D Food Printing
Coming soon to your kitchen counter – a 3D food printer? Three-dimensional (3D) printing, or additive manufacturing, involves the use of automated robotics to sequentially layer materials in a precise manner to produce geometrically complex objects. For athletes, this could be a strategy to deliver foods with exact concentrations of nutrients to enhance performance. Though…
Introduction to eSports
Whether or not you believe that eSports, or competitive video gaming, is a real sport or that gamers are athletes, its popularity and how it is being developed within the sport industry can not be ignored. For some amateur sport organizations, eSports may be seen as a competitor to traditional sports. However, it may also…
Moisture-Wicking Athletic Apparel: A Matter of Style or Performance?
Moisture-wicking clothes act to keep athletes cool and dry. Because exercising in the heat can have a severe impact on physical fatigue, companies promote their moisture-wicking products as the difference-maker in these conditions. However, there has yet to be an independent, peer-reviewed study that conclusively demonstrates that performance apparel improves our thermoregulation and performance. How…
Remote vs Onsite Employees: Challenging the notion that one size fits all
Workplaces have changed and provided more employee options over the last few year both in physical space design, the flexibility in hours employers provide, and the options to work from offsite or on. These changes are in response to employers trying to create the most productive work environment for their employees and to satisfy the…
Concussions … Together We Can Make a Difference
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 communications around important announcements in the conversation around concussion in sport. Learnings show: Analytics help…
The Implications of Screen Time for Young Children
In June, the Canadian Paediatric Society released new screen time guidelines for children under 5 years old. A child’s first experiences with screens can be habit-forming, with lasting implications. While there are potential benefits associated with mindful screen use among children, excessive screen time can present risks for development, psychosocial skills, and physical health. Parents…
Fitness Trackers and Counting Steps: Marketing Ploy or Health Tool?
Fitness trackers have become increasingly popular among both people who are new to exercise, and those who have been long-time athletes. Current wrist-worn trackers can function as watches, heart rate monitors, sleep trackers, calorie counters, GPSs, and even as phones, opening up a market that seems inconceivably far from the original pedometer. However, the 10,…