Supporting the Psychological Wellbeing of Athletes: What Can Coaches do?
There has recently been an increasing number of athletes bravely coming forward to share their stories about the psychological distress and associated mental health challenges they experienced during their athletic careers (e.g., Michael Phelps, Gracie Gold, and Demar Derozan). Athletes are not immune to experiencing psychological distress and rates of mental illness among athletes are…
Spring 2020 SIRCuit
Check out the Spring SIRCuit! This collection of articles, provides timely and relevant research and insights relating to leadership, athlete development, and high performance sport: The Role of Nutrition in Sub-Concussion Injury Protection Engaging Youth in Evaluation Processes An Official’s Journey to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Supporting the Psychological Wellbeing of Athletes: What can Coaches…
Moneyball
Data analytics gave the Oakland A’s a competitive advantage…until the Moneyball book and film were released. The use of data analytics has since spread throughout the sport world, negatively impacting the A’s advantage. Researchers from the University of Toronto advise, “If you have a built-in advantage, don’t ever talk about it.”
Canadian Paralympic Committee Research
“Within Swimming Canada’s Paralympic Program, we take a two-pronged approach to research, tackling the challenges that can help our swimmers and coaches in Tokyo while at the same time looking for answers to enhance and strengthen our system for the long term.” – Wayne Lomas, Swimming Canada. Learn how the Canadian Paralympic Committee is working…
The Social Determinants of Athletes’ Health: Understanding the Relationship Between Health and High Performance Sport
Project Summary Researchers are beginning to pay greater attention to the connections and contradictions between sport, health and healthcare. Despite the conventional wisdom that greater participation in sport and physical activity enhances health and the quality of life, more and more evidence points to the ways in which sport participation is not always healthful or…
Gatineau Loppet
The Gatineau Loppet is the biggest international cross-country ski event in Canada, and one of the 20 biggest cross-country ski races around the world! The event engages close to 2,500 recreational and elite athletes through 8 cross-country ski races, 3 snowshoe races, and 3 fat bike races. The 42nd edition of the Loppet will take…
Status Momentum
A study of 117,000 professional tennis matches and 5 million observations in online amateur chess found that even when competitors are evenly matched, players perform worse against an opponent they know has been climbing in rank. Dubbed “status momentum,” a positive trend in an opponent’s ranking can be threatening for athletes, even for seasoned pros…
Speed Skating Tech
Canada’s long-track speed skaters debuted a suit thought to give a competitive advantage during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. While some research has shown up to a 10% reduction in aerodynamic drag with high-tech suits, other novel designs have produced limited effect. See what Canada’s top athletes are wearing at the ISU World Cup Speed…
Examining Positive Youth Development in Elite Sport Contexts Using Photo Elicitation
Project Summary Previous research in the field of positive youth development has highlighted the importance of extracurricular activities, such as sport, in developing healthy youth (Larson, 2000, Petitpas et al., 2005). Further, the National Research Council Institute of Medicine (NRIM, 2002) have suggested eight setting features that are critical to the growth of positive young…
Super Bowl LIV
The NFL Orthopaedic Surgery Outcomes Database compares return-to-play rates and performance-based outcomes amongst NFL players who had orthopaedic surgery. Trends show players who undergo surgical procedures for tendon injuries experience a worse career trajectory than players who have surgery to fix fractures and sports hernia.