Risks of Early Specialization

The sport sector has been abuzz about the potential risks of early specialization, including physical injury, athlete burnout, and dropout from sport. However, the link between early specialization and burnout is not well supported by the evidence. Research from the University of Alberta discovered coaches can help avoid burnout and dropout by supporting athletes’ sense…

Psychological Skills and Overuse Injury

Research from a sample of elite youth tennis players in the Netherlands showed that girls with low to moderate self-regulation skills (i.e. planning, self-monitoring, evaluation and reflection) were 10.8 times more likely to miss training or competition due to overuse injuries. Although this is a new area of inquiry, evidence to date suggests that improving…

Small-sided Games and Goalies

Under the age of 12, Soccer Canada’s Long-Term Player Development (LTPD) model is built around small-sided games. A large body of research has demonstrated the benefits of this approach for players’ skills and confidence. However, little was known about the affects for goalies – until now. A new study has shown that goalies have more…

Athletes and Depression

Research exploring elite athletes’ experiences of clinical depression sheds light on symptoms that may be unique to high performance sport, including demotivation, drops in performance, and risk-taking behaviours. Stigma surrounding mental illness may delay the time it takes for athletes to seek help, but an understanding of these symptoms could help reduce the time to…

Athlete Burnout and Early Specialization

Research from the University of Alberta discovered athlete burnout may have more to do with the social environment than early specialization. Athlete burnout depends on many factors, including opportunities to participate in other sport and non-sport activities, confidence and engagement in skill building, the nature of relationships with coaches and teammates, and having a choice…

Mother’s Day 2019

Parents and caregivers can have a deep and meaningful impact on the development of a child’s physical literacy. To celebrate Mother’s Day this weekend, this Active for Life blog shares insights from elite Canadian athletes about their mother’s influence on their athletic journey.

Developing Executive Functions and Social Emotional Learning Through Sport

This blog was adapted from a SIRCuit article written by Dr. Vicki Harber. For the full article, click here. Within Canada, there is some concern that an ethos of “winning at all costs” has infiltrated youth sport, degrading the quality of the sport experience resulting in reduced participation (Brenner, 2016) and increased injury (Jayanthi et…

Life Skills Blog

A focus on winning at all costs has created sport programs in which building psychological, cognitive, social and emotional skills are largely ignored, yet these are essential ingredients for successful high performance athletes. Today’s blog provides an overview of the development of executive functions and social and emotional learning through sport.

Concussion Risks in Your Sport May be Greater Than You Think

For the athletes in this sport, the concussion risks are real even if brain injuries are rare. It may sound a bit counter-intuitive, but for Canoe Kayak Canada (CKC), concussion education has become a key part of its safety program for a simple, but critically important reason. “Just because we don’t see many concussions in…

Pitching Policies

Excessive pitching is one of the main risk factors for shoulder and elbow injuries among adolescent baseball pitchers. While some organizations have policies in place that limit the number of innings or pitches, these policies may not consider the additional pitches in the bullpen or during warm-up.