Team selection

Whether people are baseball fanatics or just Brad Pitt fans, they’ve most likely seen the film Moneyball. It’s based on the true story of the Oakland A’s, a Major League Baseball team that changed sport recruitment by using statistics to scout talent, choose players, and establish a winning team. But it takes more than statistics…

Shoe tech decreases marathon times

Technology is rapidly changing the sporting landscape. A recent study showed that advances in footwear technology since 2017 have significantly improved seasonal best times for distance runners. New shoe technology is responsible for a 1.7% performance increase in women’s marathon time (approximately 2 minutes, 10 seconds).

Data overload

Sport organizations produce more data than most organizations, ranging from athlete training and performance tracking to memberships and participation data. But how often is this data used to inform decision-making? Learn more about how Row Ontario is using existing data to inform decisions that will help to grow the sport in the SIRC Blog.

Building partnerships

With limited resources for research initiatives, partnering with external research or community groups can increase a sport organization’s capacity to conduct concussion injury prevention work. Developing initiatives with these partners, such as universities and hospitals, can help sport organizations gain access to trained staff capable of taking on some of the research burden.

Race pacing for triathletes

Most triathletes use a “positive” pacing strategy, where they gradually decrease their speed as the race progresses. However, research shows that starting slower or staying at a constant speed leads to better results. By adopting a more conservative pacing strategy, triathletes and coaches can improve race performance.

Making evaluation meaningful

“I think that sport has unique evaluation opportunities in that you can measure things like confidence. You might not spot that change in confidence unless you measure these skills at baseline and share that information with the kids.” In the SIRC blog, Chris Penrose, Director of Programs and Operations of Lay-Up Youth Basketball, discusses how…

Evidence-based changes

To be effective, strategies to reduce the risk of concussion should be both targeted and sport-specific. Sport-specific knowledge about how concussions occur and where the highest risks exist will help sport organizations develop effective strategies. After a new strategy is introduced, ongoing re-evaluation and data collection is vital for assessing its success and impact.

Spring 2022 SIRCuit

The Spring 2022 SIRCuit is now available! The SIRCuit is designed to highlight important research and insights to advance the Canadian sport system. With the Canadian Sport Policy set to be renewed in 2023, this is the first of a 2-part SIRCuit edition exploring the future of sport of Canada. In this edition, sport and…

The Canadian sport and physical activity community identifies topics for researchers to prioritize 

Highlights  Until recently, a typical research process would include generating ideas or research questions, gathering and analyzing data to test hypotheses, publishing the results in scientific journals and anticipating that the findings would be adopted or applied in the “real world.” Then, this cycle would repeat, replacing old questions with new lines of inquiry.   True, this outdated…

Signals versus noise: Gender equity in Canadian sport

Highlights The Government of Canada is committed to achieving gender equity in sport at all levels by 2035. Ongoing research has demonstrated the majority (over 90%) of Canada’s sport’s media coverage is focused solely on men’s sport, and that women and girls have lower sport participation rates than men. This article provides an overview of women and…