Use double quotes to find documents that include the exact phrase: "aerodynamic AND testing"

In the newest SIRCTalks episode, Dr. Nicole LaVoi, Director of The Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, discusses the importance of using data and evidence to facilitate social change. Watch the episode here.

SIRCTalks is an exciting new series of SIRC videos and podcasts profiling innovative areas of sport research. Some of the latest episodes feature insight from Dr. Joe Baker (York University) on athlete development, Dr. Tara-Leigh McHugh (University of Alberta) on the effect of major games on indigenous youth, and Mike Bara (Hockey Canada) on using research to inform injury prevention. Click here for more episodes.

SIRC Knowledge Nuggets are now “on the air”! In partnership with Bell Media, SIRC is testing the delivery of sport research through radio ads. The pilot campaign began this week, running ads in Ottawa through TSN 1200 radio. Read SIRC’s press release for further details!

SIRC is connecting researchers and national sport organizations through a new grant program supporting collaborative research projects. With funding from Sport Canada, ten grants of $2,500 are available. For details on funding, expectations of applicants, evaluation criteria and more, visit SIRC’s website. The deadline for submissions is November 29, 2019. Contact SIRC for assistance making a match!

It’s a potent mix: dangerous flips and twists performed by young, boundary-pushing athletes who revel in the sport’s free-spirited culture.

More than most sports, concussions are a day-to-day, moment-to-moment risk for the freestyle skiing community. The five demanding disciplines – Aerials, Moguls, Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Big Air – put athletes in dangerous situations, hurtling down hair-raising mogul runs or twisting above metal rails and jumps.

“What makes it even more challenging is the sort of care-free culture in our sport,” adds Julie Steggall, former Winter Olympian who now serves as Director of High Performance, Slopestyle-Big Air & Halfpipe for Freestyle Canada. “We tend to attract creative athletes with a drive to try what hasn’t been tried before. They don’t necessarily weigh all the risks before they attempt a new trick or link a tougher run.”

In an effort to better protect their athletes from head injuries, Steggall says that education and awareness have been a high priority for years. Freestyle Canada was one of the first sports to embrace the “Making Head Way” module offered by the Coaching Association of Canada through the National Coaching Certification Program. In fact, they designed their own version of the module for Freestyle Skiing, which is mandatory for all coaches and on-the-ground officials.

Concussion-related resources, including policies, protocols, tools and other materials, are prominently displayed within Freestyle Canada’s online Resource Centre.

More recently, Freestyle has adopted what Steggall describes as “a combination of hard goods and soft goods solutions” to further protect their athletes from brain injuries.

On the hard goods side, there are investments in large airbags that provide a safer landing space for high performance athletes working on new skills. A change to a softer, rugby style helmet is also helping to cushion the blow if an athlete makes head contact with the airbag.

The soft goods solution involves a program called HeadStartPro. Courses are designed to stregthen the “wiring” in the minds of the athletes who are learning how to enhance performance and avoid injuries through better focus, awareness and mindfulness. When athletes are more aware of their state of mind – particularly if they’re frustrated, tired, rushed or complacent – they can make mental adjustments to prevent an injury before it happens.

“We’ve seen teams and sport academies reduce injuries by 30%-80% in the years they did our training,” says Mike Shaw, co-founder of the program, who was told he would likely never walk again after a catastrophic ski accident in 2013 left him temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. “What makes it resonate with the athletes is that the stronger mental approach means more than injury prevention – they’re performing better as well.”

Steggall was one of the featured speakers at a recent Concussion Prevention Workshop in Ottawa, hosted by Sport Canada and the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC). The SIRC website has become the “go to” hub for concussion-related research, tips and tools. It features the latest Canadian and international research as well as a suite of templates and sample products to help sport organizations at any level.

At the heart of SIRC’s awareness efforts are the “4 Rs” of concussion management that give clear direction to everyone involved in sport – 1) Recognize the signs and symptoms of a concussion; 2) Remove the athlete from the game or practice; 3) Refer the athlete to a healthcare professional; and 4) Return to school and then to sport based on the recommendations of a physician.

At Freestyle Canada, concussion prevention is a day-to-day preoccupation. Steggall says staff are constantly looking for ways to reduce the risks so athletes have every opportunity to attempt that next big trick safely and mindfully.

The Fall SIRCuit is now available! Check out our newest collection of articles, providing timely and relevant research and insights relating to leadership, athlete development, and high performance sport:

Browse previous SIRCuit articles here.

In this day and age, everything is at our fingertips. However, the investigation of complex behaviours is still a process that takes time. The intricate nature of sport and physical activity behaviour, especially amongst children and adolescents, is an area that many Canadian policy makers, administrators and other sport system stakeholders are trying to better understand, whether to influence health outcomes or bolster club registration. Longitudinal research plays an important role in understanding the factors that influence these changes to inform policy and practice and provoke behavioural change.

Happy students walking together in campus, having breakLarge cross-sectional studies like the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study and the Canadian Health Measures Survey (Carson, Tremblay, Chaput, & Chastin, 2016; Haug, Torsheim, & Samdal, 2008) provide representative snap shots of the level of sport and physical activity participation for a population. This kind of research can measure many variables and compare different groups within a large population at a single point in time. However, they lack the ability to establish sequences of events.

In contrast, longitudinal studies allow us to observe behavioural changes and identify various patterns over time, in this case relating to sport and physical activity participation. They provide unique insight on how behaviours are affected by lifetime transitions such as changing schools, puberty and changes in social circles. Because longitudinal studies follow the same individuals over time, they are able to detect developments at both the group and individual level, as well as identify factors and outcomes linked to different sport and physical activity participation patterns. For example, children can be highly active for a few years and then suddenly drop-out as adolescents. Longitudinal studies enable us to precisely know when dropouts occur as well as explore why. Understanding what influences sport and physical activity behaviours supports the development of programming tailored to the needs of each community, school or sport club.

WHAT IS THE MATCH STUDY?

The Monitoring Activities of Teenagers to Comprehend their Habits (MATCH) study is unique in the world (Bélanger et al., 2013). It followed nearly 1,000 children for eight years, from ages 10 to 17. Participants completed questionnaires administered three times per year about their level of participation in specific sports and physical activities, associated motives, and key influences including screen time, sleep, barriers to participation, and life events.

MATCH recently completed its 24th and final survey cycle in June 2019. Since 2011, it has provided a foundation for insight into the determinants of sport and physical activity participation as well as factors that influence these behaviours. To date, MATCH results were the subject of six graduate student theses, 20 published or under review manuscripts, and 60 presentations at academic conferences. Analyses are still ongoing, but some of the key findings areas are summarized below:

SPORT AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION FROM CHILDHOOD TO LATE ADOLESCENCE

Côté’s Developmental Model of Sport Participation states that children as young as 10 years old can be categorized in three different sport participation profiles:

MATCH data has strengthened this model by developing operational definitions of sport participation profiles to allow documentation of the natural course of participants within these profiles from the age of 10 to 15 (Gallant, O’Loughlin, Brunet, Sabiston, & Bélanger, 2017). The results show that children who did not participate in sport before the age of 12 are almost 3 times more likely to be non-participants in sports later in adolescence. Also, children who participated in a wide variety of sports before the age of 12 (sport samplers) were more likely to pursue sport participation in their adolescent years. In contrast, those who specialized in one sport were at greater risk of dropping out of sport later on. These results are in line with growing evidence on the value of multi-sport participation for sustained physical activity practices, underscoring the pressing need for parents, coaches and other youth sport leaders to encourage participation in a variety of sports and physical activities. The evidence also support recent initiatives and programs promoting a multisport approach, such as the Play More Sports initiative.

Additionally, early analyses of MATCH data revealed that the order of importance of motives for taking part in sport and physical activity among study participants are as follows (Goguen Carpenter et al., 2017).

However, further analyses of MATCH data found that although enjoyment motives positively influence girls’ sport participation during childhood, it was not linked to the maintenance of sport participation into adolescence. In contrast, competence motives positively influence girls’ sport participation throughout childhood and adolescence. Among boys, fitness motives negatively influenced sport participation during childhood and adolescence, whereas enjoyment motives positively influenced their sport participation from childhood to adolescence (Abi Nader et al. paper under review). These findings confirm the importance of tailoring programs to retain specific population groups in sport. In particular, MATCH results suggest that coaches, teachers and program developers should prioritize making activities fun and stimulating, providing skill development opportunities, and offering realistic and attainable challenges.

INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS ON PARTICIPATION

MATCH researchers found that active commuting environments (presence of sidewalks, bike racks, crossing guards, etc.) helped children be more active (Ward et al., 2015). This is consistent with another MATCH analysis, which documented that teenagers who commute actively to school (walking, biking, skateboarding, etc.) or commute using mixed methods (active and motorized transport) report higher physical activity levels than teenagers who get to school inactively (Larouche, Gunnell, & Bélanger, 2018). However, this same study revealed that actively commuting to school is affected by the seasons, with active commuting decreasing during the colder months. Initiatives such as a “Winter walk or bike to school week” aiming to increase active transportation during winter months would be beneficial in maintaining physical activity levels among teenagers.

With regards to the social environment, MATCH data indicates that when parents support and facilitate adolescents’ participation by registering them in sports, driving them to practices and encouraging them verbally, adolescents are more likely to enjoy physical activity (Wing, Bélanger, & Brunet, 2016). Other MATCH analyses also demonstrated that youth with at least one parent who participates in group-based sports are more likely to maintain long-term participation in group-based sports (Brunet, Gaudet, Wing, & Bélanger, 2017). Interestingly, teenagers’ sustained participation in individual-based sports was not associated with parents’ sport participation.

BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION

Dropping out of sports and physical activities is an unfortunate characteristic of adolescence for most people. This period is also marked by emergence of life stressors.  MATCH findings revealed that the occurrence of life stressors often results in increases in levels of participation in unorganized sports and physical activities (home exercises, skipping rope, trampoline), suggesting that these activities may represent a coping strategy to deal with experiences such as breakups, grievance and low parental support. (Abi Nader, Ward, Eltonsy, & Bélanger, 2018). Given only about 1/3 of Canadian youth participate in unorganized sport regularly, many may be missing out on what appears to be a mechanism to deal with life stress (Barnes et al., 2016).

MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION

MATCH researchers found that at least two years of participation in sport sampling before the age of 12 is associated with better self-reported mental health during adolescence, and that those who did not participate in sport were less likely to experience positive mental health (Doré et al., 2019). Furthermore, participation in both recreational and performance sport during childhood and adolescence is positively associated with positive mental health in late adolescence. On a related topic, MATCH data helped clarify that spending time outdoors is beneficial to mental health because it represents a venue for participation in physical activity. Therefore, the mental health benefits associated with outdoor time appear largely attributable to physical activity (Bélanger et al. paper under review).

Aristotle said “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”. Psychological theories suggest that humans need to satisfy psychological needs to live a happy life. Specifically, the Self-Determination Theory states that in order to be happy one needs to have positive social interactions as well as positive feelings of competence and finally, feelings of autonomy such as being able to do what you want when you want (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Results from the MATCH study support this by demonstrating that the more adolescents reported having positive social interactions during sports and physical activity as well as positive feelings of competence and autonomy, the more they were to be active. Furthermore, when physical activity increases as a result of better satisfaction of these psychological needs, quality of life improves (Brunet, Gunnell, Teixeira, Sabiston, & Bélanger, 2016; Gunnell, Bélanger, & Brunet, 2016; Gunnell, Brunet, Sabiston, & Bélanger, 2016).

HOW CAN RESEARCH HELP INFORM POLICY AND PRACTICE?

Longitudinal studies such as MATCH are uniquely designed to document long-term patterns of sport and physical activity participation. Understanding the correlations between childhood participation patterns and those in adolescence, and the impact of life transitions and stressors on participation, can inform policies and programs aimed at increasing and maintaining participation in sport. These range from promotion of a multisport approach in childhood sport programming, to promoting unorganized sport and physical activity as a way for adolescents to manage stress, to program design based on skill development in fun, social environments. Government departments, education institutions, parent groups, sport and physical activity organizations, and communities can all be potential users of the findings.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR MATCH?

Although the MATCH study completed its last survey cycle in June 2019, analysis of the data collected over the last eight years has only just begun. Completed theses, manuscripts and presentations have only scratched the surface of what the MATCH data can help us discover about the intricacies of sport and physical activity participation. This fall, MATCH is hosting a workshop event entitled: “How do we win the MATCH?” where MATCH researchers will meet with key partners and knowledge mobilizers. This event will serve as a springboard for the mobilization of MATCH findings as well as planning future sport and physical activity research.

 RESOURCES

For more information about the MATCH project, visit our website or check out these two videos  – one explaining the MATCH project, the other highlighting MATCH results.

SIRC is connecting researchers and national sport organizations through a new grant program supporting collaborative research projects. With funding from Sport Canada, ten grants of $2,500 are available. The deadline for submissions is November 29, 2019. For details on funding priorities, applicant expectations, evaluation criteria and more, visit SIRC’s website.

Worried about what you missed at the SCRI Conference yesterday? Check out SIRC’s Facebook page for the live stream of today’s presentations.