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

Adolescence is an important period of physical growth and the development of one’s relationship with food. Researchers assert that those providing nutritional advice to adolescent athletes should emphasize sustainable long-term health and avoid a focus on body composition, which can contribute to the development of disordered eating practices or low energy availability. Adolescent athletes need a balance of macro- and micronutrients to support training and growth.

The Canadian Disability Participation Project has created Canada’s first ever disability report card that summarizes physical activity data for youth with disabilities. Key findings included the need to prioritize youth with disabilities in policy and funding, improve monitoring, remove ableism for existing benchmarks, and address measurement gaps.

Sport and physical activity research can get stuck sitting in the pages of academic journals. Integrated knowledge translation is one way to make sure that doesn’t happen! Integrated knowledge translation involves meaningful collaboration between researchers and knowledge users to help bridge the gap between research and practice.

A team’s success depends on how well each athlete understands and performs their role. To create a sustainable winning culture, coaches must give each team member, from starters to bench players, a set of behaviours that can become personally meaningful. Learn more about how to establish and communicate role expectations in the SIRC blog.

Interval training consists of repeated high-intensity exercise, lasting from seconds to minutes, followed by a recovery period. Common forms of interval training include high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and sprint interval training (SIT). Read more about how HIIT and SIT can produce greater improvements in a person’s physiology than longer duration, low or moderate intensity exercises in the SIRC blog.

Physical activity improves physical health in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) while also developing social and communication skills. Research shows that adolescents with ASD are 60% less likely to participate in physical activity and 74% less likely to participate in organized sport compared to age-related peers. Creating policies and practices specific to the needs of adolescents with ASD can further promote their participation and overall wellbeing.

A role outlines the specific behaviours that are expected of an individual to achieve established team goals. On a team, each role should interact seamlessly to help the team reach its untapped potential. Members will perform better individually when they understand their role, and role clarity sets the stage for team success.

Sports-related injuries among youth are on the rise. According to research, declining physical literacy levels put youth at an increased risk for preventable injuries. Resistance training for youth can help prevent against sports-related injuries and improve physical literacy levels.

Physical literacy provides youth with the fundamental movement skills to engage in all types of sport and physical activity. It also helps to build self-image, self-concept and self-efficacy. Giving youth the right skills to enjoy movement for the long-term helps them come back and sustain their motivation to participate in sport and physical activity throughout their life.

The loosening of COVID‑19 pandemic restrictions on sport and physical activity presents a unique opportunity to dramatically change how we engage young people in sport and physical activity. Pre-pandemic sport participation was marred by high dropout rates among girls and young women, youth from low-income households, and teenagers in general.

Recent reports suggest that this dropout problem persists and may be worsened by the pandemic: Canadian Women & Sport’s COVID Alert Report suggests that as many 1 in 4 girls and young women do not plan to return to sport. Meanwhile, MLSE Foundation’s Change the Game Research Report found that a third of girls were less interested in sports in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic.

What can we do to change this trajectory to keep youth engaged long-term? This question requires a multi-part solution. One of those parts is to address long-term engagement by placing greater focus on opportunities that intentionally build physical literacy.

Physical literacy is “the confidence, competence, knowledge and motivation to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activity for life.” Physical literacy doesn’t have the same collective recognition that reading, financial, or digital literacy do. Yet, it deserves its moment in the sun.

Children in gymnasium playingAt MLSE LaunchPad and Canada’s National Ballet School (NBS), physical literacy is an essential component of programming for people of all ages, from as young as age 6 well into adulthood. Recently we talked with MLSE LaunchPad and NBS staff about the importance of physical literacy and why it should be a bigger focus in the way we return to sport. Each contributor brought a unique perspective to the conversation, from research to coaching to movement outside of traditional sport settings. Contributors include:

The summary is adapted from a larger discussion. To find out all that was shared in that discussion, access The Power of Physical Literacy podcast.

It can be hard to translate the textbook definition of physical literacy into a real-world context. What does physical literacy mean from your perspective?

JR: Physical literacy means you have that motivation and that confidence in movement. You want to move and have the physical ability to move.

KO: Physical literacy is the foundation we set for engaging in sport. At MLSE LaunchPad, we build fundamental movement skills (like hopping, skipping, and jumping) through fun, and these become the building blocks of any physical activity you might want to do later in life. 

AP: Physical literacy is about our journey [toward] being physical at many different ages and stages, different kinds of abilities, and that we all have the right to learn through and within movement. It’s the agency that our body has. It’s the way we learn. It’s often the way we communicate.

Why is physical literacy important?

Child in gymnasium jumpingAP: As we’re using fundamental movement skills to scaffold people’s learning, we’re giving them successes along the journey so that there’s that opportunity to feel like you accomplished something, you learned something. And, if you move from accomplishment to accomplishment, you can build that capacity. And I think that connects to people’s self-image, self-concept, self-efficacy, because those little wins along the way are what develop[s] and sustain[s] that motivation. There’s so much that we can offer to young people by giving them that confidence early.

KO: I see that as a coach. We have a lot of youth who are really motivated to build their skills, and we want to help them sustain that motivation. Bringing the fun as they progress keeps them coming back. We want youth to have opportunities to be active outside a set structure.

JR: The importance of physical literacy comes down to engagement in physical activity. Youth [who] engage in sport are more likely to graduate from high school, are more likely to achieve employment. Physical literacy is not just when I’m in basketball, physical literacy is life. Make it fun to find those things like hopscotch, or when you were a kid and didn’t want to step on the cracks when you were walking the sidewalk. That’s an example of ways you can incorporate those basic fundamental movements that really build into larger competencies down [the] line.

How can physical literacy help us understand why youth play as well as why some stop playing?

Children in gymnasium running

AP: Measurement matters. We can make assumptions all the time about why a kid isn’t participating.  And when we dig deeper, when we ask hard questions, when we look for evidence to support what we’re doing, I think we become better providers of this kind of opportunity to be physical, whether it’s physical activity, sports, physical literacy, dance, all of it has to be done with integrity and intention.  And I think physical literacy provides a framework for that.

KO: Even on the coaching side, I want that feedback. If I’m not doing a good job, what am I doing wrong that’s making this kid not come back or making this kid not have this great experience? It definitely holds all of us accountable, and it keeps us going.

JR: I think physical literacy shifts the blame of youth dropout from youth back onto program providers, sport organizations, coaches, everyone involved in the sport or physical activity [environment]. There’s no denying that youth want to be involved in sport, but there’s something about the system that’s not responsive to them. We’re not giving them the right skills to enjoy movement for long term [and] to want to come back.

Discussion wrap-up

You can help youth rebound from the pandemic’s negative effects. Provide youth with evidence-based sport and physical activity opportunities, specifically ones that intentionally support the development of physical literacy. Focus on activities that are fun, spark creativity in movement and are challenging yet accomplishable. Such activities welcome youth back to the playing field and hold promise for keeping them engaged in the long-term.

Interested in learning more about how physical literacy supports ongoing physical activity in youth? MLSE LaunchPad has released the results of its 2-year longitudinal study, The Power of Physical Literacy. The study explores important relationships between physical literacy and physical activity. MLSE LaunchPad also published a paper detailing a successful physical literacy intervention delivered to 6-year-old to 10-year-old youth. To access the report, the paper and the full conversation (podcast), please visit www.mlsefoundation.org/how-we-give/research.