Coaching – Keeping Sport Fun for All

We all know how much sport can offer kids; we've got numerous research studies along with our personal experiences to back it up. Research also shows us that most sport participation rates peak at 13 years old and then continuously drop throughout the teenage years. While many factors contribute to this drop off, a significant area worth exploring is the element of fun in sport , what coaches can...Read more

Why do girls need athletic role models?

When role models are mentioned in sport, the first thing that comes to mind are high profile celebrities. While positive role models can be found in amateur and professional sports, it's the people they see every day that make the biggest difference. Parents, coaches, teachers or even older siblings often have a profound effect on a young girl and how they view themselves and their chosen sport...Read more

SIRC at the 2015 Canadian Sport for Life National Summit

The Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) National Summit will be taking place from January 27-29, 2015 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy hotel in Gatineau-Ottawa and brings together leaders to enhance the quality of sport and physical activity in Canada. What’s the conversation about this year? Overview of Aboriginal Sport for Life – Long-Term Participant Development Connecting the Dots between Policy and...Read more

Use Your Head ... Safely!

Concussion awareness and prevention has been a rising issue throughout the sports world in recent years. Particular attention is being paid to head injury in youth sports and its lasting effects as children get older. For the game of soccer, this means addressing the necessity of ‘heading’ in youth divisions. Heading in soccer occurs when a player uses their head to alter and control the...Read more

Ontario Winter Games

While Canada’s winter Olympians have just finished competing in Sochi and our Paralympians on their way, this week it is the future of Canadian sport that will be on display in Muskoka, Ontario. From February 27th till March 2nd Ontario’s young athletes will be competing in a combination of indoor, outdoor, and para sports at the Ontario Winter Games . Starting in 1970 and taking place every two...Read more

What is Physical Literacy?

by Leigh Cove Algonquin College Sport Business Management Intern Muscle memory is a well-known term in active living and sport. The idea that once you have learned something and practiced it, your muscles will begin to move with the pattern of the motions each time you use them until those patterns become natural. Physical literacy takes this idea and applies it to the learning and development of...Read more

West Ottawa Soccer U14 Girls Heading to Nicaragua - July 4-13

Six local youth and their support team are off to Nicaragua this week to complete a project for SchoolBOX , a Canadian charity whose mission is to make education possible for those who can’t afford it. The team is part of the West Ottawa Soccer Club (WOSC) , which is an organization that encourages its athletes to give back to their community. During their ten day stay, they will be helping to...Read more

Parental support in youth sports

Youth sport is a social system that involves children, peers, coaches, and parents, all of whom influence the development of a child's values, attitudes, social relationships and motivation to participate. When parents sign up their child for a sport, they want to support their child but also want to see them succeed. So, as a parent how do you walk the fine line between being involved and being...Read more

Coaching: How to deal with life’s littlest challenges!

Children are encouraged to participate in sport because physical activity and play can be a great outlet to help the body get out excess energy and release endorphins. Children will test, explore their environment, and act impulsively sometimes but as a coach it's important to be able to recognize when there is a problem more significant than normal development . If you have a challenging child...Read more

Talent Identification

SIRC Newsletter now available online: Talent Identification The process of detecting, identifying, and selecting talent is an enormous and difficult challenge that has long been discussed by National Sport Organizations, coaches and sport science experts, among others. Currently, the majority of organizations have talent identification or talent emergence programs in place, with all of them...Read more