Feel Great this Winter!

Check out the lastest SIRC Newsletter -Feel Great this Winter!

Now that the holiday season has come to a close we look ahead to the enjoyment of winter time activities over the next few months. We all know the physical benefits of exercise but did you know that exercise and physical activity have been proven to have a positive impact on mental and emotional health? Although any type of physical activity is good, aerobic exercise is generally the most recommended. So the next time you need an energy boost, why not lace up your shoes and get moving!

http://sirc.ca/newsletters/mid-jan10/index.html

Toronto Info Session a Great Success!

On January 28th the Toronto Regional Office of SIRC held an information session for SIRC members who were interested in learning how to better work with the SIRC Collection and SIRC Services to help them and their organization. We had a full house with representatives from a variety of organizations including the Ontario Badminton Association, Ontario Basketball Association, ParaSport Ontario, Cricket Canada, the Ontario Association of Triathletes, ROWONTARIO , the Sport Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Ringette Association.
Attendees learned how to post jobs on the SIRC Career Page , advertise conferences and events on the Conference Calendar and submit a press release to the Press Release service.
Following this Amanda Street-Bishop and Brandie Adams, SIRC’s Information Specialists, led the group through the members’ area including a tutorial on the SportDiscus™ Database. The group was interested in finding articles on topics ranging from Sponsorship to Injury Prevention.

Armed with the knowledge of how to search the SIRC Collection, the session then moved on to the hands on portion. Attendees completed a scavenger hunt through the various SIRC Resources. Congratulations to Stephanie Wade of Triathlon Canada, Rebecca Norton of Coaches of Canada, Lizze McArdle of Sport4Ontario and Matt Kennedy of the Ontario Blind Sports Association who won our scavenger hunt competition.

Thanks to everyone that attended including some new members to SIRC: Christopher Lowcock of the Ontario Disc Sports Association and Chloe Greenhalgh of Dragon Boat Canada.

Are Wii active?

A lot of us have taken advantage of the revolution in gaming technology and gotten hooked in to the latest interactive video games. These game consoles are a hit with young and old alike, with everything from tennis to dancing, we can all find an interactive sport application to enjoy.

Did you know:

• A study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s Annual Meeting 2009 showed that Nintendo Wii’s Bowling significantly increased heart rate, boosted mood and helped older-adult participants feel refreshed and energized.
• Another study showed that time spent playing motion and gesture controlled video games can count towards the daily amount of exercise required to maintain cardiovascular fitness according to guidelines provided by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), provided they are played in an active fashion.
• Research also shows that children can benefit from the new home gaming technology as well. Studies suggest that engaging in these physically active games requires more than twice the energy of traditional video games and raises children’s activity levels enough to meet guidelines for moderate-intensity activity.

The SIRC collection contains a variety of studies examining how physically interactive games can help get people of all ages get up and moving. Check some out today!

Getting kids active!

So we’ve made the commitment to get ourselves healthy and active in the new year … but what about our kids? The good news is that the number of Canadian children who are active is on the rise; however there is much work still to be done.

ParticipACTION has compiled the latest facts and stats on the state of physical activity and inactivity for children in Canada. With physical activity pegged as a potential solution to the increase in health care spending to treat chronic diseases associated with obesity, we know that helping kids get more active is:

• Better for their physical health
• Better for their academic achievement (Article 1)
• Better for their emotional well-being

There are many resources available to help you in the quest to get your kids more active and SIRC is happy to have compiled a few to get you stared:

• Kids in Motion Stay in Motion. Includes examples of innovative exercise and weight management programs for children. (Article 2)
• Outdoor Winter Activities. Listings of a variety of activities that you can do with your kids to up the activity level. Also included are lists of other activities that can be done in warmer weather and with different populations.
• Winter Olympic Activities for Kids. Athletics, Games and Cold Weather Sports for Children. Adapt your favorite activities to make your own Olympic Games.
• Backyard Olympics. To beat the February blahs and get moving try a few of these events for your own homegrown Olympics.
• PlaySport. An educational website developed by PHE Canada and Ophea that has all kinds of great activities designed to teach kids games by playing games

Articles available through SIRC:

1. Gray, Sarah. 0verweight Students: Can Education Help Curb This Mounting Problem? Physical and Health Education. Summer 2009, 75(2) p.6-11.
2. Williams, Alexandra. Kids in Motion Stay in Motion. IDEA Fitness Journal. Feb 2008 5(2) p. 38-45.

Rugby Injury Crisis?!?

"I prefer rugby to soccer. I enjoy the violence in rugby, except when they start biting each other's ears off." - Elizabeth Taylor (1972)

It is said that the birthplace of rugby was 1823 when William Webb Ellis "with fine disregard for the rules of football (remember football was yet to split into the various codes) as played in his time at Rugby school, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game". In Canada, Rugby dates back to the 1860s with the arrival of immigrants, regimental armies and the Royal Navy.

Rugby is a demanding, full contact team sport. In the latest issue of Rugby World a 16-page investigation looks at whether there is an injury crisis in the game. Some interesting statistics include:

• 72% of injuries occur as a result of contact with another player (a tackle, a ruck and son on) according to RFU figures. Of those, 51% occur in the tackle.


• The average number of injuries each Guinness Premiership club will suffer each season, is 92 including 22 in training, according to the England Rugby Injury and Training Audit conducted between 2002 and 2004.


• Are players too big? The average British & Irish Lions player was 8 pounds heavier in 2009 compared to 2005.


• The London Irish rugby team expects 15-20% of their players to be injured at any time.


• The average amount of impact a player takes in a match is like being hit by a Mack truck at 75mph compared to the nineties when the impact felt like a Mini at 50mph.

Rugby is just one of many sports that face injury issues. One of the most popular topics at SIRC is injury prevention and treatment. There is a constant flow of information in this area. So far this month over 80 articles relating to injury in sport have become searchable in the SIRC Collection including:

Fuller, C., Caswell, S., & Zimbwa, T. (2010). Do mismatches between teams affect the risk of injury in the Rugby World Cup?. Journal of Science & Medicine in Sport, 13(1), 36-38.

Gianotti, S., Hume, P., & Tunstall, H. (2010). Efficacy of injury prevention related coach education within netball and soccer. Journal of Science & Medicine in Sport, 13(1), 32-35.

Lederman, E. (2010). The myth of core stability. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 14(1), 84-98.

Stricker, G., Scheiber, P., Lindenhofer, E., & Mueller, E. (2010). Determination of forces in alpine skiing and snowboarding: Validation of a mobile data acquisition system. European Journal of Sport Science, 10(1), 31-41.

Did you know:
Heather Moyse is a dual national athlete in bobsleigh and rugby. Moyse and Humphries will compete in the 8th race of the World Cup season January 22nd in Igis, Austria. Watch for them both in the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver!

Drink up!

We all know how important it is to remain hydrated during sport and exercise so as to maintain our performance level. Your body needs to replace fluids, sodium, potassium, chloride and other elements lost during exertion. And while it is important to consume liquids there may be a couple of little known facts that you might be interested to add to your knowledge bank.

• Did you know that emerging data shows that simply washing the mouth with water or sports drink can effectively delay fatigue? So while consuming the necessary fluids is important, rinsing your mouth can be beneficial as well. (article 3)


• The same article suggests that people who drank fluids from freely flowing sources such as a cup or open mouth bottle consume more than those who drink from a straw? Something to think about next time you use that squeeze bottle, perhaps taking the nozzle out might be more beneficial. (article 3)


• You may not feel like your sweating as much during cold weather workouts, but you are still losing fluids while exercising in the winter. You may not need the same amount of electrolyte replacement as during the summer, but it is important to keep up fluid levels as cold-weather dehydration can increase the risk of hypothermia. (article 4)

So whether you are a recreational or high performance athlete, and it’s summer or winter it is important to check and maintain a good fluid balance to stay at your best performance level. Checkout these and other hydration-related resources at the SIRC library:

1. Hydration science-From Hype to Hyponatremia Scan’s Pulse, Summer 2009, 28(3) p.17
   
2. Gregory Seale. Water and the Energy Drink. SPED: Sport and Physical Education. May 2009, 6(1) p.8-9.
   
3. Kirkendall, Donald. Hydration: It’s Just the First Step. Soccer Journal, September-October 2009, 54(5) p. 20.
   
4. Carmichael, Chris. Drinking Problem. Outside. December 2006, 31(12) p. 80.

SIRC Newsletter -The Top 10 Most Requested Topics of 2009

Check out the latest SIRC Newsletter -The Top 10 Most Requested Topics of 2009!

SIRC is your national sport library and in 2009 you proved that learning and staying informed are important. You came from over 800 different cities and towns in Canada (view map) to find information on injury prevention, coaching techniques, motivation and much more. Last year we added over 30,000 new sport related articles to the library (which were reviewed and indexed by our information specialists) and we noticed some intriguing trends. The most requested and sought after topics were:




http://sirc.ca/newsletters/january10/index.html

What's going on at SIRC’s Toronto Regional Office

SIRC@Sport4Ontario, SIRC’s Toronto Regional office, is located in the Sport Alliance of Ontario Building where close to 50 provincial sport organizations call home. This building is unique as it provides the organizations with office space and full office services, plus there is meeting room space available to tenants which allows them the space to run training sessions, coaching clinics and of course professional development programs for organization staff.

Yesterday, (January 13, 2010) Sport4Ontario held their monthly lunch and learn forum, which included guest speaker Barrie Claude Shepley. Barrie was Canada’s first National Triathlon Coach and was the first Olympic Triathlon Head Coach for Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where Simon Whitfield won his historic gold-medal. He has been named Coach of the Year in Canada on three occasions, Coach of the Year in Ontario two times, been inducted into Triathlon Canada’s Hall of Fame and has also been named a High Performance Coach from the National Coaching Institute.

On January 28th, 2010, SIRC’s Toronto Regional office will also be taking advantage of the meeting room space to hold an Information Session and Luncheon. Participants of this hands-on session will not just learn about SIRC, they will also participate in exercises designed to show them how SIRC can help them in the daily operation of their provincial sport organization.

Professional Development and Learning – That’s What’s Goin’ On!!

Let’s talk about cricket!

As a Canadian that’s not a statement you hear too often, but the sport of Cricket is growing in popularity in this country by leaps and bounds. For example in the Toronto area alone the Toronto and District Cricket Association is the largest amateur club in North American and has over 1300 players on 92 teams. One of those players, Rizwan Cheema, a recent immigrant from Pakistan, who only played at the club level in his home country, not only plays for the National Team here in Canada, but is also getting international recognition. He is currently one of 51 players through to the final phase of the Indian Premier League auction. (This is like the NHL draft of cricket). Mr. Cheema owes this honour, not only to his skills but to the support and training he has received in Canada.

As Cricket Canada president Ranjit Saini stated in a January 6th , 2010 press release “This is a proud moment for Cricket Canada and its members" he later went on to add “Should Rizwan get selected and becomes part of IPL, the boost in Cricket Canada brand name will be phenomenal and the public awareness about Cricket in North America and particularly Canada will grow significantly. "

Interesting Cricket Canada Information:
The Canadian Cricket Association (now called Cricket Canada) was established in 1892.

The first recorded game of Cricket played in Canada was in 1785 at Ile-Ste-Helene in Montreal, Quebec.

In 2009, over 20,000 children throughout Canada played cricket in both school and community based development programs.

Cricket Canada’s head office is located in the SAO building along with SIRC’s new regional office in Toronto. The staff memebrs of Cricket Canada are avid users of the SIRC collection and borrow materials on a regular basis. SIRC is happy to help Cricket Canada with their research needs.

New mail is always exciting!

New material is always arriving for the SIRC Collection. Today one of the latest issues of British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) arrived in the mail. As soon as it arrived the SIRC Librarians took a quick scan through and it looks good. In fact, it is sure to be a popular issue in the SIRC Collection over the upcoming months. This issue is the Vancouver Olympics issue covering sports such as alpine skiing, snowboarding, ice hockey and ski jumping as well as many other interesting research articles.

Here are a few highlights:

• The adoption of new rules for ski jumping based on research outlined in the article “Towards research-based approaches for solving body composition problems in sports: ski jumping as a heuristic example.”
• It takes 30-45 minutes for a swimmer (and several helpers) to dress in an expensive polyurethane swimsuit that malfunction and tears easily.
• The knee (68%) is the most injured body part in Alpine skiers followed by lower back/pelvis/sacrum (22%), lower leg/Achilles tendon (22%), hand/finger/thumb (17%) and head/face (16%).
• Full Facial Protection in ice hockey provides the best protection against overall head injuries.
• Several risk factors can combine to increase injury in Alpine skiing: low speed, high readiness for risk, new skiing equipment, old and powdered snow, and drug consumption.

If you are looking for additional information on injury prevention and sport medicine you can find it in the Online Resources Injury section which highlights past newsletters and full-text articles.

What’s on your playlist?

Now that you’ve made that resolution to have a fitter 2010, it’s time to lace up your trainers and get moving. A great way to get into the exercise groove is to listen to music, which will help to motivate you through our workout. Music can help you ignore the aches and pains or fatigue and also help regulate your pace. Science now tells us that songs with the right characteristics can increase our exercise performance by up to 20%. (Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 31(1), p. 18-36 Author: Karageorghis, Costas I. et al, available through SIRC)

The article entitled “Ergogenic Tunes” (Canadian Running 2(5) July/Aug 2009, p. 30) provides a helpful chart of song selections from Rock, Pop, Soul/R&B and Classical music to help you reach a variety of exercise intensities. It’s important to find music that not only addresses your personal taste but provides lyrics and beats that match the intensity and length of your workout. Need help deciding what the right tempo is? Check out this chart which explain factors that go into selecting the appropriate beats per minute (BPM) for a variety of activities (walking, jogging, running, cycling, stairclimbers, ellipticals, and yoga/pilates).

Another way to freshen up your music is to ask your friends, colleagues and other fitness enthusiasts for their favorites. So plug in and let’s get on the move.

Here are a few of the many websites out there that provide training and exercise oriented music:
Run2Rhythm (http://www.run2r.com/)
PODRUNNER (http://www.djsteveboy.com/podrunner.html)
Motion Traxx (http://motiontraxx.com/)