Coaches / Les entraîneurs

As the 100,000 Canadian Sport for Life Champions campaign continues we are looking at new ways to inspire individuals to take action in their community. At this year's CS4L National Summit we will be launching the CS4L Messenger Program. The Messenger Program involves Champions, such as yourself, presenting to individuals, organizations or groups in your community about Canadian Sport for Life.

At the Summit we will be hosting Messenger Training sessions, which will provide you with all the tools, tips and tricks on how to deliver effective presentations on CS4L and physical literacy.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a safe and happy holiday season. With the New Year rolling in we are less than a month away from the 2012 CS4L National Summit and the first ever World LTAD Symposium!

Remember, today is the last day to register and get the regular rate; don’t miss this opportunity! Today is also the last day to book your accommodation at the Hilton Lac-Leamy under the special Summit rates.

If you have already registered, don’t forget to log in to your registration account and choose your sessions to ensure availability.

We are pleased to announce the program for the 2012 Canadian Sport for Life Summit, February 1 – 2, 2012 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau-Ottawa.

This year we have made a few tweaks to the Summit format. These changes will provide you with even more opportunities to learn about CS4L and share your thoughts, experiences, and best practices.

In “Specialization is a Tricky Business”, I briefly discussed how sports were categorized as early or late specialization sports, and I talked a little about some of the risks associated with premature specialization in late specialization sports.

I want to talk briefly here about the further distinctions that can be made within late specialization sports (Balyi, 2011).

At present, we further categorize late specialization sports as follows:

1. Late specialization – Early Engagement – Kinesthetic
2. Late Specialization – Early Engagement – Team
3. Late Specialization – Early Engagement – Visual
4. Common Late Specialization Sports
5. Late Specialization – Very Late or Transfer

I was recently invited to provide comments on a discussion paper with proposals for a new Canadian Sport Policy (CSP). As someone immersed in the values and vision of CS4L, I am very concerned about what I have read.

With confusing and often vague language, the discussion paper fails, in my view, to clearly articulate a unifying, encompassing vision for quality sport in Canada.  It also fails to leverage key initiatives occurring presently in Canadian sport, including but not exclusive to CS4L. 

The implementation of CS4L and LTAD is not without its naysayers. The question is whether or not the naysayers are actually getting their facts straight.

Brian Lilley, columnist and blogger for the Sun newspaper chain, has written a blog post that attacks LTAD and CS4L concepts around competition in the ranks of children’s sport. Mr. Lilley makes a number of inaccurate statements that have stirred readers, most notably that LTAD “attempts to make sure there is next to no competition for children under 12”.  

He could not be further from the truth.  

The “one size fits all” concept may work for winter toques and bathrobes; it does not work when it comes to designing a training program for our young female athletes.  Although training programs for young boys and girls are largely similar, there are some unique differences that must be recognized.

It’s an important issue because female athletes experience some types of injury at a higher rate compared to male athletes. We think many of these injuries can be prevented through wise training programs that are supported by a healthy nutritional intake.

I was just reading Alina Tugend's essay "In a Data-Heavy Society, Being Defined by the Numbers" in the NY Times. It reminded me that one of the responsibilities I've taken on within the CS4L Leadership Team is work on evaluation, including the development of the "NSO Scorecard", an Excel-based descriptive rating scale that allows National Sport Organizations (and soon, provincial and community sport organizations) to self-evaluate their progress in CS4L/LTAD implementation.

Tugend makes the point that we are conditioned to mindlessly rely on numbers as indicators of success and value. How many hits did it get? How many friend requests? How many horsepower does it put out? How many medals did we win?

I have been actively involved in disability sport for the last 20 years, however its’ history is much longer. Parasport, began in Britain following World War II and internationally it slowly evolved from a focus on the specific disability and rehabilitation to sport. In the 1990s, National Sport Organizations (NSOs) were encouraged by the federal government to become inclusive by offering programs and services for elite athletes with disabilities. What did not happen is that in some cases this change was not mirrored at the Provincial / Territorial or community levels. A manifestation of this is perhaps the recognition that Canada has identified a top ten finish in the 2012 Paralympic Games as their goal. At prior Games Canada placed seventh overall in 2008 (Beijing), 3rd in 2004 (Athens), 3rd in 2000 (Sydney) and 7th in 1996 (Atlanta).  So while a top ten goal is significant it’s not where we want to be. We want to be #1 and we think we can. But we can’t do it alone.

Plus de vingt millions de dollars en équipement technologique de toutes sortes, neuf  caméras situées stratégiquement autour du stade (une de plus qu’une partie régulière des ligues majeures), deux caméras suspendues, douze micros afin de capturer tous les moindre sons, deux analystes de parties régulières des ligues majeures, deux reporters sur le terrain, plusieurs appareils sans fil, 60,000 pieds de câbles, quatre véhicules techniques de 53 pieds de long chacun et 85 moniteurs afin de proposer le jeu et les reprises sous tous les angles possibles. Bienvenue à Williamsport en Pennsylvanie, site de la série mondiale des petites ligues.

A chaque mois d’août, cette compétition regroupe des équipes provenant de partout à travers le monde afin de déterminer qui pourra passer l’hiver à prétendre être la meilleure équipe au monde dans la catégorie des 13 ans et moins. La chaîne sportive ESPN présente plus de 30 parties de cet événement alors que plusieurs autres chaînes sportives spécialisées reprennent ces images pour la retransmission ou pour les bulletins de nouvelles de fin de soirée. C’est à se demander si cette compétition sert la cause des jeunes sportifs et si le sport en général n’est pas aux prises avec le même malaise. Quel est vraiment l’intérêt de présenter une telle compétition à la télévision ?