Topics: Sports & Rec

On a summer afternoon, you might find four-year-olds digging in the mud with sticks while six-year-olds toss stones into a creek and eight-year-olds climb trees or build a fort. Welcome to the Into the Wild nature camp at WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alta., where unstructured, child-led, risky play is the name of the … Continued

Physical activity as a powerful and positive social outlet Sheppard, a lacrosse player, decides to start up a team to provide his students with physical activity and a positive social outlet. It takes some convincing—“I don’t like to run,” one boy tells Sheppard—but the Kugluktuk Grizzlies are born. At practices, Sheppard shows them how to … Continued

Ready, Aim, Kick! to the rescue One particularly difficult day, we tried an activity called Ready, Aim, Kick! (see Activity #6) from the APPLE Seeds program. This robust program introduces physical literacy skills in a sequential way within everyday play. Ready, Aim, Kick! involves playing kicking games using targets and a variety of materials, including pylons, … Continued

The Canadian Sport Helpline is a new initiative to ensure that all Canadians participating in sport can do so in a safe and welcoming environment, regardless of the role they play. Safe sport is everyone’s responsibility, and the national toll-free helpline offers assistance to victims and witnesses of harassment, abuse, discrimination, and bullying. In its … Continued

From a sporting standpoint, the thing I enjoy most about coaching girls is the fact that they listen. They listen because they want to get it right. Getting it right is important because they want to be socially accepted, and in their early years of participation, social acceptance is their number one reason for getting … Continued

US Lacrosse is advocating a new approach to developing its youngest players: physical literacy warm-ups. Led by personal trainer Brett Klika’s work, US Lacrosse is promoting the idea of adding movement-based exercises to practices in order to develop greater all-round movement skills and athleticism. The exercises involve creative movement circuits where young players are invited to … Continued

Did you know that by age 14, girls are dropping out of sport at twice the rate of boys? Did you know that when matched for age and maturation, they are three to six times more likely than boys to sustain non-impact ACL injuries? And did you know that the main reason most girls play … Continued

As educators, it’s important to ensure children are introduced to physical literacy. Providing a variety of movement opportunities in as many different environments as possible inspires children to be active now and hopefully for life. In February, staff at École élémentaire publique Jeanne-Sauvé in Orleans, Ontario, created the Multisport Winter Festival to serve this purpose. We … Continued

About once a year a sharp pang of regret hits me. It’s most likely to strike on one of two occasions: in the winter after a big snowfall or out on the lake at a summer cottage. The two situations are vastly different, yet both stir up similar feelings of regret, embarrassment, and frustration. So, … Continued

Quebec made men’s hockey history at the Canada Games in Red Deer, winning gold against Ontario. Quebec’s last gold medal dated back to 1987. In the second week of the Games, the women’s team also made it to the final, winning silver after losing against the home team. Team Quebec’s performances can be attributed to … Continued