Physical Education

U of T at the Olympics: Rosie MacLennan

sgupta — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:59:12 +0000

U of T at the Olympics: Rosie MacLennan sgupta Mon, 07/16/2012 - 07:59

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U of T's Rosie MacLennan in action during the Gymnastics Trampoline Olympic Qualification round January 13, 2012 in London, England (Photo by Paul Gilham / Getty Images Europe)

Gavin Au-Yeung

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Already an established name as a trampoline gymnast, Rosannagh (Rosie) MacLennan began international competition at the age of 11. Her recent successes include a first place finish at the 2011 Pan American Games, just before her fall convocation and two Trampoline World Cup gold medals.

Before heading to London for her second straight summer Olympics, MacLennan spoke with writer Gavin Au-Yeung about trampolines and international competition.

How did you feel when you first learned you would be participating in the Games?
My partner [Karen Cockburn] and I ultimately secured our place in the Olympics after the 2011 Trampoline World Championships in Birmingham. In order to get two spots for Canada in the Games, we had to be in the Top Eight. We were confident in our training and what we did to put ourselves in the best position to earn the two spots.

And we were beyond ecstatic; it was our goal to get the two spots. The following week was really successful and it fuelled our motivation to get back to training.

Recently, you placed first in the Trampoline World Cup in Arosa, Switzerland: how does this affect your confidence heading to London?
I had just come off a bad performance in Spain. The nature of our sport is very volatile. It’s a one shot deal, and anything can happen on the day of the competition.

So going into Switzerland, I really wanted to put out the best performance I could. Having Karen and I both place ahead of the Chinese team is a huge confidence boost. They are extremely dominant, and I always study their videos. The fact we were able to pull ahead of them in the last competition before the Games will definitely motivate us leading into the next month of training.

Tell us a bit about preparing for the Games.
On a weekly basis, we are on the trampoline nine times for about two hours each session. Furthermore, I work on strength and conditioning two to three times a week – working with weights, plyometric exercises and cardio. We also have two sessions a week of Pilates to work on flexibility and core strength.

(You can see MacLennan on the trampoline here.)

What’s the environment like in the Olympic Village?
If you think about it, the Village is filled with thousands of the world’s top athletes. It’s interesting to see all the athletes training for their particular sport. And you never know who you’ll bump into at any given time. It’s a really interesting dynamic because we all have the same passion for sport. And it’s a really motivating atmosphere to be in.

The environment of the Village changes as the Games progress. At the beginning every athlete is completely focused on training and events. By the end, it’s much more relaxed. People become more outgoing and social. It’s a very friendly environment.

Is there a particular athlete/event you want to watch in London?
I want to be able to watch as many of the other Canadian athletes as I can. That’s one of the best parts about being at the Games – you really feel like part of the Canadian team when cheering each other on.

One sport I really enjoy to watch is diving, because there are a lot of similarities between our sports. I can appreciate the dive and the form of the athletes.

But to be honest, I would watch anything.

How did you get into trampoline?
As the youngest of four, I watched my siblings practice gymnastics. They’ve always loved the trampoline aspect of the training. My mom wanted to take my brothers to a new gym from an ad she had found. And because she couldn’t find a babysitter for me, I just tagged along and tried it out.

My gym [Skyriders Trampoline Place] is the top gym in Canada, and maybe even the world, based on the quality of equipment and the success we have had. Athletes from all over the world train from the gym – you get to see all sorts of different styles, training methods and tricks.

How did you get involved with international level competition?
The Olympics became a dream of mine when I watched Karen and Matt [Mathieu Turgeon] compete in the 2000 Games. That was the first time trampoline was an Olympic event. I started dreaming more about competing and I learned from Karen and the older athletes from my gym.

I made it onto the national senior team when I was 16; it was during this time that competing in the 2008 Games became my goal.

Has the public perception of trampoline changed in the past few years?
It’s growing, I mean, it wasn’t even an Olympic event when I started. When I told people I did trampoline, they would look flabbergasted, they didn’t know what it was.

The sport is gaining publicity, partly from the success we’ve had from the past Games. We have five medals from three Olympics. So more people know about it, and more people are willing to try it out.

There’s also been a lot more cross-training between sports. Athletes in big air competitions and freestyle skiing are using trampolines. A lot more people are getting to know about the sport, and I hope it keeps growing.

What advice would you give someone who may want to start trampoline?
Trying it at a recreational class is a great way to start; there are tons of gyms in the GTA. Because it’s different from other sports, you do need it approach it with an open mind. Trampoline is a fun way to challenge yourself and to stay fit.

How has your time at U of T influenced who you are today?
The University has always been really supportive of me. The faculty has been amazing with helping me balance school and training and letting me excel in both. I’ve learned about many new subjects and they’ve become things I’m really passionate about learning. In a way, it has helped me change the way I think when approaching a situation. I look at all the information possible, and organize through it.

What’s in store for you after the Games?
I recently graduated in the fall (2011), and this year I’ve focused on my training. But I’m starting my master’s program this coming fall at the ��Ƶ.

I try to push off on making career choices right now. But I’m really interested in corporate development, health promotion. And obviously, I’m really passionate about sports, healthy living and active lifestyle.

Although, anything beyond August 4th is a bit of a blur for me (laughs).

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Boosting research, learning opportunities in sport science

sgupta — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:56:07 +0000

Boosting research, learning opportunities in sport science sgupta Wed, 07/04/2012 - 06:56

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Professor Ira Jacobs and Debbie Low with students (from left to right) Lindsay Musalem, Tharmegan Tharmaratnam and Lydia Schultz at the signing ceremony June 27 (photo by Reina Shishikura)

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U of T inks partnership with Canadian Sport Centre Ontario

It’s a partnership aimed at supporting Ontario’s top athletes and enhancing learning and research opportunities for U of T students, faculty and staff across a broad range of sport science projects.

“We believe it’s the merging of a world-class sport institute with a world-class academic institute,” says Debbie Low, chief executive officer of Canadian Sport Centre Ontario (CSCO). “This will open up doors to endless opportunities for athletes, coaches and sport scientists.”

The ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (KPE) entered a formal five-year partnership with CSCO June 27 which solidifies a long-standing history of working together to offer high performance athletes the best resources in testing, training and evaluation, and access to new knowledge.

Professor Ira Jacobs, dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, sees the partnership as a natural extension of U of T’s commitment to generating and disseminating knowledge across the entire physical activity spectrum, including high performance sport.

“We are helping train the next generation of scientists while bringing our unique perspectives, experiences and research skills to bear on the challenge of helping the region’s best athletes succeed on the international stage.”

One aspect of the partnership is the sport science assistant program, already in its second year. The CSCO employs undergraduate kinesiology students from U of T as summer science assistants, giving them hands-on experience and a window into the world of applied sport science.

Working alongside leading scientists and researchers, students perform tests ranging from biomechanical analysis with underwater cameras to aerobic endurance tests on top athletes such as hockey standout Hayley Wickenheiser and swimmer Tobias Oriwol, who will compete in London this summer.

“This is a great experiential learning piece for the students,” says Dr. Jason Vescovi, lead of CSCO’s applied sport science research program. “The program really highlights the support and dedication that the Centre has for research and high performance sport, especially with a partner like U of T.”

The CSCO is part of a national network of sport centres that provide personal and professional services to high performance athletes and coaches, including access to experts in a variety of areas, from trainers and physiologists to chiropractors and sport psychologists.

Signalling its commitment to high performance sport, the ��Ƶ last year approved the construction of the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport, a hub for sport science research, sport medicine, training and competition that will be the ideal space to further collaborations with partners such as the CSCO. The facility, a feather in the cap of the $98 million Varsity Centre complex, is set to open in January 2015.

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Couch potatoes in the classroom

sgupta — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 11:46:31 +0000

Couch potatoes in the classroom sgupta Thu, 06/21/2012 - 07:46

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School policies on physical activity should reflect the way children move - in short bursts, say U of T researchers (Thinkstock photo)

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According to Ontario Ministry of Education policy, elementary school children must get 20 minutes of sustained moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

But U of T researchers who monitored almost 900 students in 16 schools couldn't find a single child who did.

With screen time hours and obesity rates at all-time highs, the directive sounds good on paper. Yet according to a U of T study published in the current issue of The Canadian Journal of Public Health, most schools are not only failing to implement the 2005 policy, but could be struggling because the prescribed approach isn’t aligned with the way a child typically moves and plays.

Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education researchers went into grade five and six classrooms in 16 GTA schools to look at teachers’ scheduled allotments for daily physical activity, and to monitor almost 900 students using accelerometers (which record movement and its intensity).

They found that not a single child in the study achieved the policy standard of 20 minutes of uninterrupted, heart-pumping exercise.

“Only 19 per cent accumulated at least one sustained bout of moderate to vigorous activity that lasted five minutes or more during scheduled daily physical activity across the school week,” says author and lead researcher Michelle Stone, who specializes in children’s physical activity patterns.

“We think the policy needs to be revised to better reflect the way children move – in short, sporadic spurts.”

Stone suggests that the mandate could be more successful if it advocated for an accumulation of 20 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity throughout the entire day.

While more than half of the children in the study did not achieve the policy goals, those whose teachers scheduled a session of physical activity into every day of the school week demonstrated healthier BMI levels and were generally more active, suggesting that mandated physical activity time might be effective in achieving broad health benefits.

The study is one of the first of its kind in Ontario and its investigators say more research is required. But Professor Guy Faulkner, who oversaw the project, says that often-overstretched teachers and administrators need to have access to resources and knowledge-sharing opportunities to help design a daily curriculum that always includes physical activity.

“We can start by taking a closer look at those teachers and schools that are able to include physical activity into each day and see what we can learn from them.”

The Daily Physical Activity (DPA) Policy in Ontario: Is it Working? An Examination using Accelerometry-Measured Physical Activity data was collected as part of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education’s Project BEAT, which focuses on active transport and physical activity patterns in school-aged children.

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Looking back, looking ahead

sgupta — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:24:32 +0000

Looking back, looking ahead sgupta Wed, 03/07/2012 - 08:24

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U of T's director of high performance sport, Beth Ali, believes women should seek strong female mentors as they move through their careers. (KPE photo)

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Caz Zyvatkauskas, Sarah Loos and Elaine Smith

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Trio considers how the world has changed for women

For International Women’s Day, U of T News asked a staff member, a faculty member and an alumna how U of T and/or their field of specialty has changed during the past few decades.

Beth Ali, a former field hockey player, is the director of high performance sport for the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

1. Did you ever have hopes of competing on the world stage? Why is it so hard for women’s sports to be recognized and supported? Will that change as more and more women compete in sports from childhood?

I came to high performance sport relatively late as an athlete. My introduction was at York University where I played varsity field hockey under Marina van der Merwe, who was also the women’s national team coach at the time. It was under Marina’s influence that the idea of becoming a high performance coach was born. As a high performance athlete or coach, the dream of representing your country at the Olympics is ever present. I coached at the Pan American Games, the Commonwealth Games and numerous Olympic and World Cup qualifiers but our team never qualified for the Olympic Games.

I believe that in Canada we tend to recognize professional sports far more than amateur sport, and given that there are few professional opportunities for women, often women’s sport gets overlooked. Amateur sport becomes a focus every four years, and once the Olympic Games are over, it tends to fade into the background.

However, university sport does provide an excellent opportunity for women in sport to compete at a high level, to be supported through the provision of coaching and competitive resources and to enjoy a small but dedicated fan base.

The more people realize that there is a framework in which female athletes can develop from recreation to high performance and from elementary school to university and beyond, I believe we will achieve a greater number of participants and a greater number of successful and recognizable female athletes.

2. How important are female role models in sport?

The next step is to create a framework to develop female coaches and officials so that girls and women can see themselves as a significant part of a sport development model, not only as an athlete, but as a coach or an official. Having female role models is essential to the success of women in sport.

3. Do you think women will ever be able to compete professionally in male-dominated sports if they can prove equal talent?

I believe that if a sport is developed and marketed with appropriate resources and it is populated by talented female athletes, there will be fans that will be attracted by the level of competition and skill and athleticism of the athletes. Women’s tennis would be an example of such a model.

4. How did you overcome the obstacles of succeeding in the male-dominated world of sports administration? What advice would you give to young women?

I have been blessed with excellent role models throughout my career, and I came from a sport that is dominated by strong women – field hockey. It never entered my mind that I could not succeed in athletics because I was a woman or that I would face insurmountable challenges. I also spent a lot of time in the early stages of my career at the Faculty of Physical Education and Health (now the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education) where an environment conducive to career success was ever present.

My advice to young women is to find one or two strong female mentors who you can look to as role models. And to successful women – pay it forward. Open yourself up as a mentor to a young woman and make the time to do it well. In this way, we all succeed.

Professor Sioban Nelson (pictured below, right) is dean of the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.

1. How has your concept of the nursing profession changed over time? Did you grow up imagining Florence Nightingale? How does the reality match the dream?

I must confess the last thing on my mind when I started nursing was an image of Florence Nightingale. Later as an historian I learned to appreciate Nightingale's remarkable accomplishments, and not just with respect to her interest in nursing. However, I was always fascinated by the way nursing took you behind the curtain and placed you with people at critical, intimate and vulnerable places in their lives.

The work itself is so challenging and interesting – and ultimately so important to people's lives. I always liked it that nursing is a clinical science with a strong technical component, and at the same time, it brings you in such connection with the body, with emotions and the social context in which people, their families and their communities live.

2. Nursing was once solely a women’s profession, but that is changing. How has that changed the profession itself?

Nursing is certainly a much more popular career choice for men than it has been in the past. I think our male students see it as a great career and are rather confused by continued reference to Nightingale. That said, most nurses remain women and much of this comes down to the way in which activities that are associated with nursing, such as care of the body, remain highly gendered in our society. I think that we will not see a significantly higher proportion of men in nursing until men in caring roles becomes unremarkable, rather than the exception.

3. Can you talk a bit about the worldwide trends in nursing?

Around the world there is enormous development in the education of nurses, which has in many cases been challenged by the fact nurses are women and have less access to education and less of a voice in their health care systems. Improving population health, creating a safe and effective health care system are important goals in every country and nurses are critical to success.

At Bloomberg we take our responsibilities seriously as global citizens. By supporting our nursing colleagues around the world, we can directly impact the health of those populations and at the same time support the advancement of women through the profession. It's very exciting work.

Linda Silver Dranoff (pictured below, right) is a Toronto lawyer who earned her undergraduate degree from the university in the early 1960s. While an undergraduate, she protested women’s exclusion from Hart House, something that changed in 1972.

1. What was the common feeling about Hart House among the female students of the time?

It was known to be off-limits. The terms of the original gift of Hart House in 1919 by the Massey family limited the facility to men only, because “education for gentlemen was best carried on by gentlemen among gentlemen!” Most women in the 1950’s did not question this.

2. What were general attitudes towards women?

Women were not expected to get a university education or be employed after marriage; indeed, many women attended university for what was jokingly described as a “MRS.” Degree. This was long before the concept of feminism had any currency.

3. Tell us about the struggle for admittance. Were many people involved? What kind of resistance did you meet and from whom? What were the arguments against membership?

In my first year of university, I learned that Senator John F. Kennedy, then being touted as the possible next president of the United States --in fact he was elected in 1960 -- was coming to Toronto on Nov. 14, 1957 as a guest debater in a Hart House debate on the topic “Has the United States failed in its responsibilities as a world leader?” He was scheduled to cross swords with the campus’s pre-eminent speaker and debater, Stephen Lewis, later Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations.

Women were excluded from attending. A small group of us decided to protest our exclusion. First, three or four of us met with then-Warden Joe McCully to ask for special dispensation, but he refused. So I wrote a letter to the editor of the Varsity exhorting women to “get together and FIGHT!!!” And our hardy group of women, by then about 20 of us, picketed in the rain beneath the window of the Hart House Debates Room, chanting and marching and holding signs of protest demanding “Equal Rights for Women.”

I tried again the next year, and was featured in the Varsity with the headline “Upstart Co-Ed Upsets Light-Hearted Debate.” The lead paragraph read, “A ��Ƶ co-ed last night threw the staid Hart House Debates room into confusion when she insisted she be recognized by the chair…”

However, Hart House remained mostly off-limits to women, except for the Arbor Room after 3 p.m. and occasional dances and concerts, but only if you were with a man.

It was not until 1972 (15 years later) that Hart House became fully integrated, after Vincent Massey’s death in 1967, increasingly loud objections from women students, and the university challenge to the original Deed of Gift limiting Hart House to women.

4. What was it like to use Hart House for the first time? Are you amazed by the changes when you go there today?

I turned up, with great elation, at the Arbor Room for lunch on the first day Hart House was opened to women. There were no washroom facilities for women then; I am glad to see this has changed! I am also pleased to see female students and staff now enjoying and working in its facilities.

5. Is it important to keep the memory of the struggle alive?

It is always important to remember the history of women’s progress and achievements. That is true for many issues involving women’s fight for equality; if we are not vigilant, we risk having the advances taken from us.

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Taking the marathon to the classroom

sgupta — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:27:10 +0000

Taking the marathon to the classroom sgupta Thu, 02/23/2012 - 09:27

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U of T physiologist Greg Wells (right) has teamed up with ultra-marathoner Ray Zahab to offer students a real-time lesson in the physiological effects of performance. (Physical Education photo)

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Teaming up to teach through experience

Few people will ever run a marathon in their lives, let alone twice a day, every day, for nearly a month. Using this experience as a teaching tool is uncommon, too. But ultra-marathoner Ray Zahab and ��Ƶ professor Greg Wells have teamed up to bring Zahab’s experiences directly into the classroom.

Zahab, the visionary founder of Impossible2Possible, challenged himself to run two marathons daily -- in extreme conditions no less. Zahab’s journey involves a three-week, 1,700-kilometre trek across South America that will see him run the distance between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, crossing the Andes Mountains in the process. Wells, a physiologist, is using Zahab’s expeditions – of which there have now been three in the past year – to stretch the boundaries of his own research and teaching by tapping into the evolving world of experiential learning.

“I think we’re still figuring out how to do experiential learning,” said Wells, who will perform a variety of physiological tests on Zahab and fellow athletes during the Andes portion of the trek and film it all for U of T’s fourth-year environmental physiology students to see back home. The goal is to give students a real-time window into the physical demands that altitude places on extreme athletes, and the 7,000-metre summit – the largest peak in the Americas – is the ideal teaching environment. While the original goal was to stream Wells’ research live to the classroom, the overlapping Reading Week break required a change in plans.

“We are going to record videos relevant to the material we’re covering in class, upload them to the web, email the students the video links, and then send them real-time data from the athlete testing,” said Wells. “The students will be able to see what we’re doing as we do it.”

Instead of delivering a standard lecture when he returns to the classroom, Wells plans to facilitate a more collaborative discussion about what took place and what the students learned from what they witnessed. That discussion will include a question-and-answer period with Zahab, who will still be in South America completing the run, plus a video chat with Calgary-based Jim Elzinga, one of North America’s leading high-altitude climbers and the only Canadian to have led a successful expedition that established a new route from Tibet to the summit of Mount Everest.

Wells hopes that this approach to teaching will make the students more engaged in and excited about the material.

“I really want to try to rethink the way we teach,” he said. “Kids want information on their iPods, on their iPhones; they want to be able to access information anywhere, anytime. They learn in short bursts via many different technologies. They want to listen to it, watch it, read about it, tweet about it. They want to engage with it.”

But the most critical goal for Wells is merging research and teaching.

“We’ve established a new research program around ultra-endurance physiology and extreme human physiology,” he said. “The potential for collecting data around how the human body responds to extreme training and extreme environments is tremendous – not much data is available in that area right now.”

The biggest challenge is building a mobile laboratory that can collect research-quality data and broadcast it from anywhere in the world. “I am trying to fit my entire lab into my backpack!”

To learn more about Professor Wells and his work, follow him on Twitter or visit his personal or faculty website.

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Healthy neighbourhoods lead to healthy nations, says visiting Fulbright scholar

sgupta — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:53:22 +0000

Healthy neighbourhoods lead to healthy nations, says visiting Fulbright scholar sgupta Fri, 02/10/2012 - 07:53

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Visiting Fulbright scholar Ryan Lange loves Kensington Market, one of the neighbourhoods he's examining in his study of obesity. (Physical Education photo)

Valerie Iancovich

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Chose U of T because it is "beacon of research"

To an urban planner, Toronto’s Kensington Market is a vibrant, multi-use neighbourhood. To a nutritionist, it’s a bountiful source of fresh fruits and vegetables. For a physical activity enthusiast, it proves that walking can be a primary source of transportation. For visiting researcher and market resident Ryan Lange, his neighbourhood exemplifies how wise planning and policies – ones that resonate with the population – can promote health and, more specifically, help ward off obesity.

Lange is studying at the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education on a prestigious Fulbright scholarship after earning his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University.

“I have a background in hard science,” he said. “I know a lot about the chemistry and biology of obesity and am now more interested in the human component, which is almost infinitely more complex.”

Lange looked to Canada for insight, intrigued that despite our similar culture and lifestyle, obesity rates are lower here than there are in the U.S. (an average of one in three, versus one in six). He chose U of T because of its many experts, including his supervisor, Professor Guy Faulkner, and the institution’s multidisciplinary approach.

“U of T is a beacon of research and I want a very well-rounded, three dimensional picture of this problem,” Lange explained, noting connections he’s also made with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Under Faulkner’s mentorship, Lange’s independent project explores the links between policy on, and public opinion surrounding, obesity. Part of this work involves talking to ��Ƶ students about where they lay blame for climbing obesity rates: the food industry, the individual, genes and/or personality flaws. Lange hopes this data will provide insight on what policy and planning approaches will resonate most with tomorrow’s leaders here and at home.

At the end of this term, Lange will return to the U.S. for medical school, but would like to eventually join the decision-makers who influence U.S. health-related policy, which he hopes will soon emulate some initiatives currently in place in Canada. He sees value, for example, in our federal government’s Children's Fitness Tax Credit and potential in agricultural grants to non-corn producers.

Lange also praises Toronto’s car-free zones, food policy council and food share program.

“I’d like to see more programs like this in the United States,” he said. “ We should live in an environment that promotes the healthy choice first. And creating informed policy is one way of doing that.”

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U of T breaks ground for high-performance sport centre

sgupta — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:04:21 +0000

U of T breaks ground for high-performance sport centre sgupta Thu, 02/02/2012 - 05:04

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The groundbreaking ceremony for the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport took place Jan. 31. (Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education photo)

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Goldring Centre will house research labs, competition venues, fitness centre

Nearly 300 guests turned out at the Varsity Centre dome on Jan. 31 to celebrate the latest milestone for the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and the ��Ƶ: the groundbreaking ceremony for the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.

“This centre represents a new paradigm for Toronto and Ontario – a true ‘sports institute,’ where researchers, graduate students and sport medicine experts will connect with athletes, coaches and sport organizations to create a rich environment for studying, teaching, fostering and engaging in sport at the highest levels,” said Dean Ira Jacobs.

The state-of-the-art facility will house international-level basketball and volleyball courts, a relocated and expanded David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic, a range of sport and exercise research labs, and a strength and fitness centre accessible to all U of T students. It will also create a place where U of T’s growing list of key partners – including the Canadian Sport Centre Ontario, Swim Canada and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport – can converge in support of the region’s top athletes.

“The Goldring Centre will build upon a proud tradition at the ��Ƶ – a culture of fostering and nurturing innovation, and of creating and sharing knowledge,” said President David Naylor. “The result, as always, will be dramatic breakthroughs in many disciplines, a pool of remarkably talented graduates, a growing number of new products and services...and, not least, we hope, many proud spots for Canadian athletes on podiums around the world.”

The Goldring family, the lead donor for the centre, was well-represented at the event. Blake and Judy Goldring were joined by their mother Barbara Goldring – wife of the late Warren Goldring, who championed the plan to support the project – as well as Blake's wife Belinda Goldring, sister Jane McCabe, her husband Paul and their daughter Caitlin McCabe, and brother Bryce Goldring and daughter Sabrina. Tori, Lindsay and Cailey Stollery came to honour their late father, Gord Stollery, a passionate advocate of athletics, chair of the Golding Centre campaign, and one of the centre’s key donors. Ron Kimel, whose generous gift will result in the Kimel Family Field House within the complex, was out of the country. The Honourable Michael Chan, minister of tourism, culture and sport, represented the Province of Ontario, which last year contributed $22.5 million to the Goldring Centre.

A feather in the cap of the $98 million Varsity Centre complex, the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport is slated for completion in January 2015.

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Do minor injuries make for fuzzy minds?

sgupta — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:06:13 +0000

Do minor injuries make for fuzzy minds? sgupta Wed, 01/04/2012 - 06:06

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Concussions grab the headlines, but players may also suffer more minor sports injuries.(Photo by Jamie MacDonald)

Valerie Iancovich

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Head injuries may not be the only culprits

When hockey players are knocked out on the ice, medical personnel often look to computerized cognition tests to determine when concussed athletes can return to play.

But according to a ��Ƶ study by the Faculty of Kinesiology and Phyiscal Education’s Michael Hutchison, a post-doctoral fellow, and professors Paul Comper, Lynda Mainwaring and Doug Richards, a concussion isn’t the only injury that can muddy an athlete’s mind. Common injuries like a sprained ankle also appear to impact an athlete’s cognitive performance.

In their study, published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, 72 Varsity Blues athletes were given a commercially-available, 20-minute computerized test. Half of the players were injured. Eighteen of the athletes had suffered a concussion in the past three days and 18 were out of the game because of a muscle or tendon injury. The other 36 were uninjured.

The concussed athletes showed slower reaction times and worse results on memory tests than their uninjured peers. More surprising, though, was that the athletes who had muscle or tendon injury also performed poorly on the cognitive tests, with most of their scores falling in between those of the non-injured and head-injured athletes.

Hutchison said the findings emphasize the many variables, including emotional distress, frustration or depression, that can affect these test results.

“It’s important to keep in mind that you can’t automatically assume everything you find on these computerized tests is head-injury related.”

This story first appeared in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education's Pursuit magazine.

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Sport, power and abuse

sgupta — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:16:53 +0000

Sport, power and abuse sgupta Mon, 11/14/2011 - 10:16

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Professor Bruce Kidd of physcial education is a former Olympian and well-versed in high-performance sport. (Photo by Jayson Gallop)

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Professor Bruce Kidd discusses the Penn State scandal

Penn State University has been in an uproar since it was revealed that an assistant football coach had allegedly been caught abusing young boys and no action had been taken. Writer Anjum Nayyar talked with Professor Bruce Kidd of physical education and health about sports culture in the U.S. and Canada and about the need for ethics in sport.

Q. Can you talk a bit about the culture of American football and what makes it so strong?

A. We have absolutely no equivalent to it anymore in Canadian society or in any other sporting nations of the world. It’s something we marvel at and wonder at in a society that is similar to ours in many ways, but is also strange in many ways. The differences in the athletic budgets of the Penn and Ohio State universities in that category and universities in Canada or any other part in the world are amazing. It’s always been a wonder.

Some Canadian university alumni would say there was a similar culture in Canada in the 20s, 30s and 40s, and I think that that was true. By the mid- to late-50s it had begun to wane in major universities in Canada. It continued to accelerate in the United States and 50 years later, it’s a striking Canada – U.S. difference. But there are some qualifications: it’s principally in the rural areas or small towns [that U.S. football culture thrives]. Columbia, Yale or Harvard football are more like U of T or the University of Western Ontario football. They have the devoted followings but I don’t believe they have tailgate parties and 100,000 people. It’s only a vestige in those universities as well.

I understand from some of our presidents and provosts that when they go to Association of American Universities meetings in the U.S., their colleagues take them aside and tell them, “You’re so lucky you don’t have to deal with football.” Although it brings visibility and dollars, it brings a ton of headaches because of issues like this where you have a really strong research university reduced in symbolic ways to a sports team and a coach.

At U of T some sociologists would argue that one of the reasons for the demise of the football culture at U of T and others is the demographic transformation of the student body from a white, Protestant one to a multi-cultural one. Others have argued it’s a consequence of the tremendous television-fueled growth of the sport-media complex, which promotes professional sport at the expense of intercollegiate sport, and the growth of the urban entertainment industries generally, which means that there are many engaging cultural alternatives to watching Varsity sport.

Q. There’s been some commentary in the news that the first rule of a locker room is that whatever you see there stays there. You don’t tell anyone. What are your thought on this?

A. From my own experience in athlet ics and my own colleagues who have studied football, I would agree that that has been the culture. It starts with a sense of solidarity. These are your teammates and you have tremendous bonds with them. Your first responsibility is your loyalty to them and the privacy of those close intimate relationships.

But there has to be some limits on the cone of silence it creates, especially in situations like this. There’s been a real effort in many parts North American sport, to combat overt aggressive sexism, racism, and homophobia. Although there’s been a mixed, uneven commitment or follow-up on this, there have been heart-warming examples to address that. The good news was that in this case, although he didn't intervene to stop the alleged rape, this young assistant came forward. That’s evidence that this generation taking responsibility for calling colleagues on outrageous behaviour. I think the way the university acted is another example that there’s no longer a code of silence around the dressing room.

Q. We’ve heard of several cases about drugs, abuse etc. being covered up; is sport more vulnerable than other fields of endeavour?

A. I’m not sure it’s more vulnerable. Because of the spotlight and because of the conferring of representational status upon athletes and coaches, the emotional stakes become much higher. Sport professes to live a code of ethics. The burden is much greater. It’s in the spotlight; it claims to represent communities and claims to operate under a code of fair play and respect for others. I think a lot of sports people accept those obligations and try to walk that talk.

Q. Why are sports personalities so revered in general? Where does that come from?

A. It is a great question and a lot of people have tried to answer this. It has roots in the ancient Olympic Games of classical Greece when athletes were were widely considered symbolic representatives of their city-states, and if victorious, awarded life pensions. In the medieval period you had some disputes settled not by armies, by but by champions in one-on-one combat. In our own time, it is has been accentuated by the fact that the promoters of sport very early on made a marketing effort to link the athletes and teams to the city or region they came from.

A colleague once said to me, as an infant you’re carried around, lifted, provided food by these amazing creatures: your parents. They’re your first champions and you learn to admire physically gifted, strong, caring people who do these physical feats.

Q. What are responsibilities of coaches? Is there a code of ethics? Should we have one?

A. There has been a code of ethics developed by coaches and institutions in Canada, at least in the Olympic and educational sports, as we have had to face cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment, and other challenges. We all now have police checks for employees and our faculty now will not hire anyone now without a police check.

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Right to a life free of violence

sgupta — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:36:12 +0000

Right to a life free of violence sgupta Wed, 11/09/2011 - 07:36

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Lyndsay Hayhurst's PhD research focused on marginalized girls in sub-Saharan Africa. (Photo by Caz Zyvatkauskas)

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PhD student supports martial arts training for marginalized girls

A passion for sport and social justice took PhD student Lyndsay Hayhurst all the way to Uganda and back.

Hayhurst, who receives her degree from the Faculty of Physical Education and Health during 2011 fall convocation, worked with a non-governmental organization based in the war-ravaged country teaching girls martial arts as a way to defend themselves against gender-based sexual and domestic violence.

“There is an increasing focus on girls as the new panaceas of international development and the solutions to the social,political and economic challenges of our time that have been exacerbated by global poverty,” said Hayhurst, noting that girls are a “resource” that generally has been ignored.

“At the same time, sport is increasingly being used as a tool for international development, and private sector involvement in funding and implementing girl-focused sport and physical activity programs is on the rise.”

Hayhurst was the perfect person to combine these trends into a research project. Earlier in her career, she spent time working for Right to Play, an organization that uses sport to improve the lives of children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world. She also worked for the United Nations Development Program in New York between the time she completed her master’s degree and her PhD and noticed increasing corporate interest and involvement in development work.

Through a graduate research exchange program at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, she worked with a professor who was on the advisory board for a corporate-funded international non-governmental organization involved in sub-Saharan Africa, supporting sport for development..

This connection led her to Uganda to conduct research on a sport for a non-governmental organization that used martial arts as a vehicle for social change. Hayhurst noted staff from this NGO felt that karate and taekwondo were the best ways to challenge gender norms and improve the status and wellbeing of girls in their community.

“The act of girls lifting their legs kicking was viewed by the community as culturally inappropriate,” she said.

Not only did the girls – ages nine to 18 -- learn martial arts techniques; there were pedagogical and mental aspects to the training. They learned about discipline, building relationships with others in a non-violent way, dignity and self-respect. There were discussions of real-life situations the girls might encounter, such as boys who would profess their love and urge the girls to engage in sexual relationships.

“It was difficult for them to challenge gender norms, but you have to start somewhere,” said Hayhurst. “The onus falls on the girls so the boys don’t see them as sex objects because they have confidence and self-respect. The girls are positioned to become agents of change, but unfortunately many of them lack support from their families and communities. However, some argue that this is a key starting point to facilitating social change, and that once these girls are able to overcome resistance to the program, the ways girls and women are viewed by their families and communities will slowly start to shift.”

Hayhurst says that so far, the program has appeared to make a difference.

“The girls definitely reported that they felt stronger and more confident, and had hopes of eventually finding jobs as martial arts coaches or trainers.

“They would travel and perform public sparring sessions in community centres. They showed other girls that it was acceptable to be involved in martial arts, and became role models.

Hayhurst hopes to do some follow-up research in Uganda, but first she will be putting her energies into a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa. Funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Sport Canada, the fellowship will allow her to focus on similar programs for aboriginal girls in Canada. Afterwards, she pictures herself in academia or returning to the United Nations.

“I really enjoy teaching, research, policy and communications so hopefully some opportunities will be available in one or all of these areas. I’m excited to continue working in the areas of corporate social responsibility, international development, gender and sport,” she said.

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