L’ICSC a conclu cette entente dans le but d’encourager l’entraînement multidisciplinaire de ses athlètes. L’entente accroît la possibilité d’entraînement de haut niveau au sein des installations de l’ICSC et offre aux athlètes l’accès aux vélos haute performance du vélodrome. Phil Abbott, entraîneur en cyclisme de l’ICSC et entraîneur-chef de l’Alberta Bicycle Association, est emballé par ce nouveau partenariat. À son avis, « il est important que le vélodrome soit géré de manière optimale. Le développement des athlètes en dépend et nous devons donc leur assurer un milieu d’entraînement de haute qualité. »

L’ICSC a pris les rênes du vélodrome depuis peu, mais la CBTL, les athlètes de l’Institut et d’autres cyclistes ont déjà fait part de leurs commentaires enthousiastes. Un groupe de patineurs de vitesse supervisé par Xiuli Wang y a amorcé un entraînement par intervalles deux fois par semaine, tandis que Monique Sullivan, cycliste sur piste olympique, y a organisé une soirée de consolidation d’équipe pour ses commanditaires, aclaro softworks, inc.

Institut canadien du sport de Calgary : @csicalgary
Rédigé par Brittany Schussler: @BSchussler
Photo de Dave Holland: @CSICalgaryPhoto

From May 4-8, 2015, the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary hosted its first ever Strength and Power Performance Course at Canada Olympic Park. Created and facilitated by Matt Jordan, the Director of Strength and Conditioning at the CSIC, the course provided participants with the opportunity to engage with and learn from all of the head strength coaches of national teams based at the CSIC. Jordan's goal was to develop knowledgeable strength and conditioning coaches who are passionate, open and eager to learn. Course participants registered from locations across North America. The course concept allowed the CSIC's head coaches to share their expertise for integrating the science and practice of strength and conditioning.

Throughout the course, each of the CSIC's national team head strength coaches taught methods to assess, monitor, program, and deliver strength and power training. The daily curriculum included methods for athlete intake processes, physical assessments, neuromuscular activation, exercise prescription, advance programming, and learning to detect and monitor functional deficits in elite athletes. Participants were encouraged to have critical thinking when discussing strength and power research. Upon course completion, each participant was awarded a Certificate of Continuing Education from The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA.com).

The opportunity to have round table discussions was one of the highlights for the attendees. Retired Olympic Silver Medallist Justin Warsylewicz participated in the class, noting, "The interaction with the coaches, as well as the other class members, provided the opportunity to learn and develop from other people's experiences. I would recommend this course to anyone interested in pursuing strength coaching. I feel that there was a lot of great information for experienced coaches as well."

Thanks to a high level of interest, the Strength and Power Performance Course will be offered again from November 16-20, 2015.

For more information and to register please visit http://csialberta.ca/SPPCourse

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Brittany Schussler: @BSchussler
Photo by Dave Holland: @csicalgaryphoto

On May 11, 2015, Registered Psychologist Natasha Kutlesa gave a presentation entitled "How to Talk About Weight to Female Athletes." The Canadian Sport Institute Calgary's boardroom was filled to its twenty-four person capacity with the CSIC's coaches and support staff, underscoring the importance of the issue.

Kutlesa has been a part of the CSIC's mental performance team for ten years. After having the experience of working with many athletes who have issues with body image, disordered eating has become one of the areas that she specializes in. She conceived of the concept for this workshop after noting that there is a strong recurrence of eating disorders and body image issues among athletes. This is emphasized by research that has shown elite athletes as being more susceptible to eating disorders than the general population.

Noticing that coaches struggle to find the best ways of communicating with athletes who are battling disordered eating, Kutlesa recognized this as a good opportunity to facilitate a workshop in which coaches and therapists from different sports could share with each other and learn from others' experiences. This continuing education provided by the CSIC is one of the ways that Canadian coaches and support staff are given current relevant information.

Kutlesa put together an informative presentation that outlined the dos and don'ts of addressing the sensitive topic. She discussed signs and symptoms of disordered eating, providing methods for doing a general assessment to analyze how athletes are eating and recovering from training. She then gave suggestions for ways that staff can approach athletes' different issues using case-study examples. She reinforced the notion that if staff have concerns with one of their athletes, the first thing to do is direct them to a physician. The physician will then determine the appropriate course of action. She ensured that each person would retain the information by providing a handout titled "Coach & Athletic Trainer Toolkit."

Because of the topic's importance, Kutlesa's workshop will likely be offered again in the future. Additionally, there is discussion of forming sport-specific workshops to address the various ways that different sports uniquely influence an athlete's body image.

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Brittany Schussler: @BSchussler
Photo by Dave Holland: @csicalgaryphoto

On April 23, 2015, the Canadian Sport Institute Calgary's President and CEO Dale Henwood participated in meetings in Lausanne, Switzerland between representatives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and members of the Association of Sport Performance Centres (ASPC). Henwood is the Chair of the ASPC, an organization that was formed in 1999 and is made up of representatives from over 80 high performance training centres from 30 countries across the world. Every two years the members hold the Forum on Elite Sport to discuss initiatives that will help to elevate high performance sport across the globe, promote fellowship, and, ideally, make the world better through sport.

The goal of the ASPC meeting in Lausanne was to interact with members of the International Olympic Committee on the role and purpose of the ASPC and how they can assist the Olympic movement. Chair Henwood led the presentation along with the ASPC's Vice President for Europe Tapio Korjus (Finland), Secretary General Josep Escoda (Spain), and Treasurer Tracy Lamb (USA).

The ASPC's proposal was aimed at promoting exposure of their association to the IOC. The ASPC members outlined their desire to share best practices among countries and high performance centres. This created the opportunity to present fresh perspectives and up to date information in the world of sport. The objective of ASPC members is to stay abreast of what other leading nations are doing through identifying trends and challenges within high performance centres. Additionally, the ASPC members place importance on sharing their knowledge with developing countries in order to assist these countries, and their athletes, reach world class levels.

The CSIC's involvement with the ASPC is an example of the Institute's leadership amongst high performance sport centres around the world. It is an opportunity to promote the CSIC globally. The CSIC continues to generate international respect and is recognized as being among the best in the world at delivering quality programs and expertise to Canadian athletes and coaches. ASPC involvement allows the CSIC to stay on the cutting edge and to be integrated in the global sport community. Furthermore, the interaction amongst members allows the profile of CSIC to be shared with organizations such as the IOC, Pan American Sport Organizations, Association of National Olympic Committees and other leading high performance centres. Henwood describes his involvement in the ASPC as vitally important because he believes that the CSIC should "continue to be forward thinking and outward reaching in all that we do."

To find out more about the ASPC please visit www.sportperformancecentres.org.

Canadian Sport Institute Calgary: @csicalgary
Written by Brittany Schussler: @BSchussler