news

UCalgary researchers tackle rodeo participant safety in groundbreaking study on brain mechanisms preand post-event Most people head to the rodeo for the thrill of watching the fearless athletes compete, but this year University of Calgary master's student Raelyn Javra is rodeo-bound in pursuit of science and improving athlete safety.

Physical activity is good for young people with volatile temperaments or living in dysfunctional families - but only under certain conditions, UdeM researchers find. A new study has found that high levels of physical activity in early adolescence can reduce depressive symptoms in young people who have difficult temperaments, come from low-income families or are exposed to family dysfunction.

Waterloo researchers get an assist from AI in identifying hockey players with greater accuracy and speed Researchers from the University of Waterloo got a valuable assist from artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help capture and analyze data from professional hockey games faster and more accurately than ever before, with big implications for the business of sports.

Yes, they can, says Mathieu Cournoyer, a master's student in human kinetics who's done a review of 19 studies on the topic. Did you know that the scent of peppermint can make you run faster? That a whiff of ammonia will make you do a few more push-ups than usual? Or that the fragrance of jasmine can improve your bowling score? Those and other findings were made by Mathieu Cournoyer, a master's student in UdeM's School of Kinesiology and Human Kinetics, who reviewed 19 studies on the effect of olfactory stimulation on physical activity.

Simon Fraser researchers are learning more about how the scenarios for head impacts in hockey-from player clashes to contact with the boards or glass-affect impact severity. Their findings, reported in the journal Scientific Reports , should help to inform improvements in injury prevention. In a follow-up to their previous study on how hockey head impacts occur, researchers returned to a Burnaby rink to follow 43 university men's hockey players over another three seasons (2016-2019).

If they've already had a concussion before, university athletes are less likely to report symptoms of a new one when the symptoms are less severe, an UdeM study suggests. University athletes who have already suffered a sport-related concussion are less likely to report symptoms of a new concussion if they consider them to be less serious than their previous ones.

Physical, behavioural, psychological and social - the factors that make athletes ready (or not) to get back in the game are more complex than you might think. Nearly 20 per cent of people who play contact sports like hockey or rugby will suffer a concussion in the course of a season. Concussions account for up to 44 per cent of all injuries in these sports.

Recognizing the diversity of cycling travel behaviour will improve participation and infrastructure investments The limitations of Statistics Canada's cycling data are having a real-world impact on women and marginalized people participating in cycling, a new study finds. The long-form census bike-to-work data is currently the primary evidence transportation engineers and planners use to make a case for spending on cycling infrastructure.

It would be possible to predict the future performance of young players using variables other than on-ice performance. Martin Saint-Louis: never drafted. Jonathan Marchessault: never drafted. Tom Brady: drafted 199th . The cases of these three athletes, who rose to the top of their sport after being grossly underestimated by scouts, illustrate just how perilous an exercise it can be to identify promising youngsters.

Young people who compete in sports are often organized into single-sex teams that compete separately. But what happens when youth have the opportunity to compete together? A group of researchers from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) set out to find out whether mixed teams provide girls with more opportunities to advance and compete in sports - and if they help dispel stereotypes and contribute to mutually respectful relationships.

Can restricting blood flow to athletes' limbs while training boost performance? University of Toronto researchers investigate Ischemic preconditioning (IPC), a technique used to prepare an organ or tissue for a lack of blood or oxygen supply, was originally developed for use in clinical settings where there is an expected lack of blood and oxygen supply, for example during surgery or after an adverse event like a heart attack.

A Canadian record-breaking hailstone was recovered by Western University's Northern Hail Project (NHP) field team, following a storm earlier this week near Markerville, Alta. The record-breaker weighs 292.71 grams, eclipsing the previous title holder - a hailstone weighing 290 grams, collected nearly 50 years ago in Cedoux, Sask.

Making time for regular exercise can make your eyes feel better By A team led by researchers from the University of Waterloo discovered that a significant increase in tear secretion and tear film stability after participating in aerobic exercise can be another remedy for relieving dry, itchy eyes. Every time we blink, our eyes are covered in tear film-an essential protective coating necessary for maintaining healthy ocular function.

Returning to in-person experiences in February: for more information. New study findings can help coaches regulate individual training loads based on player position Researchers have linked the fitness of elite soccer players to the positions they play. The ability to make this assessment can help coaches regulate individual training loads based on player position, according to a recent study.

Commotio cordis, a rare sudden-death cardiac event, most commonly affects young children playing baseball (Pixabay) At an Arizona baseball diamond 10 years ago, a 13-year-old baseball player turned to bunt a ball that instead struck his chest. Taking two steps towards first base, he collapsed, and died from commotio cordis, the second leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.

Like most sports technology, hockey helmets have evolved exponentially over the past 50 years. Gone are the days of the "egg shell" helmets worn by NHL superstars like Wayne Gretzky and Michel Goulet in the 1970s and 1980s. As the primary piece of equipment used to protect hockey players (professional or amateur) from concussions and other brain injuries, researchers at Western University say it is vitally important to continue improving the quality of hockey helmets.