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When University of Manitoba researcher Simrit Deol first set out to investigate the barriers newcomer girls face when engaging with sport and physical literacy in Canada, there’s a particular phrase her subjects used to describe the status quo: “the same thing, the same machine”. Many of them faced both societal and personal barriers, and most…

Nathan Hall believes in the Physical Literacy Environmental Assessment tool, also known as PLEA. The associate professor at the University of Winnipeg has been researching physical literacy for years, and was one of the first users of the Sport for Life innovation. Now he’s using PLEA to compile data on movement environments in his home…

When you’re first teaching children how to play hockey, it doesn’t make sense to use the entire rink. The kids aren’t ready for it yet, and it’s simply too big. That’s why BC Hockey began incrementally adapting their program to follow Hockey Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development model, based on the framework introduced by Sport for…

Dr. Guy Faulkner is a professor of kinesiology at UBC who has long been fascinated by the link between physical activity and mental health. He is the founding editor of the academic journal Mental Health and Physical Activity, and often presents his findings to conferences worldwide. Recently he was a keynote speaker at our International…

Greg Henhawk is a Mohawk of the Bear Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation in Southern Ontario. He spent 32 years working as a secondary school teacher in Ontario before transitioning into his role as Manager of Indigenous Projects at Sport for Life. We sat down with Greg to talk about…

More and more Canadians are interested in basketball these days, which means there will be an increased demand for quality coaches in the years to come. With this in mind, Canada Basketball has spent the past two decades carefully developing a standardized coach education process based on Sport for Life’s Long-Term Development (LTD) principles, with…

One rural Manitoba school is making physical literacy a priority for its students, installing both a 120’ Sensory Path and a rock-climbing wall in the past year. Principal Brandy Chevalier has received global recognition for the initiatives, which aim to get her students up and moving rather than spending all day in a desk. The…

Andrea Carey was already a champion for sport when she joined Sport for Life five years ago. She’d served on the Canadian Paralympic Committee board of directors, and had successfully introduced a culture of inclusion, physical literacy development and Long-Term Development (LTD) to the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE). Her passion is ensuring every…

A revolutionary Irish sports initiative custom-designed for young female participants has made a global splash, with researcher Orlagh Farmer sharing the successes of the fast-growing program Gaelic 4 Girls at this year’s International Physical Literacy Conference (IPLC) in Winnipeg. As far as she’s concerned, it was a niche that was begging to be explored. Working…

It was three years ago that Ottawa physical education teacher David Benay decided something needed to change. He started delving into the physical literacy world, documenting his progress via a blog called Ottawa Gym Critic. Things escalated quickly from there. “I was tired of  playing traditional sports, running half and full marathons, and weightlifting. I…

The Sport for Life Society is calling on leaders from across the sport, recreation, education, and health sectors to share their leading-edge work, inventive programming, best practices, research, and/or findings at the 2020 Sport for Life Canadian Summit. The Summit takes place in Gatineau, Quebec from January 28 through 30. The 2020 Sport for Life…

Sport for Life is proud to release the revised Long-Term Development in Sport and Physical Activity 3.0 resource document. Long-Term Development in Sport and Physical Activity is a framework for the development of every child, youth, and adult to enable optimal participation in sport and physical activity. This third edition brings a number of important…