JEN SOUTHALL | Advocacy For Rights of Disabled Athletes
Mission Statement
The Sport Professional Knowledge Network (SPKN) is a non-profit organization that provides sport industry professionals with the evidence-based knowledge and tools necessary to develop today’s athletes – mentally, physically, and emotionally.
New Releases
Social Issues & Ethics Assessing the Sociology of Sport: On Cultural Sensibilities and the Great Sport Myth
Up The Ladder: Chuck Walton
17 NFL Greats Who Were Terrible at the Scouting Combine
Assessing the Sociology of Sport: On Cultural Sensibilities and the Great Sport Myth
Exploring the Impact of Coaches’ Emotional Abuse on Intercollegiate Student-Athletes’ Experiences
Opinion | Russian Olympic Abuses Keep Happening. When Will Child Athletes Be Protected?
JEN SOUTHALL | Advocacy For Rights of Disabled Athletes
Up The Ladder: Chuck Walton
ASANTE CLEVELAND & DR. TREVOR COTE | Transitions and Athlete Identity
Apr 2023
FeaturedCOACH STORIES: ASANTE CLEVELAND
DR. LAURA LEWIS AND ALLISON WAGNER | US Leadership in Anti-Doping Strategies
Mar 2023
Featured
COACH STORIES: DAVID MOSELEY
Jan 2023
Featured17 NFL Greats Who Were Terrible at the Scouting Combine
May 2023
Sport ScienceAssessing the Sociology of Sport: On Cultural Sensibilities and the Great Sport Myth
Exploring the Impact of Coaches’ Emotional Abuse on Intercollegiate Student-Athletes’ Experiences
Opinion | Russian Olympic Abuses Keep Happening. When Will Child Athletes Be Protected?
For Years She Said a Coach Abused Her
Mar 2023
Social Issues & Ethics
Rethinking How To Make Weight
Dec 2022
NutritionFeatured Partner Posts
Keeping Youth Athletes Safe in a Virtual World During COVID-19 Read Sport & Family
Sean Jensen interviews SafeSport CEO Ju’Riese Colon about how protocols may change with all team sessions happening virtually during the Covid-19 lockdown. Parents are urged to outline behavioral expectations for online activities, where abuse is common. Many of the same guidelines for coaches should be followed in the same way, such as no private/1-on-1 time between coaches and youth athletes. The article closes with tips for coaches, parents, and athletes, about navigating some of these issues.
Tips and Tricks for Filing Whereabouts
This article provides an explanation of Whereabouts and why they are necessary. There are two groups that make up the overall testing pool that are subject to Whereabouts: the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) ad the Clean Athlete Program (CAP). Included are the differences between the two testing groups, as well as tips for athletes in either pool for properly filing Whereabouts.
Read Professional ResourcesAug 2022
Joan Ryan’s Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts & Figure Skaters
Sports reporter, Joan Ryan, investigates the training of girls as professional gymnasts and figure skaters, arguing that the pressure to succeed and to look beautiful results in mental and physical harm, from eating disorders to psychological trauma.
Watch Professional ResourcesMar 2023
ALISON FOLEY | Head Women’s Soccer Coach, Boston College
Alison Foley shares her experience of becoming a parent while being a coach at a D1 school. However, she is far from limiting herself to just those two roles. Foley found that her starting experience as a coach transferred not only to parenting, but to writing, starting a yoga program for soccer players, and a consultancy. Foley is not only a woman who broke the glass ceiling, but shattered it.
Watch Career DevelopmentJan 2022
NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS | The Basics
In an effort to preserve the “amateur” status, the NCAA struggles to stay in step with their own profit versus the rights of their athletes.
The NCAA announced that their college athletes will have the opportunity to benefit from their name, image and likeness beginning Thursday. Governance bodies in all three divisions today adopted a uniform interim policy suspending NCAA name, image and likeness rules for all incoming and current student-athletes in all sports.
Watch Skill Development
KRIS WEEMS | Head Player Development, Warriors Professional Basketball Team
Santa Cruz Warriors’ head coach Kris Weems shares his journey through all levels of basketball, including the coaching keys that got him to the pros. Get a inside look at what it takes to be a professional on both the players’ side, and the coaches’. Coach Weems first dives into his own development as a player. He shares what he learned as a youth and collegiate athlete, which brought him all the way to a Final Four at Stanford and then onto the NBA. Weems’ lends insight on his coaching journey from high school ball to the Santa Cruz Warriors of the NBA G League– from player development, to the court, and organizational culture.
Watch Skill Development
FRED CORRAL | Head Baseball Pitching Coach, University of Missouri
Baseball phenomenon Fred Corral shares his experience transitioning from a player to a coach and the philosophies he’s adopted along the way. He’ll dive into topics such as player and athlete development, athlete identity, and balancing winning and development. Corral shares the pressures of being a coach and balancing the job’s objective with a deeper meaning. Listen to find out how well Coach does this and simultaneously fosters meaningful relationships with the players.
Watch Skill Development
What Athletes Need to Know about Epinephrine Auto-Injectors
It is fairly common for people to have severe allergies that may require the use of an EpiPen. For athletes competing at the highest level this can get complicated as epinephrine is a banned substance according to the WADA Prohibited List. Athletes who experience an emergency and need to use an EpiPen are able to obtain a Therapeutic Use Exemption to retroactively excuse the use of a banned substance.
Read Sport ScienceJun 2022
Four Things You Should Know About Synthetic Cannabinoids
The article discusses the differences between naturally occurring cannabinoids such as THC or CBD, and synthetic cannabinoids (cannabimimetics) which are created in a laboratory. Included is a description of cannabimimetics, usage, and legality. Cannabimimetics are dangerous and illegal for anyone, but they can also be ground for disqualification if found on a drug test for an elite athlete.
Read Sport ScienceSep 2022
