SPIN Summit 2012

Dr. Cresswell from St. Pauls using a self made shoulder model
to demo musculoskeletal ultrasound- brilliant!

as we are always excited to learn more and see different points of view to make our own practices and skills even better!

I just got the chance through my involvement with Cycling Canada, to participate in the Sport Innovation conference or SPIN conference, put on by Own the Podium, an organization that provides national sport organizations with funding for high level athletes participating at the Olympic Games.

This conference was so uniquely beneficial to me in so many ways!

1. First off it made me aware of the mandates of own the podium and also some of the "inner structure" of the organization of sport. I have taken for granted the processes that I have gone about working with my athletes, not really thinking too much about funding that pays the athletes, that gets everyone to events and pays my stipends etc. It was super cool to see things from a different perspective and understand a little bit more about sport in Canada!

2. The networking experience- attending the conference were many people that I had met from the Olympics a month and a half ago. Perfect timing to follow up and re-connect! I am so lucky to have had the experiences that I did at the Olympics this summer!

3. The different types of presentations, workshops and learning experiences than some of the typical conferences that I attend. Taking into consideration the wide variety of knowledge and skills of the 100 participants (coaches, physiologists, sport med docs, strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists *the brilliant Jeff Cubos and I were the only chiros present!) the topics encompassed a wider range of IST topics than usual.

4. To close the conference, Olympic Champion Beckie Scott talked about her personal athletic journey which was a huge bonus. I am a sucker for this type of thing and love hearing people's stories, and what types of things helped make them successful and Beckie's story was really unique! From her battles in her individual rising in the sport to the success of the national organization, Beckie had a really amazing story!

Case study of Mark DeJonge, Olympic Bronze Medallist
in London discussing all the technologies that
helped him in his quest to 2012!

Beckie Scott, and her amazing journey. 

An AMAZING colleague of mine, Dr. Jeff Cubos, has written an awesome blog on this conference that he also took part in. It was great to speak with Jeff as he's totally an inspiration and source of learning for me as he's pretty much a master at "continuing education" we'll call it. Read about his experiences here.