Recent Interview With David Berner (Shaw TV)

During a recent interview, Dr. Wilbour Kelsick had the opportunity to talk openly about the problems that plague sports, such as corruption, doping, the unseen dark side of ‘winning at all costs,’ but also about the newly reinstated important tissue, the fascia.

The darker side of sports

When people think corruption, they often think of the so called ‘glamorous sports’ that get a lot of coverage (think cycling and the recent and not so recent doping scandals that piqued people’s attention). Yet sports such as track and field can also be hot spots for corruption. Doping is an unfortunate reality, backed by the ‘need to win at all costs’, Dr. Kelsick explains during the interview.

Why does corruption happen? Often times because athletes get persuaded by agents or managers to do whatever it takes so they get closer to winning. In Canada, we are lucky to have regulatory organisms that protects athletes from the ill effects of winning at all costs, Dr. Kelsick explains. Good, reliable team work keeps the Canadian athletes safe and that is proof that team work is essential for the overall well-being of athletes and help safeguard the legacy of competitive sports.

What can be done to help?

Dr. Kelsick’s suggestions on lessening the risk of corruption and on the need to rethink the way we look at sports and the people who engage in sports recreational and more so, at a professional level.

• Athletes are more than ‘two legs running’. An athlete is an entire person that needs to be respected as such. The human element needs to be considered.
• Athletes need a support team (medical support such as doctors, physiotherapist, and chiropractor), not just a manager, a coach and an agent. A support team keeps the athlete grounded and the risk of corruption low because of the integrative model that a support team follows
• Where there accountability, there is a lower risk of bad things happening
• Sports are not just competitions, they are a place where people get engaged in activities that help them keep connected, they form communities and, at a personal level, sports help individuals improve their lifestyle.
• The money that are now involved in sports take away from the social and other beneficial aspects of the very activities that are supposed to improve the quality

Thoughts on legacies of places that host Olympic events: if done right, such events can improve the availability of venues that help further promote an athletic lifestyle in a community (such is the case of Vancouver 2010, where the legacy is not a bitter one, compared to other worldwide locations such as Sochi).

The bright side of sports: the continuous improvement in the area of understanding the human body. The fascia, also called ‘the Cinderella tissue’ has been, Dr. Kelsick explains, the tissue that seemed too inert to be minded, not shiny enough to be considered important over the years, yet recent research reinstates fascia to a well-deserved status.

Fascia is an important connective tissue, a ‘net that connects all muscles’, Dr. Kelsick explains during the interview. A lot of injuries do not just occur in muscles but in fascia. Understanding how to train fascial tissue is a keystone in developing the right kind of exercises that ultimately improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.

The concept of fascia as well as a well-developed series of exercises featuring the ‘Cinderella tissue’ are thoroughly explained in the recent book Fascia in Sports and Movement where Dr. Kelsick authored a chapter on specific exercises for training the runner’s fascia.

Watch the interview here.