Jacques Dallaire

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Dr. Jacques Dallaire

Dr. Jacques Dallaire (born September 2, 1953), is a performance scientist and consultant in professional sport and business. He has worked with more than 500 occupational professionals and auto racing drivers on mental and physical testing and performance. His list of clients in sport include many of today's top auto racing stars from Nascar, Indy Racing League, Champ Car and many sports car series (see below for notable alumni). Dr. Dallaire is the President of both Dallaire Consulting LLC and Human Performance International (HPI) Inc, and is based in Concord, North Carolina.

1 Early years and education
2 Research and career
3 Personal life
4 Notable auto racing alumni
5 External links

[edit] Early years and education

During Dr. Dallaire's youth, he participated in a variety of community-level and school-based sports programs extending through his undergraduate years at the University of Ottawa where he competed as a member of the university soccer and gymnastics teams. Dr. Dallaire received his Masters Degree in Exercise Science in 1976 from the University of Ottawa and headed west later that summer (to the University of Alberta in Edmonton) to begin work on his doctoral program in Exercise Physiology. He received his Doctoral degree in 1979 while also serving as a sessional teaching appointment at the University of Alberta in the Department of Physical Education.

[edit] Research and career

Throughout his five year tenure as a graduate student in exercise science in the late seventies, Dr. Jacques Dallaire assisted his academic advisors by serving as a technician. He participated in a number of performance evaluation and consulting projects directed at such varied populations as firefighters and law enforcement professionals as well as a host of professional and Olympic-level amateur athletes from a cross-section of the sport world. Following graduation in 1979, Dr. Dallaire relocated to Montreal (Quebec, Canada) to take on a teaching/research position in the Department of Physical Education at McGill University. In this capacity, he continued to be involved as a principal consultant in the development of performance programs addressing the needs of a variety of high-performance athletes and occupational professionals.

In 1983, as part of his teaching assignment, Dr. Dallaire was tasked to teach a final-year course within the department, entitled “Scientific Principles of Training and Conditioning”. He designed the course requirements to challenge students to integrate the various disciplines of exercise science in meeting the needs of individuals who sought to improve their personal performance. One of his students, a young man by the name of René Fagnan (presently, an automotive journalist and motorsport magazine editor), selected the motor racing driver as his ‘subject’ for the comprehensive training program that was a requirement for the course. Through a series of odd twists and turns, Dr. Dallaire soon found himself at the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula 1 in June 1983, measuring in-car heart rate response levels during practice and qualifying with none other than Formula 1 stars Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet. While data collection met with some technical difficulties due to the extreme environment of the Formula 1 race car, the experience launched Dr. Dallaire down a path that would see him work directly with more than 500 high-performance racers from 35 countries and just about every form of racing on the planet… a passion that continues to this day.

In early 1984, Dr. Dallaire was joined in his efforts by colleague and friend Dr. Dan Marisi, a sport and educational psychology specialist, and the program the two scientists developed over the years expanded to include mental skills evaluation and training in addition to the physiology component. Until his untimely death in 1999, Dr. Marisi played a key role with Dr. Dallaire in the development and delivery of the performance enhancement activities that ultimately became known around the world as the Human Performance International (HPI) program. Dr. Dallaire continues to serve as President of HPI to this day.

In late 1984, Dr. Dallaire was recruited by the then Director General of Sport Canada, Ms. Abby Hoffman, and the President of the Canadian Association of Sport Sciences to become the Manager of Science and Medicine Programs at Sport Canada (a major department within the Canadian Government’s Ministry of Fitness and Amateur Sport). This was a newly-created position that he maintained until mid-1992. In this post, Dr. Dallaire served as the primary coordinator of the science and medicine support initiatives aimed at the more than 70 Canadian National Sport Governing Bodies as well as the direct liaison between the Canadian Federal Government and the Sport Medicine Council of Canada and its member agencies. During the eight years he fulfilled the demanding obligations of his government position, Dr. Dallaire also maintained an active role on evenings and weekends as Co-Founder of the Motor Sport Research Group at McGill University and as a consultant working directly with a variety of high-performance athletes and racing drivers.

In 1992, Drs. Dallaire and Marisi relocated to the Daytona Beach area to tackle the continued development and delivery of their performance programs on a full-time basis. While the sport of motor racing represented the lion’s share of their early clientele, the HPI program also welcomed athletes from other sports as well as various high-performance occupational professionals. The program continued to evolve and in late 1998, the duo decided to move the company to the Charlotte (NC) area where it continues to operate today.

Since the death of Dr. Marisi in 1999, the primary responsibility for program development and delivery has fallen to Dr. Dallaire. In 2005, he became the primary consultant and chief scientist for Dallaire Consulting LLC, an organization that was founded to further expand his performance enhancement activities in the corporate environment and beyond. The company’s mission has broadened and today, Dr. Dallaire’s activities include program and product development that extends beyond the world of sport to include high-performance corporate and occupational domains, as well as the field of rehabilitation.

Over the past 30 years, Dr. Dallaire has been exposed to the application of a great many sport science and medicine strategies and techniques within the high-performance sport world and has been in an excellent position to monitor what has been effective and what has not. Over this time, he has refined his understanding of what is missing in the performance enhancement equation and continues to focus on addressing these perceived needs. Dr. Dallaire is a Founding Member of the International Council of Motorsport Sciences (ICMS) and has been an ongoing member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology (CSEP).

[edit] Personal life

Dr. Dallaire is married and he and his wife Fern have been blessed with four children. He enjoys digital photography and working with computers, and is looking forward to learning more about video production in the coming years.

[edit] Notable auto racing alumni

Adrian Fernandez - Racing driver and co-owner of the Super Aguri Fernandez Racing IRL team
Ayrton Senna - Formula One triple world champion
Cristiano da Matta - 2002 Champ Car champion and former Toyota Formula One driver
Eddie Cheever Jr. - Racing driver for almost thirty years in Formula One, Sports cars, CART and the Indy Racing League, and current owner of an IRL team
Helio Castroneves - Indianapolis 500 2-time winner
Jack Sprague - NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 3-time champion
Jeff Gordon - NASCAR Nextel Cup Series 4-time champion
Ron Fellows - 24 Hour of LeMans 3-time winner, 24 Hours of Daytona winner, American LeMans Series 2-time champion
Sam Hornish Jr. - Indy Racing League 2-time champion and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner
Scott Pruett - SCCA Trans-Am 3-time champion, 24 Hours of Daytona winner
Tony Kanaan - Indy Racing League 2004 champion
Ward Burton - NASCAR Nextel Cup 5-time winner