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Applied sport psychology students undergo, more or less, changes in how they see themselves professionally as service providers as they proceed through their graduate training. Knowledge about early professional development, changes, and conflicts would likely help trainees, supervisors, and educators enhance the quality of applied sport psychology education. In this study, we interviewed Australian trainee applied sport psychologists (5 females, 3 males, age range 22-32 years) on three occasions about their development as practitioners across the first 2 years of their graduate education. Trainees' motivations for becoming practitioners and their models of service evolved over the 2 years. When first interacting with clients, trainees often adopted rigid "expert" problem-solving approaches to service delivery. With time and more experience, some individuals began to focus on developing relationships with clients and adapting wider and more flexible interventions to suit athletes' needs. The experiences of our sample inform trainees' early professional development, and our findings parallel studies from mainstream counseling psychology.For applied sport psychologists in training, one central area of professional growth is the development of service delivery competence, a term not clearly defined in the literature. Drawing on studies in which coaches, athletes, and experienced consultants discussed effective practice recently described service delivery competence as a multidimensional constellation of knowledge, skills, and processes in which practitioners: (a) meet clients' needs and expectations, (b) develop and maintain mutually beneficial relationships, (c) understand psychological interventions and apply them to assist athletes in specific situations, (d) empathize with athletes' situations and interpret them through the lenses of suitable theories or models, and (e) reflect on how they (the practitioners) have influenced the interactions and outcomes of service provision. This definition of service delivery competence may be helpful for identifying the skills and abilities that practitioners are striving to master as they mature professionally.

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Surgeons interested in learning and performing minimally invasive aortic valve replacement must have expertise in conventional aortic valve replacement at centers with adequate case volumes. A team approach that coordinates efforts of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, perfusionist, and nurses is required to achieve the best clinical outcomes. By first developing fundamental minimally invasive skills using specialized cannulation techniques, neck lines, and long-shafted instruments in the setting of conventional full sternotomy, the safest operative environment is afforded to patients.

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