Working in Danish ice hockey: Psychological services derived from the context

Abstract

This article describes my experiences of working in Danish national junior ice hockey. I will describe the professional philosophy underpinning my services in ice hockey. I will outline the psychological services provided for the Danish junior national team that are derived from the context. In terms of identifying psychological areas of development, I used information from multiple sources, including the coaches, staff, the players and also observations of practice and competition. Three different but connected areas were targeted with the junior national team. Firstly, creating an understanding and acceptance of roles within the team. Secondly, developing effective team communication under pressure. Thirdly, learning the ability to register thoughts, release thoughts and refocus under pressure. I have then made conclusions by reflecting upon the effectiveness of services for the junior national team and the lessons learned from them.

From Imaginative Experiments to Inventive Performances: On the Role of Creativity in the Developmental Experiences of Professional Ice Hockey Players

“…Nevertheless, in the last few decades, Danish ice hockey has advanced from competing in the C-group in the IIHF National Championship to currently competing in the A-group since 2003, and progression to the quarterfinals in 2010 and 2016. Today, Denmark is the nation with the most NHL players (i.e., 14 in total) per registered player (Larsen, 2018).…”

A systematic review exploring the reflective accounts of applied sport psychology practitioners

“…Working with, and through, support staff was another way applied practitioners attempted to overcome their lack of contact time with athletes and influence the culture. Identifying, and building relationships with, key cultural influencers (Larsen, 2017b;Mellalieu, 2017) was almost exclusively mentioned by experienced practitioners as a way of: further integrating as a member of the support staff (Bull, 1995); reinforcing their 'presence' (Males, 2006); earning trust and respect (Fifer et al, 2008); and creating 'buy-in' to support the implementation of the psychology programme (Cotterill, 2017). This provided the experienced practitioners with the opportunity to impact the athletes indirectly by working with the coaches (Cotterill, 2012;Loehr, 1990), but also ensured that psychological support and provision was extended to the staff (Bull, 1995) and delivered to key stakeholders within the environment (Neff, 1990).…”

“…Newly qualified practitioners acknowledged the difficulties of evaluating their own practice (Henriksen, 2015) and used a variety of methods in an attempt to achieve this (quantitative; Hung et al, 2008, qualitative;Larsen, 2017b, and based on theoretically informed practice; Howells, 2017). Experienced practitioners judged the quality of their service delivery based on the feedback gained from their clients (the nature and quality of the relationship and their engagement with the process; Bull, 1995;Neff, 1990;Tod, 2008) and also discussed the need to add value (Gordon, 2014), especially when working as part of a multi-disciplinary team (Larsen, 2017b). However, experienced practitioners did express concerns about not having anything 'tangible' to offer (Tod, 2007), as well as the challenges of measuring 'impact' (Gordon, 2014).…”

Team Denmark’s sport psychology professional philosophy 2.0

“…(5) The fifth level describes the concrete psychological services that are delivered. The philosophy is built upon the idea that good sport psychological intervention requires consistency across all five levels of which we have previously provided examples Henriksen, 2015;Henriksen, 2019;Larsen, 2017a;Larsen, 2017b;Diment, 2014).…”