Sleep hygiene - summary of behavioural and environmental techniques to optimize your sleep. Optimizing this has more evidence than anything else when it comes to sleep.

Sleep helps with injury recovery and emotional regulation. 1 extra hour significantly improves performance and leads to less mental errors (Mah et al., 2011).

What you should be doing:

• Keep a consistent sleep schedule, even on off days. Include a wind down routine. Check out that sleep hygiene link above and do these things.

• Avoid screens 1–2 hours before bed, caffeine 6 hours ideally.

• Blackout curtains or sleep mask can help in hotels.

• Supplements: Melatonin, Magnesium (L-threonate and bisglycinate), L-Theanine all have good evidence. Reach out if you have questions

More sleep tips can be found here.

Napping for Peak Performance

What’s the optimal napping time?

20-30 mins for most people

Why Cap It at 45 Minutes?

• Avoid “sleep inertia.” Waking during deep sleep (30–60 mins for most) leads to grogginess and worse reaction time.
• Naps over 30–45 min impair alertness and cognitive performance. (Tietzel & Lack (2002).
• Short naps (20–30 min) boost focus and improve performance.

Pro Nap Tips for Hockey Players

• Set an alarm: 20–30 min keeps you sharp, avoids grogginess.
• Nap early: ideally 6–8 hours before bedtime to avoid hurting sleep pressure.
• Create a nap zone: dark (mask), cool (19c/66f), quiet (earplugs), or white noise if it helps.
• Try a caffeine nap: drink coffee/espresso shot, nap 20 min, wake up boosted.

Bottom Line

Keep naps short. Evidence supports 20 to 30 minutes. That’s enough to improve alertness, reaction time, and recovery without interfering with your sleep or your shift.

Goal Setting

Why It Matters

• Players with clear goals consistently outperform those without.
• Goal setting improves motivation, attention, and execution.
• Process-driven athletes have greater consistency and lower stress.

What Helps

• Set SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-bound.
• Break big goals into daily/weekly habits.
• Track progress visibly – notes app, whiteboard, journal.
• Use mental contrast – visualize success as well as failures/obstacles.
• Reflect & adjust. Great goal-setters course-correct regularly.

Stats

• Athletes with SMART goals are 20–30% more likely to improve performance (Weinberg, 2009).
• Writing down goals boosts achievement by over 40% (Matthews, 2015).

Next Step

Want to build a personal goal plan? Click here to get started or reach out whenever.

Focus & Attention:

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Focus gets torched by long shifts, bad calls, turnovers, getting chirped, or thinking about your last play/shift. It’s normal. But elite players can reset between whistles and re-commit within seconds.

When your attention drifts, your reads slow down, decisions get rushed, and you start reacting instead of dictating. Mental resets = physical execution.

Good news: it’s trainable and easy to learn.

WHAT HELPS:

• Use a “reset routine.” After every shift/mistake, you can exhale, say a trigger word (e.g., reset, next, or dialled), and shift your eyes to a specific target (e.g., puck drop, boards, bench). Keeps you anchored in the present.

Practice mindfulness - find something quick that works well for you. Try out the five senses method.

• Zoom in your focus. Ask yourself: What’s my job this shift? Stick to one clear thing. Track the puck, win the wall battle, find space in the slot, etc.

• Simulate pressure in practice. Between drills, have a teammate chirp, bump, or create chaos. Run it again.

• Practice “switching on.” Use the same cue (like tapping your stick or teammate) every time you’re about to jump the boards.

• Shorten your attention window. Don’t think about the full game. Just this shift. Just this touch. Just this battle.

Managing Negative Self-Talk

What to Know:

• Self-talk shapes confidence, decision-making, and performance.

• Negative self-talk can lead to overthinking, doubt, and poor execution.

• Elite athletes train their internal dialogue just like their physical skills.

What Helps:

• Catch it. Notice critical or defeatist thoughts.

• Challenge it. Would you say that to a teammate?

• Change it. Reframe to performance-focused cues

• Practice. Replace negative self-talk with 1–2 go-to mantras under pressure.

• Use self-talk resets between shifts to stay locked in.

Playing Under Pressure

What to Know:

Pressure doesn’t mean something’s wrong. It means it matters.

High arousal can narrow focus or trigger panic depending on how you frame it.

Learning to ride pressure waves is what separates good from elite.

What Helps:

Anchor your attention. Find a physical cue (grip, skate tap, tighten strap) to center yourself.

Use box breathing. 4 seconds in, 4 hold, 4 out, 4 hold. Repeat.

Name the moment. Acknowledge the pressure to neutralize it ('This is a big moment, and I’m ready for it').

Shrink the task. Focus on the next action only, not the outcome.

Reps build trust. Train pressure situations in practice to know how it feels game day.

Visualization

What to Know:

Visualization activates the same brain regions as physical performance.

Regular mental rehearsal improves skill execution, confidence, and consistency.

Pro athletes should use visualization/imagery as part of their daily routine.

What Helps:

Be specific. Visualize full routines, decisions, and successful outcomes.

Engage the senses. Include feel, sound, timing, and tempo.

Use first-person POV. See it through your own eyes, not like watching yourself.

Keep it short. 2–5 minutes pre-practice or before games is enough.

Visualize how you’ll handle adversity too (bad bounces, tough breaks).

Mental Health 101

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Playing in the NHL is high-pressure, high-stakes, and nonstop.

Feeling off (mentally, emotionally, physically) doesn’t mean you’re weak, it means you’re carrying a heavy load.

You’re not alone. Over 35% of elite athletes experience symptoms of mental illness during their careers (Gouttebarge et al., 2019, Br J Sports Med).

Mental health isn’t just about getting out of a hole, it’s about training the part of your game that controls focus, energy, recovery, and confidence.

Addressing it early keeps you sharp and performing at your best.

WHAT HELPS:

• Performance is mental. How you think, focus, and reset all impact what happens on the ice.

• Struggling is common but staying stuck isn’t necessary. This is trainable. Mental health isn’t fixed. Tools, habits, and support improve it, just like strength and stamina.

• You don’t have to figure it out alone.

• Early tune-ups = long-term edge. Players who take care of their mindset stay more consistent, bounce back quicker, and stay in the league longer.

Breaking out of a slump

What to Know
Slumps happen because focus shifts to stats and outcomes instead of the habits that create them. Over‑thinking = tight muscles, slower reads, second‑guessing.

Why It Matters
Athletes who switch their attention from outcomes to controllable process cues (“shift length, battle wins, shot volume”) get out of performance slumps noticeably faster. Sport‑psychology coaches report a 22 % shorter slump duration when athletes adopt a process focus compared with point‑chasing. (PeakSports Mental‑Game Blog, 2021).

What Helps

Process → Not results . Rate your shift on controllables: effort, positioning, energy, etc.
Win the next battle . One forecheck, one puck‑race, one clean breakout.
Shrink the game. Focus on your first two strides & tape‑to‑tape passes.
Positive inventory. At intermission, list 3 micro‑wins (good stick, hard back‑check, net drive).
Reset routine. Deep breath on the bench, glove squeeze, cue word “reset.”

Try This
Before next game write one “Process Goal” (e.g., 5 hard forechecks). Track it and ignore outcomes/points.

Confidence Reset Post-Injury

What You Should Know:

Coming back from injury impacts your timing, but more importantly, your confidence. Research

shows that fear of re-injury is one of the top predictors of performance drops post-return (Ardern et al., 2013).

Mental recovery isn’t automatic. Athletes who actively retrain their confidence outperform those who just hope it returns.

What Helps:

• Reps rebuild confidence. Confidence follows reps, not the other way around.

• Break goals down. Start with movements or drills that feel safe.

• Track small wins. Don’t wait for game stats to see progress.

• Talk it out. Naming fear shrinks it.

• Visualize successful reps. Your brain believes what it rehearses.

Depression, Performance & the Mental Game

What You Should Know:

• Depression doesn’t always look like sadness. It can feel like fatigue, frustration, brain fog, or disconnection.

• It slows reaction time, dulls decision-making, drains confidence, and makes it harder to recover from mistakes.

• Negative self-talk ("I suck," "I'm not good enough””maybe I don’t got it”) directly sabotages focus, execution, and chemistry.

• These are thoughts and they are symptoms, not truths. They can be changed.

• CBT skills (like reframing negative thoughts, identifying distortions, and grounding in facts) help clear mental clutter so that your confidence works in your favour, not against you.

• Common thinking traps are errors in thinking that make things worse. All-or-nothing thinking, mind-reading, catastrophizing. None help performance.

• Training your mind to notice and shift these patterns sharpens your edge.

If you (or someone you know) would like to know more, reach out whenever. Whether your partner/kids are struggling to adjust to living in Wpg, or you’re feeling more down lately, we’re here to help. It’s 100% confidential.

Substance Use: Performance & Recovery

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

No one sets out to have a problem with alcohol or drugs. But between pressure, injuries, poor sleep, and the need to unwind, habits can build fast.

Substances like alcohol, cannabis, sleeping pills, stimulants, and painkillers can all interfere with recovery, focus, sleep, and reaction time. Even casual use can affect your game without you realizing it.

The NHLPA’s mental health report found that 25% of players surveyed had concerns about their own or a teammate’s substance use.

WHAT HELPS:

• Track patterns. If you’re using something to sleep, escape, or deal with pain, check in.

• Know the effects. Know what it costs. See the “substance info” tab for more

• Don’t wait for it to get bad. If you’re wondering if it’s a problem, that’s reason enough to talk.

• Alternatives help. Recovery tools, better sleep plans, and support can reduce the need to reach for a fix.

• You’re not alone. A lot of elite athletes go through it. Take their word for it.

Substance Misuse

What You Should Know:

Substances can impact your health and performance.
Everything in moderation is probably fine.…except meth.
It’s important to go out with friends and wind down, have fun.
I want you to know what these substances do and how they impact performance, so you can make a judgment call.
If it’s getting hard to control or you’re battling, reach out.

CANNABIS & PERFORMANCE

What You Should Know:

• It impairs reaction time and hand-eye coordination for up to 24 hours (Volkow et al., 2014).

• Disrupts REM sleep—slows muscle and brain recovery (Babson et al., 2017).

• Reduces drive and goal-directed behaviour with chronic use.

• Weakens decision-making and real-time awareness in high-speed environments.

ALCOHOL & PERFORMANCE

What You Should Know:

• Slows recovery: reduces testosterone, increases cortisol, and interferes with protein synthesis (Lakicevic, 2019).

• Worsens sleep quality: suppresses REM and increases nighttime awakening.

• Impairs reaction time and balance, usually the day of and day after drinking.

• Linked with higher injury rates in elite athletes (O’Brien & Lyons, 2000).