Conference

With 30 years of experience in player development, Ken is now charged with providing a framework for associations nationwide to follow for athlete development. He has won several awards for his efforts using science to advance sport including the USOPC inaugural Coach Educator of the Year in 2019.

USA Hockey’s ADM Manager for Female hockey earned her master’s degree in Exercise Science from The George Washington University (GW). As Research Associate with Dr. Amanda J. Visek, she co-authored the original FUN MAPS paper entitled, “The fun integration theory: Toward sustaining children and adolescents’ sport participation” published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health. Passionate about intersecting sport psychology with research and applied practice, Ms. Mannix is dedicated to promoting positive sporting experiences in player development at all levels of the game. She currently serves on the Curriculum Committee, Girls/Women’s Section, and Youth Council for USA Hockey.

Dr. Larry Lauer is a mental skills specialist for USTA Player Development and heads the mental performance team. As a PD team member Larry has worked with junior, transitional pro and professional tennis players, and the national coaching staff, training at the three national player development centers. Larry has a Ph.D in exercise and sport science, specializing in sport psychology from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. He has been a sport psychology consultant for over two decades with elite tennis players from juniors, college, and pros. Larry was an assistant coach and mental coach for Michigan State Men’s Tennis for three years, helping the team reach the 2013 NCAA tournament. Formerly, Larry was the Director of Coaching Education and Development in the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports (ISYS) at Michigan State University. At ISYS Larry conducted research on tennis parents, coaching, coach education, aggression in hockey, and life skills development in youth. He also was involved in training Detroit police officers and coaches to mentor youth athletes for the Detroit PAL. During his stay in Michigan, Larry worked for nearly 9 years as the mental performance consultant to USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. An AASP Certified Mental Performance Coach and listed in the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry, 2020-2022, Larry was named one of the 100 Most Influential Sport Educators in America by the Institute for International Sport for his work in developing and leading the Playing Tough and Clean Hockey Program. He also received the 2017 “Doc” Councilman Science Award for Tennis. As an advocate of sport in perspective, Larry has appeared on ESPN’s Outside the Lines and HBO’s State of Play show Trophy Kids, and has been interviewed by many media outlets including USA Today, the New York Times, Time.com, and the LA Times.

In the past Larry was a hockey director at the Pineville Ice House in Charlotte, NC and the Flyers SkateZone in Pennsauken, NJ. He also worked with USA Hockey's Coaching Education Program to deliver coaching courses (Levels 1-4) in the Southeast District. When Larry moved to Michigan and opened his own consulting business he had the fortune to work as a mental performance consultant for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (at that time located in Ann Arbor, MI). While his path took him to a full-time position at USTA Player Development, Larry has stayed engaged with hockey as a mental coach, presenter, coach educator, and currently as a coach for his son's 14U team in Orlando, FL.

After many years working with developing Swedish child- and youth sport as manager at the Swedish Sport Confederation I took my knowledge and experieces with me to the Swedish Ice hockey Association. I am passionate about development and education and honestly believe that the knowledge and competence of coaches is the key to the improvement work in our sport.

I have been working in sport field about 30 years already as a trainer, coaches supervisor, mental coach, clinical sport psychologist, psychotherapist and researcher. I have worked also as a coach and I have sport at the competition level e.g. rowing.

Hero joined Jokerit's KHL team in the 2017-18 season as a physical coach and physiotherapist. He has a long experience at the top of Finnish hockey. Before joining Jokerit, Hero worked for Pori Assat in the Finnish Liiga from 2008 in the roles of physiotherapist and physio coach. He has also worked for the National Under-20 team for three seasons and for the Finnish National Team since 2016-17, including the SM-liiga championship, the under-20 World Championship gold medal and the Men's World Championship gold medal. Hero has also spent several summers coaching the Dallas Stars NHL team. Before joining Assat, he worked as a physiotherapist for the ice hockey club Narukere.

Hard working coach who believes that attitude reflects leadership and always looking for work ethic and coachability. Dedicated, inspiring and innovative coach who strives to develop young hockey players, their habits and techniques. Possess in depth experience in practice planning for forwards, defensemen, concepts, and player development practices. Believe that development comes from an environment where coaches challenge players to play to achieve instead of avoid and that individual repetions building confidence.

A young coach, whos passion is continuous improvement and development. The journey is the thing that matters, the result will take care of itself. Enjoys in life all kinds of racket sports, good food and wine, and a lot of laughter.

I am a father to my amazing son Connor, and a husband to my brilliant wife Regan. I am a lover of sport and an aspiring academic doing research in athlete leadership and positive youth development through sport.

Absent-minded father of three sons who enjoys playing sports and doing various activities with his family. Passionate about history, ball sports and sport psychology…

Busy & proud father of two, a Gooner and jack of all trades, master of none at home.

A M.Sc in business administration, coach in national level floorball and a leader in business for several years. With a passion for sports, competing and developing people, Eero’s mission is to help our customers succeed in building a more successful environment for their organization.

Laura has long history of working in the field of mental health care, -wellbeing and performance. She aims to strengthen psychological safety and resilience to enable athletes' balanced development in all levels.

Diane Culver is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa in Canada. Her research interests include coach development and qualitative research. She is currently funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to research parasport coaching, and women in sport organisations. Diane is on the editorial boards of several journals including the International Sport Coaching Journal, Sport Coaching Review, and the Canadian Journal for Women in Coaching. In her teaching, research, and consulting she is particularly interested in social learning theory and building social learning capability in sport. Diane is also an Alpine ski coach who has worked with all levels of skiers from youth to Olympic levels. She now coaches masters skiers and mentors youth coaches.

Dr. Gordon Bloom is a Professor and director of the Sport Psychology Research Laboratory (http://sportpsych.mcgill.ca) in the Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Bloom has developed an internationally-recognized coaching research program related to the knowledge, strategies, and behaviours employed by coaches in terms of leadership practices, mentoring, and team building that are designed to develop successful and well-balanced athletes. Dr. Bloom has incorporated the findings of his research in his role as a sport psychology consultant with amateur, professional, Olympic, and Paralympic athletes. He has also received numerous invitations from academic and sport coaching associations to present his research and practical experiences to scientists, administrators, and coaches at various levels of sport around the world

Born and raised in Canada, Dr. Wade Gilbert is an internationally renowned coaching consultant and award-winning professor in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University – Fresno. He is author of the highly acclaimed book Coaching Better Every Season and Editor Emeritus of the International Sport Coaching Journal. In addition to serving as consultant to many college and high school coaches, Gilbert is a long-time advisor to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Coach Education Department, is the lead author of the USOPC Quality Coaching Framework, and primary coach education consultant for USA Football. Gilbert has counseled coaches and sport organizations around the world spanning all competitive levels and in every sport imaginable. Wade also served as the mental performance coach for Team Canada (softball) at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, helping the team win the program’s first Olympic medal ever.

A stout proponent of face-to-face communication in the age of the internet, Salla enjoys Traveling, reading, and art in all its forms, and spends her summers in a cottage on an island, following the example of her beloved grandmother and the artist Tove Jansson.

I am innately curious, a lifelong learner and passionate about the coach and athlete development process. Throughout my 35-year career as an international coach, I continue to fine-tune my delivery using a unique game-based curriculum as a learning environment, where constraints and questioning are intentionally applied within a fun, competitive context. Coaches and athletes across all ages and levels have demonstrated improvement in their tactical understanding, independent decision-making and creative problem-solving from this unique approach. I enjoy moments of quiet reflection and active recreation in nature: get outside!

Father of four kids, enthusiastic to learn and grow, open to new people and networks, coach of coaches and coach developers

Senior lecturer at HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences. Worked previously at the Finnish Olympic Committee as an expert in Coach Development. Her life’s mission is to help coaches and coach developers. Kirsi Hämäläinen has worked over 30 years as a coach developer at different levels and developing coach education systems in Finland. Her coaching career was mainly on fitness coaching in many sports – coaching both men and women and athletes of different ages. Her doctoral dissertation was about ethics in coaching focusing on coach-athlete relationship. She has had many positions of trust in sports organizations in Finland and she is one of the founding members of the ICCE.

Andy has worked in coaching and coach development since 1995. He has experience in community and high performance sport environments. His passion is in the design and implementation of learning and behaviour change programmes including supporting New Zealand coaches to redefine success in their coaching practice by building their capability to deliver quality experience for all participants. In his current role Andy leads coach development for Sport NZ who have radically shifted the coaching systems in New Zealand over the past 5-10 years including the implementation of a Coach Developer workforce of more than 600 volunteer and paid coach developers. More recently Andy has spent 3 years as a trainer supporting the ICCE/NCDA Coach Developer Academy in Japan.