Conference Mental resilience on the ice and in life

Guests

Robert Reichel Olympic champion, 3x World Champion, national team coach, father of an NHL player
Michala Bednáriková specialist in applied sport psychology, president of the Slovak Association of Sport Psychology, vice-president of the European Federation of Sport Psychology

SportLead:
Jan Procházka – mental coach, trainer with experience from 3 Olympic Games, 12 World Championships, 2 World Championship titles, 7 years as sport director and head coach
Kateřina Vejvodová –sports psychologist, graduate of Florida State University, vice-president of the Association of Sport Psychologists of the Czech Republic
Kateřina Mahlerová –mental coach, teacher, former national basketball player, participant of the World Championships
Tomáš Tmej – mental coach, graduate in sport psychology in England

Conference registration

About the conference

Dear parents, athletes, coaches,

We warmly invite you to a sports conference focused on strengthening mental resilience not only on the ice, but also in everyday life. The conference will provide you with valuable information. You will gain tools to help you effectively support your children and help them develop mental resilience in sport, but also in school and in everyday life. Get inspiration from experts in the field of sport psychology, sport practice and personal development. Together with us you will discover how to perceive challenges, how to cope with stress and pressure and how to develop your children into mentally strong and healthy individuals. We look forward to meeting you and having interesting discussions about mental resilience in children, adolescents, and us adults.

What you will learn at the conference ?

• The importance of mental resilience and mental health: how does mental resilience and mental health affect performance and success in sport and life?
• Mental Resilience Techniques: practical tools and exercises to strengthen your mental resilience.
• Success stories: inspiring stories of athletes, parents and coaches who have overcome challenges through their mental resilience.
• Educating children for mental resilience and mental health: the importance of building mental resilience and mental health at a young age.
• Mental resilience in childhood and its implications for adulthood: what are the benefits of developing mental resilience at an early age, and how to help children overcome obstacles?
• Integrating mental training into educational programmes: how coaches, parents and educators work together to promote children's mental health.

Program

Introduction of guests and SportLead

Robert Reichel:
Robert Reichel, a member of the IIHF and Czech Hockey Hall of Fame who excelled as a center in the NHL and captain of the national team, is known for his great leadership and mental toughness in tense situations. His career includes a win at the Olympics, 3 wins at the World Championships and many more medals in the national team jersey. He also raised his son Kristian, who is now playing for the Winnipeg Jets. Reichel's mental strength and leadership influenced Kristian's career and approach to hockey. After his active career, he embarked on a coaching career and has been sharing his knowledge with the national team and the Czech Extraliga for several years. He currently works as an assistant coach with the U20 national hockey team, with whom he won a bronze medal at last year's U20 World Championship, and also as an assistant coach with HC Verva Litvínov. His hockey story is an example of how mental resilience manifests itself on the ice and in life.

Michala Bednáriková:
Michala Bednáriková studied psychology at the FiF of the Charles University in Bratislava. During her studies she started to profile herself in the field of sport psychology, which she finished with her master thesis "Borderline situations in sport". Since then she has continued her education in the field of sport psychology and annually participates in international conferences and workshops in the field of sport psychology. In 2018, the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC) awarded her the Specialist in Applied Sport Psychology (SASP-FEPSAC) certificate. She works with athletes from individual and team sports, as well as with their parents and coaches. Since June 2023, she has been part of the implementation team of the Slovak national junior hockey team. Before that, she worked for 3 years with the U18 junior team at the Dukla Trenčín Hockey Academy. She conducts seminars and lectures for sports organizations at home and abroad (CZ, POL, HR, RO). She is also active in professional organizations dealing with sports psychology. In 2011-2019 she was a member of the Executive Committee of ENYSSP (European Network of Young Specialists in Sport Psychology) for two terms. Since 2017 she has been the President of the Slovak Association of Sport Psychology and in 2019 she was also elected as a member of the Executive Committee of FEPSAC, where she holds the position of Vice President after her re-election in 2022.

Presentation of Sport Lead

Jan Procházka:
Jan Procházka is the director and mental coach of the international company Sport Lead. He was also the mental coach of the international Mentally Fit Institute based in Brussels. He is a lecturer at the International Leadership Academy, a branch of the Netherlands Private University, where he is the Programme Director of the MBA Leaders in Sport. He is a member of the Czech Coaching Academy of the Czech Olympic Committee, for which he has presented at many Dialogues for Coaches and Parents seminars, published professional articles in Coach magazine and participated in several international internships in elite global sports academies in the USA, Canada, England, France, Germany and Leaders seminars. His continuous personal development has helped him work his way up from the position of video coach to the role of assistant coach of the Czech national hockey team, participating in 3 Olympic Games and 12 World Championships, including two World Championship titles. He also served as assistant coach of the Czech national inline hockey team and as sports manager of the Czech floorball team. He has worked as a head coach in France and for the last 5 years in Italy as a youth sports director, director of player development.

Kateřina Vejvodová:
Katka has been playing tennis since childhood and through tennis she made it to the NCAA, where she represented Kansas State University in the top division. During her career, she learned the power of sports psychology, which captivated her and she continues to pursue it today. She earned her Master's Degree in Sport Psychology with a red diploma from Florida State University and has been helping athletes, coaches and parents reach their potential since 2012. She has been a member of Sport Lead since 2022 and specializes in individual sports, working with youth and mental training for professional athletes. She regularly prepares Czech athletes for the European Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games and has helped Bára and Maki to become world leaders in 2018 (the cooperation lasted for 2 years and started in spring 2017) or David Drahonínský to win gold at the Paralympics in Tokyo (archery) or to set several world records.

Kateřina Mahlerová:
Mom, educator, career consultant, mental coach, tennis and basketball coach. Kate has spent nearly 20 years in elite sport. She has been through every national basketball category since the age of 15. She has played in European cups, was one of the most productive players in the Czech Extraliga, and also participated in the 2006 World Championship in Brazil. She was able to return to top form after a prolonged knee injuries that sidelined her from professional sports for two years. She eventually turned her hard fall to the bottom of the sport into her strength. She began studying for her coaching license first and ended up with a master's degree. Her reward for her hard training on her way back to elite basketball was the Women's Basketball League MVP title and participation in the 2012 World Championships in Athens in 3x3 basketball.

Lecture annotations

Kateřina Vejvodová - How does Sport Lead help HC Dynamo Pardubice players develop mental resilience and mental health?
Every young team sport player has to be able to deal with a lot of uncontrollable influences in their career that can affect their motivation, performance and overall mental well-being. Mentally resilient players will always cope better with adverse influences (such as injuries, stress, team conflicts, mistakes or game crises that reduce confidence, concentration and motivation) than those who are not. Hundreds of studies point to the benefits of mental training and scientifically confirm the benefits of mental training in youth and adults. How do we implement mental training at the best club in the country? What areas do we focus on and how do we work on them with the players (or coaches)? And how can you help to create an optimal environment and contribute to your own child's success?

Michala Bednáriková - Long-term development of a young hockey player
The road to a professional career is a long one, more winding for some than for others, but certainly every player overcomes many obstacles and challenges along the way. In the end, the most successful players are those who overcome them all. Every professional hockey player was once that little kid who was captivated by hockey, that young player who often lost to his team or had to overcome various obstacles - some injuries, others short "ice-time" or lack of shooting efficiency. They all have one thing in common, no matter what happened, they managed to stick with hockey into adulthood and that's when they made their mark. The fact is that not all young players make it, even if they do everything right. But that doesn't mean that their playing experience wasn't worth it, even if their boyhood hockey dreams didn't come true. That's why during this talk we will focus on the obstacles and challenges young players have to overcome during their development, and most importantly, how different people (parents, coaches, sports psychologists, etc.) can help them reach their potential. Among other things, we will also talk about the difference between playing at club level and at national team level, how to make the most of a possible non-nomination to the national team and how to prepare physically and mentally if a player gets the opportunity.