The Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team is in a unique position this year — one which might benefit from a fresh approach to development.
On Jan. 28, the Ravens defeated the top-ranked team in the country, the McGill Redmen, 4-2. Not 24 hours later, they lost to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. Losing to the Gee-Gees is bad enough in its own right (what the fuck’s a Gee-Gee?), but it’s made even more frustrating by the fact that they’re behind Carleton in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) standings.
Last weekend was a microcosm of the Ravens’ season. They’ve beaten the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, the second-best team in the OUA East, but they’ve also lost to Ryerson, who occupy the second-last spot in the division. This season has had more ups and downs than a roller-coaster and, for a group with so much skill and potential, has fallen well short of predictions. The hallmark of the season has been inconsistency, and the Ravens would likely prefer to shed it sooner rather than later.
It’s hard to pinpoint the problem when I look at the team. Head coach Marty Johnston has built a team that has the skill, talent and drive to win in this league. The coaching staff is top-notch and has shown it can win. Even their recruiting process can be categorized as above average. They got four Ontario Hockey League recruits to commit to Carleton last off-season and acquired a few National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes mid-season, too.
The fact that the team has had so many ups and downs this season means the problem might be external. The framework of the team is solid, so maybe it’s an issue of the team needing a psychological spark.
A phenomenon that’s becoming common in organized sport is the idea of hiring a mental skills coach or a sports psychologist to help the team work through psychological issues that may arise. Sports psychology helps athletes deal with confidence issues, motivation, stress, aggression and more. I think the Ravens could benefit from this style of approach.
If the men decided to get a sports psychologist on staff, they definitely wouldn’t be the first team to do so. The McGill Redmen have worked with a psychologist for both the men and women’s hockey teams and continue to do so. The Ravens women’s hockey team also works with a mental skills consultant, who also worked for Team Canada’s under-18 team in 2009 and 2010.
Mental skill coaches go beyond university sport. Professional sports teams like the Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees and the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys use sports psychology consultants with varying degrees of success.
That’s great, but I’m sure you’re wondering where the evidence is that a mental coach would benefit the Ravens enough to make the cost worthwhile.
One of the main goals of a sports psychologist is to foster team cohesion. Let me be clear — I’m not suggesting the Ravens don’t have a good team dynamic going. Anyone who’s spoken to the team can tell that they play for each other and they support their teammates. Part of long-term sustained success, though, is having the athletes on the same page in terms of game plan, objectives and effort.
As Ball and Carron demonstrated in their 1976 experiment, team cohesion plays a very specific role in intercollegiate ice hockey. They did a survey before, during, and after the season about how players felt they clicked with their teammates. The end results were compared to the team’s record, and it was found that the team had more success when they worked as a unit.
But there’s still some pressure against the idea of involving psychologists in the game. Aside from the social stigma that exists with talking to a “shrink,” there’s still unwillingness among athletes to admit to mental weakness. The fact, though, is that the choice of bringing a psychologist on board is more of a smart way to gain an edge than a deficiency in toughness.
The men’s hockey team has all the talent and skill necessary to be serious players in the OUA. All they need now is that little competitive psychological bump to push them over the top.
