All competitive athletes know exactly the moments when it counts, when it matters, when a lot is at stake. These moments are also what make the work of Dr. Tom Kossak (Photo: Sylvia Willax) strikingly define. The Munich sports psychologist knows that the head sometimes doesn't play along when it comes to “putting the horsepower from training on the road in competition,” and his job is to provide support to keep the athlete's engine running at full speed let.
In ice hockey, Kossak believes rituals are very helpful if the player interprets them correctly and does not make them an absolute requirement. “Rituals must lead to a certain level of relaxation. There should be processes where I can set up the competition mode,” says the 36-year-old in the seventh episode of DEB-Podcasts “Coach the Coach” in conversation with Karl Schwarzenbrunner, the national coach for science and training (result). Kossak is almost constantly concerned with acting under pressure, which every top athlete has to master to a greater or lesser extent.
Kossak works in the DEB-Trainer training and draws on a wealth of experience that he has acquired in ice hockey, alpine skiing and motorsport. He explains the differences between a sports psychologist and a mental coach - and why this separation is important. He also reports why he sees his role as an interplay of closeness and distance to a team in order to be able to maintain a more neutral role, and how he evaluates the position of the coach from a psychological point of view. And last but not least, he addresses the popular topic of motivation. An ice hockey professional, an athlete in general, must always “know what I'm doing it for, if that's lost, then the athlete has a problem,” says Kossak.
Kossak describes how players find the right way to deal with setbacks, obstacles or other challenges in his drastic but memorable “shit flow model”. It's about self-motivation and self-soothing. “I need willpower to pull through. But sometimes we don't feel like it, things aren't going well, we ponder," emphasizes Kossak and gives advice on how the athlete can climb out of the negative river and find his way back to the bank, at least those who don't react with equanimity: "Whoever If you listen to the inner Buddhist who says: Shit comes, shit goes, he won’t be dissuaded so quickly.”
If Kossak had to formulate three tips for ice hockey players, they would be these: “Firstly, it has to be fun, the basic feeling must always be: Ice hockey is the greatest sport. Secondly, I can learn a lot for the development of my personality, so it's worth sticking with it and pushing through. And thirdly, no one should think that he is 'The One and Only.'" The expert explains with a view to the future that he never wants to manipulate the players. “It’s about how they can perform at their best, and ultimately the fun of sport is that there are random things.”
Here go to the podcast episode with Dr. Tom Kossak