Mental Toughness Training’s individual coaching offers customized, personally tailored feedback and support. We help you define, clarify, and achieve your vision so that you can be the best version of yourself on and off the ice.
What You'll Learn
With our one-on-one sport psychology coaching sessions, athletes can get the most personalized experience and discuss the issues that are hindering your peak performance. During your coaching sessions, you will develop your mental toughness plan, tailored specifically to your needs and concerns with the coach of your choice, so you can play consistently and confidently. With the support and expertise from Super Dave or Doc Wally, you will explore how to get to the next level and get an edge on your competition.
Benefits of Individual Coaching
Make A Plan
Develop your personal mental preparation process for practices and games that will move you closer to your dream and mission. Planning, instead of hoping, and learning to focus on the right things at the right times will eliminate the worries, fears, anxieties, and obstacles that are a part of life and hockey.
Understand Emotions
Apply mental toughness strategies that elite hockey players and Olympians use to understand and manage your emotions. Working with your coach, you’ll recognize unhelpful emotions, learn how to manage them, and redirect them to powerful and productive thoughts that help you play to your potential when it matters the most.
Build Confidence
Every hockey player on the planet struggles with their confidence at times; it doesn’t matter what level of hockey you are playing. Get powerful and personalized solutions from your mental toughness coach to improve your confidence and perform under pressure, so you can own your game and development, and most importantly develop stable confidence.
We've Worked With Athletes In:
Real People. Real Results.
“Mental toughness is essential to every athlete who wants to be the best they possibly can. Every athlete faces adversity throughout their career, and the one tool you can always rely on when things go south is your mental toughness. Working with Wally has made me aware of what kind of mental state I was in and how to get my mind back to where it needs to be. Wally taught me to use trigger words such as reload after every shift to make sure I’m living in the present. He gave me resources to overcome mistakes quickly, and I’m able to move on to the next play.”
- Nick Saracino
“I’ve been playing pro hockey for the last five years, after playing four years at Union College. I met Doc Wally at Union College and started working with him on a team and individual basis. Using some of the mental toughness exercises, we were able to achieve our ultimate goal of winning a national championship. Doc Wally was able to help me become a pro hockey player, and I know he’s worked with several guys that have made it to the NHL. I highly suggest using Doc Wally’s mental toughness training.”
- Matt Bodie
“Moving up the ladder from prep school, junior hockey, college, and then to pro, you realize your mental toughness is just as important as your physical tools. Working on my mental toughness with Doc Wally has helped me with dealing with the ups and downs that come with the season. Having the tools and abilities to stay in the right mindset during the year is a necessity and truly separates players who move on and from players who get left behind.”
- Jeff Taylor
“I’m currently playing for the New Jersey Devils. Before going pro, I played high school hockey there for three years, and then I attended Berkshire School for two years, and then ended up going to Providence College, where I played under Nate Leaman. That’s where I first met Wally Bzdell. As you move up in the hockey world, the margin for error gets so slim, and skill level gets so close. Mental toughness is a way that you can help separate yourself from the rest of the pack and is a skill that can be taught and learned over time. When working with Wally at first, I was always frustrated during games, trying to do more than what I needed. Wally helped me take it one shift at a time. That didn’t happen overnight; it took a ton of practice. Now, I continue to grade myself after all practices and games to guide myself into the next game.”
- Kevin Rooney
“I’ve spent the last five years playing pro hockey with the Montreal Canadiens organization and the Vegas Golden Knights organization. Before that, I played at Union College, where I met Doc Wally. I’ve spent the last nine years working with Doc, and he teaches you mental toughness skills that you have to work on yourself, but those skills serve you during times of adversity. The skills you learn working with Wally serve you to persevere through adversity. I’ve been fortunate enough to play in the NHL and to get there you get tested, and the skills I learned working with Wally was one of the reasons I was able to get through it.”
- Daniel Carr
“Over the past few years of Dave coming to Liberty University to teach MTT, it has drastically changed the way I think about the game of hockey. In the beginning, I thought it was kind of pointless. I wanted to play how I like to. It wasn’t until I fully bought in that I started to notice differences in the way I thought and acted. I was always the player that had to have the last word and would end up getting penalties because of it. Last year I had four penalty minutes the whole season, and I believe that if it weren’t for the MTT, that stat would never exist. I am a firm believer that being able to control your emotions on the ice is a huge competitive advantage. Dave is not only teaching us how to be better athletes, but he is preparing us for real-world situations where our emotions need to be in check.”
- Josh Hamilton
Meet The Coaches
Dave Jones
After traveling the world playing hockey, Super Dave became a hockey and sport psychology coach. Now, he’s decked out with two national championship rings at the ACHA and Youth levels. In 2019, he coached six teams, where four of them went to National Tournament, and two of them won!
With his years of hockey experience and Masters of Science in Counseling Sport Psychology, Dave is ready to provide coaching and support as you develop your mental toughness and transform into the best version of yourself.
Dr. Wally Bzdell
After a lifetime in our game and over 24 years of experience in mental toughness training, Doc Wally is here to personally help you develop your game.
As a sport psychologist, he’s worked with teams to get them to the NCAA D1 tournament 11 times, advancing to the NCAA Division 1 men’s ice hockey Frozen Four in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2019; and winning the National Championship back to back in 2014 and 2015! Now, he’s here to give you one-on-one personalized insight into your game.
What's Included
- Four 30-minute sessions
- Pregame routine development
- Postgame and practice Good, Better, Best assessment
- Power channel and performance state feedback
- Nutrition for performance guidance
- One Page Strategic Plan analysis