A player can only follow one plan.
How performance development, player health and hockey work together around each player, and who leads at each stage through the season and back from injury.
- Three lines of work
- One plan for each player
- One clear lead at each stage
Three lines of work, one plan for each player.
The player does not live in departments. This is probably the simplest way I know to explain it: his groin does not know which budget the physio sits under. Most clubs already have the parts. What is often missing is the connection. So I organise the work in three lines, and all three feed the same plan for each player.
Performance development
Movement, recovery, nutrition and mindset, connected to what the game asks of each player.
Player health
Prevention, treatment, rehab and return to performance. Back to game speed, not only to cleared.
Hockey
Role, position, style of play, practice and games. All three lines inform the same decisions about each player.
One plan for each player, not one answer from each specialist.
Team-directed. Player-centred.
The plan serves how your team plays. The route to it is built around each player, because a 20-year-old two years off his frame and a 32-year-old holding one hip together do not get there the same way.
- Every session is prescribed, measured and written down, with a clear direction for that player. Otherwise it is guesswork.
- The head coach owns team decisions. The plan gives him one clear picture of each player, instead of four readings.
Is he available, is he capable, and does it show in games?
Availability is not capability. Capability is not expression.
All three lines feed all three questions. Each question has one line that leads it.
-
Available
Player health leads.
Can he train and play at the load the week asks for?
-
Capable
Performance development leads.
Does he have the speed, strength and repeatability his role asks for?
-
Expressed
Hockey leads.
Can he use it in his role, at game speed, again and again, and still in February?
Availability gets him into the game. Capability gives him something to bring. The game shows whether it transfers. That is why I only test what we are prepared to act on, and judge the work by what shows on the ice.
Why does the same programme work for one player and not the next?
The programme is external. The response is internal.
The programme is only the stimulus. What the player takes from it, and how ready he is for the next session, depends on four things acting on every turn of the loop.
- Movement
- Gives the stimulus. What we train comes from what the game and his role demand.
- Recovery
- Lets him absorb the work and be ready for the next session. Without enough of it, useful stress becomes accumulated fatigue.
- Nutrition
- Fuels the work, and supplies what recovery and adaptation need before, during and after it.
- Mindset
- Shapes intent, understanding and behaviour. When a player understands why the work matters, the way he does it changes.
Break one link and the others pay for it. That is why the four are planned together, even when different specialists contribute to them.
I lead the day-to-day performance nutrition: fuelling, hydration and supplementation for preparation, games and recovery, with anti-doping risk built into the process. Where a case needs clinical or specialist nutrition, it stays with the right professional.
Mindset here means the why behind the what: understanding, intent and routines around the work, so a player knows why something matters and does it consistently. I do not work as a mental coach. Specialist mental performance and clinical support stay with qualified professionals.
During my time with Brynäs I experienced firsthand his deep understanding of sports performance. He is dedicated to tailoring his approach to every individual.
Ryan GundersonHockey consultant, retired professional, Swiss NLOne winger, one week.
The numbers improve. The game does not.
A winger in his third professional season. His test numbers are up since the summer. In games, his shifts fade in the third period, and that is where the coach needs him. Built from patterns, not from a client.
Tuesday. Player 14, winger.
- Hockey
- The coach wants him on the forecheck late in games. That is his role.
- Player health
- Adductor sensitive after the weekend. No full-speed change of direction until Thursday.
- Performance
- Repeated sprints in a straight line, inside the adductor limit. Enough to build late-game repeatability, not so much that it costs Thursday.
- Nutrition
- Carbohydrate up from Thursday for Friday’s game. A recovery meal on the bus, not at home after midnight.
- Mindset
- He knows the target: his forecheck speed and decisions must still be there late in the third.
- Agreed way to weigh these
- Player health sets today’s limit. Performance builds inside it. Hockey sets the target. Reviewed Thursday.
Nothing on that sheet is new to a good staff. What is new is that it is one sheet, with one direction, and everyone knows who leads this week.
The lead changes. The plan does not.
Cleared is not ready.
As the player gets closer to the game, a different line leads the next decision. Everyone stays involved from the first day to the last.
-
Player health leads
Protect the healing, set today’s limits, and keep everything that can safely be trained moving.
-
Performance leads
Inside those limits, rebuild the strength, speed and tolerance his role asks for.
-
Hockey leads
Contact, team practice, game rhythm, and finally his role at game speed.
The player does not return to a spreadsheet. He returns to forechecks, back pressure, bad ice, travel and a coach who needs him now.
Injuries will still happen. The aim is fewer of them, and returns that hold.
“He took charge of my rehab, pushed and motivated me every day. Against all odds I played 7 months later.”
Joacim Eriksson
Professional player, DEL. First estimate after complex knee surgery: 12 months.
Every club’s version looks different.
The structure stays the same: three lines, one plan, and a clear answer to who leads. What goes into it is built from the players you actually have and what testing tells us. Rebuilt where it needs to be, adjusted where it already works.
The method belongs to the club, and holds when people change.
Not every club needs a full change.