Sabres.com: What originally got you interested in sports psychology?
Edwards: I played soccer at University of Minnesota, and my college team started to face some adversity. We were in a big rebuilding phase of the soccer program when I was there, and I started to see my teammates really struggle with things like resilience and motivation, communication, teamwork.
It was really the adversity in college athletics that was like, ‘I’ve got to study more about this, because this is really interesting.’ So, then I did a master’s in sports psych (at Florida State), and then I did a doctorate in counseling (at Texas Tech).
Edwards’ time at Minnesota overlapped with former Sabres Thomas Vanek and Kyle Okposo.
After breakfast, what does a typical day at the arena look like for you?
I work on the performance staff, so I work predominantly with the strength coaches, the athletic training staff, the dietitian, sports science and the medical. I might consult with one or two people about a player, about coordinating some care. And then there’s practice, typically, so I’ll observe practice from the bench. Afterwards, I’ll meet individually with players until about 2 or 3.
Do Sabres players schedule meetings with you like any doctor? Or are there lots of spontaneous conversations, like in the cafeteria?
Because of my schedule, I tend to be by appointments – that’s the best way to really get my focus time. But this weekend I was texting with a couple players, sending them audio files, sending them book recommendations. And then just interacting casually. I might even pass a player in the hallway, and they say, ‘Hey, when are you going to be here till? Can I grab you?’ It’s everything. It’s making myself available for all sorts of contacts.
Professional hockey players have probably worked with a sports psychologist at some point. How do you connect with someone who’s wary of a new face, a new voice?
Trust is built over time, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m circling back to these casual interactions with guys. They see me around, I’m approachable, I’m nice.
But the NHLers, they have so many different kinds of voices in their ears. They have body specialists, they have mindfulness coaches, they have, certainly, agents and former coaches and teammates. And their people, including mental coaches and sports psychologists, or even clinical therapists.
I don’t force them; they’re not mandated to see me in any way, because that just doesn’t work. It just doesn’t build a good therapeutic relationship.
Are your conversations with players mostly hockey-focused? Or do you help with their personal lives, too?
I have a counseling degree of a clinical background, and I have a sports background, so I can really do both. And there’s a lot of overlap. My philosophy, I happen to think that a really well-adjusted, mentally well person/athlete is going to perform the best. So, I work with players on on-ice and off-the-ice stuff. I would say it’s pretty close as a 50/50 split.
Hockey has a lot of events – posts, broken sticks, own goals, etc. – that can stick with a guy. Do you watch for specific moments that might require your attention later?
I do, and sometimes I’ll even make notes in my phone about those. Especially if I’m working with a player and we’re talking about, for example, recovering after a mistake. When that player makes a mistake, I want to see if they’re doing the routines, that reset after that mistake, that he and I have talked about.
Even the national anthem, when the broadcast goes down the players, I’m looking to see, are those guys doing the breathing techniques that we discussed? Are we doing the mental rehearsal or the mental imagery that we’ve discussed? And usually you can tell, because the guy has his head on his stick, that he’s doing something, mentally.
How do you help players regain confidence when rehabbing and returning from injury?
There’s good sports psychological science that says the best predictors of a successful return to play from an injury: things like social support, getting consistent messages from all the medical staff. And I think when you talk about confidence, that’s huge. You can’t have one medical person giving some timeline or some feedback, and it contrasts with an athletic trainer.
That’s how the player really internalizes that confidence of like, ‘My whole medical team, my whole return-to-play, we’re all on the same page, and we’re a united front. So I feel confident in my ability to skate again, take hits, give hits and be the player that I knew myself to be pre-injury.’
You don’t travel with the team. How do you help players with the additional mental toll of road trips?
Sleep becomes the primary thing that I talk to athletes about. They’re jetlagged. Obviously, sleep is an issue with hockey players anyways, because they’re playing under bright lights late at night, fight or flight, full adrenaline, cortisol pumping through their veins, right? A lot of them use coffee, so we’ve got some caffeine raising them. It’s hard for them to wind down. Then you add jetlag on top of that, and how do you get to sleep? Sleep affects everything. It affects your mood, how you’re feeling, how much energy you have.
But there are also opportunities for me to meet with the player over Zoom, or on the phone or text, because they miss their families; that is almost ubiquitous across the guys. On these away trips, I’ll be able to provide some support there, too.
The Sabres have been on a roll lately. Does that change the nature of your job?
Winning really helps the vibe, the energy, the motivation, the cohesion. When things are flowing, and things are going well, there’s different things that you do. You still want to pay attention, psychologically, as to what you’re doing when things are going well, so that when things are not going well, you can use those same strategies.
When we’re doing well, we’re trying to optimize, we’re trying to continue, we’re trying to be consistent with that. And then when we’re not doing well, we’re trying to be resilient, bounce back, stay positive and focus on the controllables.
How have you seen mental health conversations change in hockey in recent years?
I think it has gotten a lot less stigmatized. I still think we have some work to do in that area. I don’t think it’s completely accepted and normalized as something that everybody should do, take care of their mental health or their mental wellness.
What does it mean to you for the Sabres to hold their first Mental Health Awareness Night?
I am so excited; I think it’s a privilege to be a part of it. It means a lot to me. I think mental health should be celebrated. It’s not just for someone who is having concerns or issues. There’s a misconception that you’re kind of ‘broken’ if you come to see me, or you’re weak, or you’re soft.
We’re celebrating that mental health and mental skills, they’re something that everybody has. And just like physical health, you might be doing some things really well, and you might need to work on some other things. Mental health is the same way. You might really be resilient, but you’re very critical of yourself. It’s celebrating the good and the bad. Leveraging your strengths to improve not only your performance, athletically, but your performance in life – optimizing the best life for yourself that you can get.
