Thank you Vegas- My reflections from the 2024 AASP ANNUAL CONFERENCE

This year I had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada for the 2024 AASP Annual Conference. As a new professional member with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology I was eager to learn more about the association and to connect with the many practitioners and researchers within the field of sport and exercise psychology. The days were packed with compelling research, lectures, networking opportunities and social evenings. I truly looked forward to the opportunities to grab a coffee or dinner with my peers from Canada as we deepened our connections and discussed the growth opportunities of mental performance consulting in our nation.

As I reflect back on the experiences at the conference, I am reminded of the key take-aways I was able to leave with.

1. Mindset around learning - With over 15 years of experience within the high performance sports sector, I've been in the position of the athlete, the coach, the consultant and the decision-maker. However, despite all this experience the thing that continues to move me forward is my willingness to continue to LEARN. My openness to continue to gain new information, to listen to different experiences and to continue the growth journey allowed me the opportunity to fully gain all the gems from this conference. New topics for me that were absolutely worth the time were around mental performance training in the military, polyvagal theory and it's application in mental performance consulting, and the use of self-compassion development in sport. These were some of the top workshops that I gained new information from but there were so many others in the space of equity, diversity, inclusion, & justice, collegiate programs & coach development that I truly enjoyed.

   
   

2. Practitioner - Research: Bridging the Gap - During the conference I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Mustafa Sarkar, researcher and sport psychologist from the University of Nottingham. As a UK graduate, I was aware of Dr. Sarkar's work from my time with my master's program, and had the opportunity to listen to his keynote on his research on resilience development back in 2022. Dr. Sarkar, a highly respected professional within the sports psychology field used this opportunity to address the gap between research and practice within the sports psychology sector. As a private practitioner I resonate with this message as you have very limited access to the latest literature and developments unless you actively involve yourself within the university settings or research field. The question was posed, as a collective what can we do to bridge this gap and to better serve our clients? I believe as a private practitioner, it is your responsibility to ensure you are referencing current literature and utilizing approaches that best serve the individual or community that you are serving. Allowing private practices better access to some of this information and the developments within the research can really go along way as practitioners continue to work with the participants on the ground.

   
   

3. Networking = Growing your Community - One of the biggest take-aways from this experience was to have the opportunity to connect with the amazing Canadian members at the conference. It was motivating to speak with peers who are open to share ideas, thoughts, opinions and willing to collaborate on projects that can move the needle forward in our space of mental performance consulting. I am truly grateful for the new friendships and for the conversations that were had and am looking forward to sharing some of these new developments in the near future!

   
   

   Overall there was much learned during the week in Vegas, and I look forward to applying all these learnings into my private practice and into the programs I create with my clients!