THUNDER BAY -- Sports psychologist Nicole Westlund wants to be coach of the year
A Thunder Bay native and 27-year-old doctoral student in sports psychology at Western University in London, Ontario, Westlund is one of few women in Canada to coach a men's curling team.
Westlund works with curling teams at the provincial and national level. She is an instructor for various adult and youth curling leagues and has been an instructor at the Amethyst and Trillium curling camps since 2011.
After completing her undergraduate degree in psychology at Lakehead University, Westlund’s passion for curling led her to Western University to pursue her graduate studies in sports psychology, concentrating her research specifically on curling.
"My research focuses on imagery and visualization, helping the players figure out the different shot outcomes and what the result will be of each shot."
For Westlund it isn't just about the research, she uses her findings practically in her coaching to help be a great mental coach for her players.
She has taken on the role of coaching for her husband's curling team in the Men's Tankard competition.
"My role is to deal with any outside distractions that the team shouldn't be worrying about so they can go out and play their best."
As a mental coach, Westlund’s job is to make sure her players are in their right state of mind by making sure everyone is relaxed and focused.
It is common for athletes to deal with stressful situations during games, especially competitively.
This stress can hurt the team’s performance at any time, making it difficult to focus on doing what needs to be done to win.
"With my husband's men's team it's all about going over the game plan and helping them compile all the external information,” she said.“I then talk about what I think, it's kind of like a pregame meeting."
Westlundis also a mental imagery coach for a number of bantam and junior curling teams across South-western Ontario, and she helps these athletes learn to visualize what's ahead.
"For these athletes, beforehand we will go through different scenarios of the game,” she said.“I get them to picture themselves on the ice and I give them a situation. We then picture which is the most correct, and I get them to visualize that shot."
At the end of the day, Westlund’s focus is to train players to effectively use imagery and visualization to help them develop and improve their mental skills to enhance their performance.
Both of Nicole's parents, mother Adrienne and father Kim Westlund, struggled to describe the pride they had in their daughter and her many accomplishments.
"We don't know where she gets it from,” said Kim Westlund.“She works hard at what she does, she puts her mind to it and she just gets it done."
Nicole's father introduced her to curling when she was five-years-old through the sticks and stones program at the Port Arthur Curling Club, she immediately fell in love with the sport, and knew then that curling would be something she wanted to pursue when she was older.
"I am very lucky in a way that I can go to school and study curling at the same time," Nicole said. "I love it and I couldn't imagine doing anything else."
