Internet-based Acceptance and Commitment Training for Elite Ice Hockey Players

The aim of this study is to investigate whether an internet-based psychological training program will enhance performance and affect mental health related factors in elite ice hockey players. The psychological training program is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a modern form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and is delivered over the internet (hence called "I-ACT"). Elite players in Sweden will be invited before the 2019/2020 season. I-ACT will start for enrolled participants during the first week of October 2019 (30th September- 2nd October depending on the schedule of the particular league; approximately 5 games have then been played in the leagues eligible for participation). I-ACT consists of seven weekly modules/chapters with ACT content and participants also have a psychological trainer in the program that they can contact via a chat function on the web platform. Participants will have completed I-ACT the 17th of November 2019. When I-ACT starts in October, other eligible players will have the opportunity to leave their notice of interest for participation in the study and to take part of I-ACT in a later stage of the season. This concurrent "waiting list" is not a waiting list control group in any sense. It only gives further eligible players the opportunity to enroll in the study for a consecutive start of the psychological training program. I-ACT will start for this second group of players during the last week in november (25th November 2019), and finish I-ACT the 12th January 2020. These two consecutive groups of I-ACT participants will be considered the experimental group. However, due to the length of the ice hockey season the second group will only have follow-up measurements at 1 month for female players (the women's league ends in February 2020) and 2 months for male players (the men's leagues ends in March 2020). Official statistics will be collected from the leagues and enrolled participants will be compared to non-participant players in the leagues to compare the effectiveness of I-ACT on ice hockey performance. Only within-group comparisons will be made for secondary outcome measures.