Foreword 19

Collin has played the piano his entire life. He studied in the Eastman School of music and later he came to Finland to teach in the Sibelius Academy. Collin has experienced peak-performance and flow in his work but also the difficulties that a creative performing artist encounters in his life. Collin’s deep understanding for different aspects of life makes his advice and teachings even more valuable.

Team Jokerit has offered me a place to go with my questions about sports, coaching and winning. The opportunity to follow hockey-life between the games has given me valuable information and widened my understanding about how a team prepares to meet a challenge to win. Jokerit has also many times helped me to get my feet back on the ground when I have been overwhelmed by my theories. To realize the complications of running a business where the high expectations towards both economical success and success in the field of traditional sports should be met has been valuable for this study too. I thank Harry Harkimo and Matti Virmanen for their kind co-operation. A thousand thanks to all those players, especially Tomek Valtonen, who have been targets for my questions.

The “captain of the hockey-team” is Antti Törmänen. Antti has won the Finnish Championship with Jokerit five times. He also is a world-champion and a bronze medalist from the Nagano Olympics. Antti has a very important role in my study. Thanks to Antti, I had to find a new and better point of view for my study in an early phase of the project.