Meet former Canadian National Team hockey player, Keiser University’s Lorenda Beuker
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Like most Canadians, Dr. Lorenda Beuker took to the sport of hockey at a young age. Growing up on a farm in Western Canada, her dad built a backyard rink for her and her brother to play on.
“I loved the backyard rink my dad made,” Dr. Beuker said. “I became a goalie which was perfect with my brother shooting endless pucks at me. It sparked my competitiveness from a young age because I never wanted to let him score.”
Little did she know at the time, but those moments in the backyard with her brother on her family’s farm would be the start of a unique journey not just through sports but through life as well.
Lorenda’s first big break came at the age of 16 when she was selected for the Canada Games. Up until that point she had spent her time being active and playing hockey and softball like a lot of the kids her age.
Being selected for the Canada Games, though, changed her outlook on what it meant to be an athlete and a competitor.
“When I was selected for the Canada Games it changed everything for me,” Lorends explained. “Up until that point, my training consisted of just being active and playing sports. When I was selected for the Canada Games though, they provided training and nutrition guidance. That taught me a lot about how to properly train both my body and mind and how to push myself into the zone of physical discomfort for growth and preparation.”
Not only did Lorenda have a strong work ethic when it came to preparation and training, but she also had a strong support system at home with her family.
“My family truly had an amazing impact on my sports life,” Lorenda said. “My parents worked so hard to fund everything. My mom and I would drive for over 2 hours in a blizzard just for a 1-hour practice and it was never even a question. If I wanted to do it, they would find a way.”
All of the hard work, dedication, and support paid off when she was selected to play for the Canadian National Team, a moment that she still remembers fondly today.
“Walking into the Team Canada locker room for the first time and feeling the jersey with my name on it is something I will never forget,” Dr. Beuker said. “I had been selected for the U22 Women’s National Team and it was something I was not expecting. It was amazing to then be selected to a senior women’s national team event the following year but I will never forget seeing that jersey for the first time and bringing my dream to life.”
After that experience of playing on the U22 National Team and the Senior team the following season, Dr. Beuker moved on to the next chapter of her life: coaching and teaching.
Lorenda has taken all the valuable lessons she learned on the ice and applied them to teaching and coaching the future generation of athletes and students.
“Sports has taught me that anything I do, to do it with an ‘all in’ mentality,” Dr. Beuker explained. “I have taken that and applied that to the students and athletes I work with today. I work with them on mental skills to help them uncover their next level of hidden potential.”
In addition to Lorenda working with her students directly on improving their mental strength and abilities, she also wrote a book titled “Goalies Rule the World” which is a specific positioning framework that she developed in working with aspiring college goaltenders. Dr. Beuker is in pre-publication on a mindfulness-based mental skills strategy book as well where she shares many of her sports experiences and the successful strategies that have helped athletes in numerous sports that she has worked with.
“It is a true joy to see an athlete grow and carry themselves differently when we connect,” Lorenda explained. “It is very much the same quest I felt when I was striving for peak performance and consistency, only amplified in helping others achieve their best. These mental skills are transferable across sports and even life situations, which is why sport is so powerful.”
Dr. Beuker has also had the opportunity to present her mental skills strategy to the NHL and is an active researcher studying the effects of mental skills training implementations on performance ratings and athlete well-being.
“Sport has been and will always be my passion,” Lorenda said. “I want to synergize great things with great people in the great environment of sport. The possibilities are endless.”
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