Who: 

Elise Heikkilä

Your athlete history: 

When I was a kid I did athletics, ringette and football/soccer. In youth years my main sport was ringette, which sparked my interest in ice-hockey. I 1st played ice-hockey in boys team but when I was 15 years old I moved to the women's team and travelled 5 x wk 2 hours to the practice, when got to the elite team in 1st league. I played 3 seasons in HPK women's team in Finnish women's 1st league (nowadays called Aurora Liiga).I received my own share of sports concussions, if I recall correctly there was 6-7 of them.

After your athlete career: 

After my elite athlete days I wanted to stay in the sports scene, and studied to become physiotherapist and after that some more to become certified sports physiotherapist.

Currently I am an entrepreneur and last season acted as strength and conditioning coach in several ice-hockey teams (KOOVEE U18, KOOVEE U16, ILVES U16SM, ILVES NAISET LIIGA) and in football/soccer jalkapallossa( TPV T18).  On top of that I also do individual coaching online and have consulting hours in my own reception in Tampere. In the upcoming season I will be working with even more teams (KOOVEE U20 / U18 / U16 and Ilves women academy).

More about Ilves naiset, the bronze medalist in Aurora Liiga 24/25 season (CONGRATS ONCE MORE!!!), what is the best thing about the team for you?

It is an amazing orchestra. We have superb team spirit, we are a family. Wide variety of personalities who come together as a great team. 

The team started with ACT Head Impact Tracker last season, what was the welcome from the players? 

Players' 1st impression for the sensors was mixed, some were very interested in the data it provides, and some maybe not so much. But very fast the players got used to using sensors and even remembered to put it on 😉 The most common challenge in use was to remember to put the sensor on. 

What about the ease of use?  

ACT head sensors and App are easy to use, but in some ice-hockey arena environments the transfer of data from the sensors to the App are not going as smoothly as it should.  

Would you say that the players are used to ACT by now, and do they find it useful?

I think so, yes. Some players are actively asking about the data and want to know what the data shows. Hence I hope for the next season that we can find a solution to the data transfer challenges in our arena, and can utilise the near-real-time data on the events. 

Many thanks Elise for sharing your experience and the very best of luck for you and the team for the upcoming season!