Despite an increasing interest in studying creativity in sport, previous research has primarily focused on in-game creative performance and employed research designs neglecting sport participants’ perspectives. Hence, this study explored professional athletes’ developmental experiences involving creativity. Semistructured retrospective interviews were conducted with eight ice hockey players performing in or retired from the National Hockey League, Kontinental Hockey League, or Swedish Hockey League. Players described 15 modalities of creative actions emerging when playing, practicing, and performing. Based on the players’ experiences, creativity led to augmented levels of enjoyment (i.e., elicited passion), development (i.e., enhanced potential), achievement (i.e., enriched in-game qualification), and fulfillment (i.e., extended career progression). Findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of creativity in sport and provide novel insights on the role of creativity in the development and maintenance of expertise in sport and the nature and role of deliberate play and deliberate practice in developing creativity.

尽管人们对研究运动中的创造力越来越感兴趣，但以前的研究主要集中在游戏中的创造性表现，并且采用的研究设计忽略了运动参与者的观点。因此，本研究探讨了职业运动员涉及创造力的发展经历。对八名在国家冰球联盟、大陆冰球联盟或瑞典冰球联盟中表演或退役的冰球运动员进行了半结构化回顾性访谈。玩家描述了在演奏、练习和表演时出现的 15 种创造性行为方式。根据玩家的经验，创造力会带来更高水平的乐趣（即激发激情）、发展（即增强潜力）、成就（即丰富的游戏资格）和成就感（即 延长职业发展）。研究结果有助于更细致地理解体育中的创造力，并就创造力在发展和维持体育专业知识中的作用以及刻意游戏和刻意练习在发展创造力中的性质和作用提供新颖的见解。