Role of the exercise in management of mental health

Published on April 22, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Smith PJ, Merwin RM. The Role of Exercise in Management of Mental Health Disorders: An Integrative Review. Annu Rev Med. 2021 Jan 27;72:45-62.

Numerous epidemiological studies have demonstrated that lower amounts of physical activity (PA) or greater amounts of time spent in sedentary behaviors are associated with greater risk of poor mental health. In a recent study of 1.2 million US adults, in which participants were matched across numerous background and demographic factors, individuals who exercised reported better mental health functioning compared to non-exercisers.

Prospective studies focusing on specific mental health conditions have reported similar findings, suggesting that greater habitual PA may protect against the development of various mental health conditions. For example, a recent meta-analysis of 49 prospective studies across nearly 267,000 individuals demonstrated that higher levels of PA associated with reduced odds of developing depression across age groups.

PA also prospectively associated with lower odds of developing elevated anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders in a recent meta-analysis of more than 80,000 individuals.

Examination of the literature linking exercise to mental health suggests that exercise training is beneficial for a broad array of mental health outcomes, although the strength of treatment benefit appears to vary across populations and training modalities. The present literature base could be characterized as having three overarching mechanistic hypotheses, which are useful in framing hypotheses regarding treatment improvements:

  • mental health is improved in association with physical/hedonic effects of exercise,
  • exercise improves mental health via neurobiological mechanisms,
  •  exercise is a vehicle for cultivating behavioral mechanisms of change (e.g., self-regulatory skills and self-efficacy).

We contend that exercise training likely improves mental health through synergistic influences of both neurobiological and behavioral learning mechanisms. Within this framework, training improves neurobiological systems critical for adaptive learning, as well as affective and cognitive control processes, resulting in synergistic improvements in the regulation of both cognitive and affective responses through a “virtuous circle” of reinforcement.

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IJSP Master class on extreme experiences

Published on April 21, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

ISSP Master Class Series – Lecture #7

Extreme Experiences in Sports and Experiences in Extreme Sports

A DUAL PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

Date: Tuesday, May 16th, 2024
Speakers: Prof. Dr. Dieter Hackfort
Length of Session: 90 minutes (60-minute lecture, 30-minute Q&A)
Language: English (Live multilingual captioning available)
Time: 12:00 UTC (New York 8:00, Belo Horizonte, 9:00, Beijing 20:00, Seoul 21:00, Sydney 22:00)
Where: Zoom (Link sent upon registration)
Recordings: Available for 60 days after the lecture

Program Overview

During this lecture, Prof. Hackfort will examine distinctions and various conceptual approaches in order to explain behavior in adventurous, risky, and extreme sports activities. In applying an action-theory perspective, Prof. Hackfort will outline a prolific framework for a differentiated analysis and the development of a sophisticated understanding considering socio-cultural circumstances and individual motivations associated with participation in such activities. The purposes of this presentation are to (1) differentiate and describe adventurous sport activities, risk sports, and extreme sports, (2) analyze and elucidate explanations for them, and (3) clarify some misunderstandings in public perceptions related to these activities. Prof. Hackfort will question the usage of labels such as ‘danger-freaks,’ ‘stress-junkies,’ or ‘sensation-seekers’ and unravel misleading attributions. With reference to concepts like stress and coping, risk and security, or arousal and relaxation, he will illustrate the necessity of a dual perspective and the meaning of considering functional interrelations. Only thus, it is possible to move beyond simple mono-causal and uni-directional approaches for an appropriate conceptualization of the organization and regulation of human actions, not only in adventurous sport activities or elite sports but also in non-sporting action fields or domains. However, based on his experiences in applied sport psychology, Prof. Hackfort will also address opportunities to learn about risk behavior and design strategies for risk education to enhance risk-consciousness and competencies in calculated risk-taking.

About the Speakers
Prof. Dieter Hackfort is a retired Professor of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology. Since 1985, Prof. Hackfort has held professorships in universities on three continents: Europe (Heidelberg and Munich in Germany), Asia (Doha, Qatar and Wuhan, China), and North America (Tampa, Florida, USA). From 1989 to 1993, Prof. Hackfort was the president of the German Association for Sport Psychology (ASP), and from 2005 to 2009, he was the President of the International Society of Sport Psychology ISSP). Prof. Hackfort continues to be heavily involved in applied practice. His applied work extends from working as a consultant for world champions in professional sports (e.g., F1) and Olympic gold medalists (e.g., skiing) as well as performing artists, elite sports organizations, and businesses around the globe. The main research interests of Prof. Hackfort are in (1) high-performance management, including the organizational set-up for high performance, (2) lifestyle and career management of elite athletes, (3) mental fitness and robustness, (4) stress and emotions concerning its functional meaning for action regulation, (5) the development of diagnostic tools, assessment strategies and measurements for a computer-assisted mental test and training system (MTTS). His work on these various issues is connected with the conceptual and methodological advancement of an action-theory perspective in the social/human sciences. Prof. Hackfort is a widely published scholar with over 250 publications, including 35 books and edited volumes. Prof. Hackfort received numerous awards in recognition of his outstanding academic and applied research and leadership in national and international organizations. Among others, he received the ISSP International Sport Psychologist Award in 2017 and was bestowed the status of ISSP Fellow in 2018. Finally, in 2023, Prof. Hackfort was selected for the inaugural generation of the ISSP Hall of Fame to be one of the top ten living sport psychologists.

Program Format
Attendees can participate in an ISSP Master Class session right from their office or home. Upon registration, registrants will be provided the Zoom link to access the presentation on the web in real-time. If you are unable to watch the session live, a recording will be provided afterward to all registrants.

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Ready for the XXXIII° Olympic Games

Published on April 17, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

It was lit in Greece, at the temple of Hera dating back to 2,600 years ago, near the stadium where the Olympics were born in 776 BC. There are just over 100 days left until July 26, when the XXXIII° Olympic Games will be inaugurated in Paris.

Currently, there are 193 qualified Italian athletes across 23 disciplines. The Olympics represent the dream of every athlete and the pinnacle of their sporting career. Winning an Olympic medal is like climbing Everest without oxygen. Among the world’s elite athletes, in Italy around 300 men and women, only about 10% will likely step onto the podium. Winning a medal is a truly rare event and corresponds to a lifetime of dedication.

Pechino 2022: accesa la fiamma olimpica | Euronews

As we know, personal talent alone is not enough; motivation and dedication are required, along with quality training, years of effort, many hours per week, excellent coaches and staff, injury prevention, recovery abilities, an appropriate lifestyle, and a positive non-sporting environment.

All of this doesn’t inoculate against fear and anxiety but puts us in a position to successfully face them. With just over three months until the start of the competitions, training and competitions continue, many still need to qualify, team sports are in the midst of league and international cup competitions, and in individual sports, athletes are competing to secure their spot for Paris. It’s an intense period, and in these days, the inner pilot guiding us in our daily work becomes increasingly important. The task is to effectively alternate between moments of expending energy, training and competitions, with those of recovering the energy spent (nutrition, sleep, relaxation, social life). These two phases alternate every day and are both important to be ready for the end goal.

It’s necessary to enter these two environments with ease and seek help from those around us to maintain this alternation. We give everything knowing we have time to recover, and we recover to be able to give everything.

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The commitment

Published on April 14, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

Commitment: Individual willingness to make sacrifices in other areas of one’s life in order to succeed in sports.

  • Assess your level of involvement in achieving your sports goals.
  • Think about what you have done in the past year to improve in sports and how committed you have been to achieving these goals. The changes to consider may involve technical, physical, and psychological aspects. Make a ranking from the most significant to the least significant, identifying the results achieved for each.
  • If you feel little/moderately involved in what you do, ask yourself why you are in this situation: identify what you have done yourself to put yourself in this situation and what you want to do differently to increase your motivation.
  • Think about how you reacted to criticism from your coach or to a mistake. Has your commitment remained constant or even greater, or have you become depressed or more aggressive?
  • Think about the moments when you faced difficulties, what did you tell yourself and what did you do to keep your motivation high? Remember these attitudes because they are extremely important assets for you to use in difficult situations to sustain your commitment and desire for success.

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How to improve your-self

Published on April 13, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

Self-improvement orientation: Desire to be constantly engaged in a process of continuous improvement, perceived as the main process to achieve company goals.

  • Identify 3 strengths and 3 areas for improvement. List situations that highlight your strengths and those that stimulate the manifestation of your weaknesses.
  • Think about how you react to mistakes: do you prefer that nobody notices them, or do you see them as excellent opportunities for improvement? Write down 5 reasons why improving is important to you.
  • Observe other athletes, see how they behave, how they relate to the coach, how they handle mistakes. Identify what you can learn from them.
  • Talk to your coach and discuss your future development as an athlete with him/her.
  • Prepare a list of goals you want to achieve in the near future. Beside each, list the skills they require and establish, on a scale from 1 to 5, to what extent you possess them.
  • Analyze the most important situations you have faced in the last few months and think about how you could have approached them differently.

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The manager: if the team loses you are fired

Published on April 11, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. Closed Tags: , .
These last matches of the Champions League and the comments appearing in the media have highlighted very clearly the current limitations of Italian football. Attention is focused on the style of play, the quality of the players, the money it all costs, and the analyses are often merciless towards Serie A. Football is a complex phenomenon that requires many different professional skills to integrate in managing and developing a team. Among the many factors that contribute to determining the value of a team, I would like to focus on the coaches. Criticizing them is rather easy because their judgment depends on the team’s results. As we all know, they are the first to be sacked when the results don’t meet the club’s expectations. In this ongoing season, a record of 14 coaching changes out of 20 teams has been reached. Only the Spanish La Liga follows closely with 13 sackings, while in Germany there have been 8 and in England 5.

Football is a high-risk sport where defeats are not accepted, representing a high level of stress for coaches. While on one hand, coaches in professional teams are well remunerated, on the other hand, it’s not easy to live in this condition of uncertainty even if it’s a choice they made. It can be said that incoming coaches find themselves having to deal with an emergency situation; they must heal the patient, the team, quickly and at any cost. There are few coaches who can afford to wait for the right call and take the time they desire to wait for the team that meets their needs; the majority, instead, must be ready to dive into the fray and work tirelessly to quickly find a solution and naturally show satisfaction for the opportunity offered. All of this is well paid, but to my knowledge, I have not seen in-depth analysis on this human condition from their organization or individual clubs.

It seems to me that the value of the human side of football has been lost at the expense of a one-dimensional conception of football where you either win or you’re nothing.

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Autism, isolation, sense of belonging and school

Published on April 3, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Yesterday, the World Autism Awareness Day was celebrated, a disorder that affects many children and future adults, still constituting a factor of poor integration and inclusion in the social environment, not to mention that inclusion in the workforce is still marginal. Overall, there are still many negative news, and families experience daily the responsibility of their children’s development with limited support from the national healthcare system and the school. On a positive note, there is a network of associations often founded by parents with autistic children that respond to some of their many needs, ranging from therapeutic paths to sports programs and others.

In our small way, we at the Integrated Soccer Academy also participate in providing resources to these young people and their families. Our aim, through teaching soccer, is to reduce loneliness by building a community among parents and sports, and to promote a sense of belonging through soccer: This happens in various ways, including the “Classmates” project, which involves inviting some classmates to play soccer together on certain days of the school year. These are days of sports and celebration in which teachers also participate, and during this activity, young people with autism present themselves to others in a different, more capable way, and more satisfying for them compared to what is shown in school life.

We are aware that these experiences should be more frequent, but in any case, they highlight the qualities and learning of young people with autism that teachers and classmates do not see during school hours.

These activities, properly organized, could also be carried out in schools where they are usually absent. These experiences indicate the possible paths that could be taken to achieve inclusion in schools in practice. Regarding sports, sports clubs like ours show how this could happen. The School, in Italy, as a whole is not ready to change to make experiences like this “Classmates” project daily, so inclusion continues to be dependent on the goodwill of teachers and school administrators.

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Rules for educating children to autonomy

Published on March 30, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments

Based on the problems that young people show it becomes necessary to offer practical ways for parents to educate their children. In any case, the main goal that parents will have to fulfill concerns the need not to abandon their educational task. Too often we see parents abdicating this role in the hope that satisfying every desire is the best way to raise them. They hide behind the idea that giving everything to them is the way to be heard and to foster trust.

In this way, young people grow up convinced that in life it will be enough to ask to get and that there will always be someone who will solve for them the problems they encounter. This blocks the development of autonomy, which can only occur when given the opportunity to make decisions and test their effects.

In this regard, Jonathan Haidt provides some advice that I fully agree with:

  • Give children far more time playing with other children. This play should ideally be outdoors, in mixed age groups, with little or no adult supervision (which is the way most parents grew up, at least until the 1980s).
  • Look for more ways to embed children in stable real-world communities.  Online networks are not nearly as binding or satisfying.
  • Don’t give a smartphone as the first phone. Give a phone or watch that is specialized for communication, not for internet-based apps.
  • Don’t give a smartphone until high school.  This is easy to do, if many of your child’s friends’ parents are doing the same thing.
  • Delay the opening of accounts on nearly all social media platforms until the beginning of high school (at least). This will become easier to do if we can support legislators who are trying to raise the age of “internet adulthood” from today’s 13 (with no verification) to 16 (with mandatory age verification).

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The anxious generation

Published on March 29, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , .

In the summer of 2022, I was working on a book project — Life After Babel: Adapting to a world we can no longer share — about how smartphones and social media rewired many societies in the 2010s, creating conditions that amplify the long-known weaknesses of democracy. The first chapter was about the impact of social media on kids, who were the “canaries in the coal mine,” revealing early signs that something was going wrong. When adolescents’ social lives moved onto smartphones and social media platforms, anxiety and depression surged among them. The rest of the book was going to focus on what social media had done to liberal democracies.

I quickly realized that the rapid decline of adolescent mental health could not be explained in one chapter—it needed a book of its own. So, The Anxious Generation is Volume 1, in a sense, of the larger Babel project. The book will be published March 26, 2024.

I begin The Anxious Generation by examining adolescent mental health trends. What happened to young people in the early 2010s that triggered the surge of anxiety and depression around 2012?

Percent of U.S. undergraduates with different mental illness, 2008-2019

What happened to young people in the early 2010s? 

The Anxious Generation offers an explanation by telling two stories. The first is about the decline of the play-based childhood, which began in the 1980s and accelerated in the ‘90s. All mammals need free play, and lots of it, to wire up their brains during childhood to prepare them for adulthood. But many parents in Anglo countries began to reduce children’s access to unsupervised outdoor free play out of media-fueled fears for their safety, even though the “real world” was becoming increasingly safe in the 1990s. The loss of free play and the rise of continual adult supervision deprived children of what they needed most to overcome the normal fears and anxieties of childhood: the chance to explore, test and expand their limits, build close friendships through shared adventure, and learn how to judge risks for themselves.

The second story is about the rise of the phone-based childhood, which began in the late 2000s and accelerated in the early 2010s. This was precisely the period during which adolescents traded in their flip phones for smartphones, which were loaded with social media platforms supported by the new high-speed internet and unlimited data plans.

The confluence of these two stories in the years between 2010 and 2015 is what I call the “Great Rewiring of Childhood.” Few of us understood what was happening in children’s virtual worlds and we lacked the knowledge to protect them from tech companies that had designed their products to be addictive.

For this reason, we ended up overprotecting children in the real world while underprotecting them in the virtual world.

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Daniel Kanheman died at the age of 90

Published on March 28, 2024 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

Daniel Kahneman was a psychologist who paved the way for theories of economic behavior. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, along with Vernon Smith, “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.” He passed away at the age of 90.

He demonstrated that violations of economic rationality are not episodic but systematic. In this regard, he stated:

“The classical theory of choice sets a series of conditions of rationality that are perhaps necessary but hardly sufficient: they, in fact, allow us to define as rational many choices that are clearly foolish” (Kahneman 1994, p. 23). “No one has ever seriously believed that all human beings always hold rational beliefs and invariably make rational decisions. The principle of rationality is generally understood as an approximation, based on the belief (or hope) that deviations from rationality become rare when the stakes are high or tend to disappear altogether under the discipline of the market” (Kahneman 2003, p. 87).

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