ISSP-R Practitioner and Established Supervisor applications now open!

Published on October 4, 2022 in Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Given the mission of International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP)  and in the spirit of globalization, internationalization, unification, and collaboration, the ISSP Registry Committee is finalizing the process of establishing an internationally recognized consultant/practitioner registry that represents the minimum standard of sport psychology practice. It is envisioned that the ISSP-Registry (ISSP-R) will respond to the high international mobility of both sporting clients and consultants as well as increase the visibility and credibility of the profession internationally. Importantly, it aims to augment the professional standards of the field with a particular focus on supporting those countries in which ASP is at a developing phase.

ISSP is pleased to announce that applications to the ISSP-Registry (ISSP-R) are now open for [i] Established Practitioners, [ii] Emerging Practitioners and [iii] ISSP-R Established Supervisor. Applications will remain open until Friday, December 30, 2022. Below is some of the key information.

There are two routes to being accepted onto the ISSP-Registry – the Established Practitioner route and the Emerging Practitioner route. Presently, we are accepting applications for both Established Practitioner and Emerging Practitioner routes. Secondly, there are two routes to being accepted onto the ISSP-Registry as a Supervisor – the Established Supervisor route and the Emerging Supervisor route. Presently, we are accepting applications for Established Supervisor only. Please visit the ISSP Registryand ISSP-R Supervisors pages for more information.

For Emerging Practitioners: applicants must have successfully completed the ISSP-R modules in Cultural Competence, Mental Health, and Professional Conduct to apply. For prospective ISSP-R Emerging Practitioners, online versions of these ISSP-R modules will be available in the near future. Beginning in Spring 2023, we will process and assess applications on a continuous basis, allowing applicants to submit any time.

Please direct your completed applications or questions to isspr@issponline.org

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Sedentary lifestyle and urban traffic

Published on October 4, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Speaking of being sedentary lifestyle, I do not know how aware we are that it is the structure of our cities that leads us, like the current of a river, toward this very negative lifestyle. As long as cities remain spaces that almost exclusively facilitate the use of cars, walking and bicycling will remain on the margins of our lives and lack of movement will continue to be an endemic problem.

People on bicycles have “appeared in Paris,” and the most important thing about this incredible transformation of Paris is how quickly it happened once the streets were transformed. One cannot say that “Paris has always been like this,” because it has not. It took leadership.

A woman driving a convertible stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Steam and smoke waft around her vehicle. She stares longingly at people enjoying the fresh air and park to her left. Illustration.

The following are the thoughts of @BrentToderian (City planner + urban planner at @TODUrbanWORKS. Global advisor on cities. Past Vancouver chief planner).

To ensure cars didn’t take back control of Paris streets as the pandemic was “ending,” (like they have in so many cities), Mayor @Anne_Hidalgo made sure that 60k parking spaces and many streets were permanently transformed to seating for restaurants, people places and bike-lanes.

There’s no simplistic “silver bullet” for making lively streets & great #peopleplaces — but if there was, it would probably be street seating & moveable chairs. Don’t let anyone say there isn’t room — just rethink space for cars. As #Paris effortlessly illustrates. #placemaking

Walking around European cities — from bustling urban centers like Milan and Amsterdam to smaller cities such as Ghent and Bruges in Belgium, and Ravenna and Padua in Northern Italy — it’s clear that there are numerous improvements that can be borrowed for the United States and implemented relatively quickly and inexpensively:

  • Make streets multimodal
  • Implement congestion pricing and/or limited traffic zones
  • Eliminate street parking
  • Boost transit options
  • Reclaim plazas and other public space for people

 

 

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Players mindset and dribbling

Published on October 3, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In soccer, dribbling is one of the most exciting aspects of the sport for the young soccer players. It is a sudden individual action that can change the course of the game if it results in a clear advantage for the team and an opportunity to score a goal. It requires certain psychological characteristics that can be taught to young people regardless of the fact that someone will always be better than someone else. Precisely because of its being an exciting activity in which one runs more of a risk of being blocked by the opponent than in others.
One of the relevant coach task is to teach young soccer players to take risks, therefore, teach them dribbling.

Dribbling is an action that requires:

  • Direct confrontation with the opponent
  • The taking pleasure in “jumping him”
  • The motivation to do one’s best
  • Initiative and decision-making
  • Anticipation and quickness of movement

Not possible when one has:

  • Fear of being criticized or rejected
  • Doubts in execution and one is slow
  • Fear of not being competent
  • Fear of the opponent
  • Fear of making mistakes

Briefly:

  • Task-oriented + soccer players are + motivated to improve soccer skills and in dribbling.
  • Footballers who are + result-oriented and – improvement-oriented will put less effort into taking risks and making personal decisions such as in dribbling.

 

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What do athletes focus on in training?

Published on October 2, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

One of the secrets of training is for the athletes to understand that what the coach is asking them to do, e.g., keep a certain pace/tempo in cyclic sports or execute a certain pattern in a tactical one is not the goal to focus on. In fact, the athletes’ goal is to focus on what to do to achieve that result.

Give it a try. Ask young athletes what they focus on when their coach gives them a drill to perform and record his or her response.

The coach gives the goal (to improve endurance and management of one’s athletic action in stressful situations) and explains that this is done through a certain activity (this is the outcome). The athletes must focus on what he or she must do to achieve that outcome that will thus enable him or her to achieve the goal stated before the work begins.

We psychologists along with coaches must play the role of facilitators of these forms of thinking that underlie any kind of improvement.

At this level, it is likely that the athletes will put their best effort into the drills. That is not the issue, the question is instead: are they engaging in doing what it takes to meet the demand or are they certainly active but focused on the wrong things?

Let us also train ourselves as psychologists to pick up on these differences during practice.

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The Significance of Grit: A Conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth

Published on September 30, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Resilience, grit and optimism are important psychological dimensions for any athlete who wants to cultivate his or her talents.

The following are the thoughts of Angela Lee Duckworth a leading expert in this area of study.

It’s all about one specific definition of resilience, which is optimism—appraising situations without distorting them, thinking about changes that are possible to make in your life. But I’ve heard other people use resilience to mean bouncing back from adversity, cognitive or otherwise. And some people use resilient specifically to refer to kids who come from at-risk environments who thrive nevertheless.

What all those definitions of resilience have in common is the idea of a positive response to failure or adversity. Grit is related because part of what it means to be gritty is to be resilient in the face of failure or adversity. But that’s not the only trait you need to be gritty.

In the scale that we developed in research studies to measure grit, only half of the questions are about responding resiliently to situations of failure and adversity or being a hard worker. The other half of the questionnaire is about having consistent interests—focused passions—over a long time. That doesn’t have anything to do with failure and adversity. It means that you choose to do a particular thing in life and choose to give up a lot of other things in order to do it. And you stick with those interests and goals over the long term. So grit is not just having resilience in the face of failure, but also having deep commitments that you remain loyal to over many years.

One of the first studies that we did was at West Point Military Academy, which graduates about 25 percent of the officers in the U.S. Army. Admission to West Point depends heavily on the Whole Candidate Score, which includes SAT scores, class rank, demonstrated leadership ability, and physical aptitude. Even with such a rigorous admissions process, about 1 in 20 cadets drops out during the summer of training before their first academic year. We were interested in how well grit would predict who would stay.

So we had cadets take a very short grit questionnaire in the first two or three days of the summer, along with all the other psychological tests that West Point gives them. And then we waited around until the end of the summer. Of all the variables measured, grit was the best predictor of which cadets would stick around through that first difficult summer. In fact, it was a much better predictor than the Whole Candidate Score, which West Point at that time thought was their best predictor of success. The Whole Candidate Score actually had no predictive relationship with whether you would drop out that summer (although it was the best predictor of later grades, military performance, and physical performance).

 

 

 

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Sport and physical activity in EU: new data

Published on September 29, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments

New Eurobarometer on sport and physical activity 2022

The updated edition of the 2022 Eurobarometer on Sport, the European Commission’s study describing the state of the art of sports practice in the various EU countries, was published on September 19. This is an important edition, the first in the post-restrictions era since Covid-19.

  1. 38 percent of Europeans engage in sports and physical activity at least once a week, compared to 17 percent who do it less than once a week.
  2. 45% of Europeans never engage in a sport and physical activity.
  3. Italy, 3% say they play sports regularly, compared to 6% in the EU. 31% play sports with some regularity and 10% say they rarely practice them. Fifty-six percent of the Italian respondents never engage in a sporting activity, compared with 45% of the EU respondents. On the other hand, 28% say they practice other physical activities with some regularity such as biking, dancing, gardening.
  4. They practice with some regularity those between the ages of 15 and 24, who account for 54 percent.
  5. Motivations in Italy: improving one’s health (48 percent), desire to feel fit (42 percent) and trying new methods of relaxation (31 percent).
  6. Obstacles: lack of time, lack of motivation or interest in sports. This figure affects 40%.
  7. Willingness to do physical activity and sports outdoors, followed by the intention to do it at home (16 percent).
  8. More than four out of ten Europeans spend between 2 hours and 31 minutes and 5 hours and 30 minutes sitting in a normal day. In Italy, sedentariness affects 42% of people surveyed.
  9. Gender: men are found to engage in physical activity more regularly than women (70% vs 62%).
  10. EU: physical inactivity rates remain “alarmingly high.” While the percentage of Europeans who never engage in physical activity or never play a sport decreased slightly between 2017 and 2022, it has increased since 2009, from 39% to 42% in 2013, 46% in 2017, and 45% in 2022.

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Motivation of growth oriented young

Published on September 29, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

Growth- and improvement-oriented youth prefer:

  1. To be recognized for their efforts since they are aware that the source of their success is commitment and intentional practice.
  2. Facing challenges as they provide essential feedback on their abilities and opportunity to learn.
  3. Plan, monitor and adjust their thoughts more in relation to different tasks.
  4. Be aware of what is under their direct control.

What do you do as a coach to foster the development of these attitudes and ways of experiencing sports?

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Team tennis table world championships

Published on September 28, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.

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The online brain effects

Published on September 28, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Libri, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

Firth J, Torous J, Stubbs B, Firth JA, Steiner GZ, Smith L, Alvarez-Jimenez M, Gleeson J, Vancampfort D, Armitage CJ, Sarris J. The “online brain”: how the Internet may be changing our cognition. World Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;18(2):119-129.

The impact of the Internet across multiple aspects of modern society is clear. However, the influence that it may have on our brain structure and functioning remains a central topic of investigation. Here we draw on recent psychological, psychiatric and neuroimaging findings to examine several key hypotheses on how the Internet may be changing our cognition. Specifically, we explore how unique features of the online world may be influencing:

  1. attentional capacities, as the constantly evolving stream of online information encourages our divided attention across multiple media sources, at the expense of sustained concentration;
  2. memory processes, as this vast and ubiquitous source of online information begins to shift the way we retrieve, store, and even value knowledge; and
  3. social cognition, as the ability for online social settings to resemble and evoke real-world social processes creates a new interplay between the Internet and our social lives, including our self-concepts and self-esteem.

Overall, the available evidence indicates that the Internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in each of these areas of cognition, which may be reflected in changes in the brain. However, an emerging priority for future research is to determine the effects of extensive online media usage on cognitive development in youth, and examine how this may differ from cognitive outcomes and brain impact of uses of Internet in the elderly.

We conclude by proposing how Internet research could be integrated into broader research settings to study how this unprecedented new facet of society can affect our cognition and the brain across the life course.

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Eliud Kipchoge: when dreams become records

Published on September 26, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

At 38, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge took nearly a minute off his previous marathon world record with a time of 2h01m09s. He has won 15 of the 17 marathons he has run and two gold medals at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. Married with children, the same coach all his life, if I had to use a few words to talk about him, I would say he is an athlete who is enough.

Kipchoge is truly one with what he does. He is the one who runs 230km a week, who washes his running uniform by hand in a basin, who lives in a spartan room in a sports center in Kenya, who eats traditional foods from his homeland, who reads Confucius rather than Paul Coelho, who is quiet and runs by following his inner clock that gives him the pace, who writes down in a notebook the sensations of running and how his body and mind work.

He is totally involved in what he does, even though he is a world star. Sponsors and success can easily distract anyone, pulling them away from continuing to do what it takes to achieve their dreams. These habits of his keep him connected to the pleasure of struggling and finding ways to be stronger than the struggle itself. They are the link to the heart of his motivation, which is to take pleasure in what he does and to accept for this end, to live a life in which fatigue is an ongoing and decisive experience.

The one who can make sense of personal growth out of this link between pleasure and fatigue wins.

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