There are only 2 days at London 2012, the wait is ending. Many athletes will begin on July 27, for them these last days are critical moments when the tension grows up and they need to know how to handle. The best athletes have personal strategies, Federica Pellegrini has been recharged and rested at home and now is in the bubble created around her, which excludes anyone who is not a carrier of calm and confidence. Bolt gives interviews where he says that he is ready and he will control the stress with his exuberant behaviors until few moments before the start. Some Italian athletes have back to home and they will return to London just for the day of official training before the Olympic competition. So many ways to handle this phase with the goal to find the right mood to be the best in that day.
Monthly Archive for July, 2012
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Alessandro Campagna, class ’63, man-symbol of the Italian waterpolo, arrives in London by coach of the world champion team. “Players need of my voice – tells the coach – between me and them there is a high mental and psychological contact. I would say to empathize, so my presence at poolside is essential: they see me and hear me. Not it leads optimum performance without coaching the mind. “
In the top ten of the most recent Olympic medalists, Italy is the only nation that does not have sport psychologists as part of the Olympic team, but there will be a large number of doctors and physiotherapists. Personally I can follow the athletes I work with Skype, sms and WhatsApp. This is not the best during the most important and decisive event, but this is the situation and figure out how much our sports managers are open to the psychology. I hope that the election in 2013 of the new president of the Olympic Committee can allow a change in the attitude toward psychology and especially the needs of athletes in this area. On the other hand, what you should expect from the Institute of Sport Science of the Olimpic Committee which does not provide an independent area for sport psychology, which has not partnerships with the Universities on these issues and where the talent research is made only by coaches, doctors and physiologists?
Her first punch he launched 11 years: Sadaf Rahimi was in her village, when she and a cousin of 18 years, set up a sort of challenge, a battle from which she realized what she wanted to do in the future: “The first once I hit someone was in my village. My cousin was 18 years. We staged a fight and he told me that I would be a good boxer. “Succeed in a sport like boxing is not easy, especially for a girl who, moreover, live in a country where women have not equal rights and equal opportunities to the achievement of the men.
There are not enough funds for the Olympics: to denounce the situation, just the Afghan girl boxer, which underlines the difficulties not only cultural but also economic live in her country in the management of sport and access to women to sport competitions: “I practice one hour a day, but not enough to prepare for London. The other teams are training three times a day and my exercise equipment is inadequate. I had to buy even the gloves. We need a sponsor who can assist female athletes. “
There are not enough funds for the Olympics: to denounce the situation, just the Afghan girl boxer, which underlines the difficulties not only cultural but also economic live in her country in the management of sport and access to women to sport competitions: “I practice one hour a day, but not enough to prepare for London. The other teams are training three times a day and my exercise equipment is inadequate. I had to buy even the gloves. We need a sponsor who can assist female athletes. “
They will also be the Olympics of faith as Time writes. It will be the first time for the women of Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia. About 3500 muslim athletes will compete and their competition will take place during the holy month of Ramadan. Ibtihaj Muhamad will be the first American athlete to compete in the saber with the hijab. Moe Sbihi, English rower, decided to donate 1800 meals to the poor in Morocco, 60 for each day that he will not follow the fast. Many other athletes will follow instead the fast, and their faith will help them psychologically to make them more determined and confident during the competitions. These facts, the participation for the first time of an amputee athlete, Oscar Pistorius, and also the great increased number of women permit to La Stampa to title today that London 2012 are the Games of All.
These are the psychological skills perceived by Olympic medalists:
- High motivation and commitment
- High level of confidence
- Having clearly defined goals
- Self-regulation of emotions
- Having well-organized routines during the competition
- Skills in dealing with distractions and unexpected events
- High concentration
- Visualization of their performance
During the Olympics we will often hear talk of sports performances and excellent performances. To understand what we will be looking at or what we will read it needs to know what these terms mean. It is not enough to simply say that a performance is to know how to make good or better swimming, jumping or running. In fact the sports performance is a special form of behavior that includes the competitive dimension, in which all athletes want to do their best to master their skills, demonstrating superiority over their rivals, while all this takes place in front a large audience even hundreds of millions of people. These are the characteristics of the sports performance at the Olympics and all athletes are aware of it. Under these conditions provide excellent performances means doing something of incredible, extraordinary and totally out of the ordinary.
A burst of energy and optimism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuAPPeRg3Nw
“Apart from defections and absences – said the coach of the Italian basketball team Simone Pianigiani - we want to have a National that it would always winning.” It’s very clear the goal that the national coach sets for his players. For a team that has lost often reluctantly, this goal is particularly challenging. It ‘s useless to hide behind diplomatic or smoky phrases that speak of commitment and good game. Having put on the table this purpose means first train to win; it just taught the U.S. national basketball against Brazil, it played badly, but what mattered was to win and we succeeded. Well, I’m very happy that an Italian team is not afraid to think of winning, to make public this purpose and to work to achieve it. The basketball game is not an activity made up of thousands baroque patterns. One wins the other loses, it must be clear to everyone which side you need to be. You may also lose of course but you must have fought like lions … as the famous saying that “Whether you are a lion or a gazelle … start to run.” Good luck.
In an interview with La Stampa today, the Italian diver Tania Cagnotto explains how important it is her social environment: “I distinguish very well life from the pool, a podium would make me feel in heaven, but my life is another thing and it would not be affected in any case. My boyfriend, my friends, my parents, it will not change anything for them and those are my significant persons. ” Speaking of school friends that following her in London she says: “I like the idea of sisterhood, understanding each other, share. It’s a micro-community from which I take energy. And to complete the support women there will be even my mother. ” It confirms once again the role played by her own social and emotional environment for the athletes of the highest level. This is nothing new, it happens all over the world, and should be remembered to those coaches who say that children are best to train are the orphans, because they have not parents who are protesting.
