Focus skill under stress in football
Article published in the journal of Italian Football Coach Association by Alberto Cei e Stefano D’Ottavio
http://www.assoallenatori.it/aiacweb.nsf/WebviewAllenatorebyNumero/60ec3acb7b80a5cec12576c4007c378d
Monthly Archive for October, 2012
Video of TV talkshow Formula S: ”Sport under stress”
I found a very interesting the article on psychopathological problems of athletes, published yesterday in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/sports/with-no-one-looking-mental-illness-in-athletes-can-stay-hidden.html?ref=sports&_r=0). It is said that athletest suffering of hese disorders are left alone, unlike what it’s the case when they have a physical problem or are injured, in those situation they are surrounded by doctors, physiotherapists and managers. The athlete must be a warrior who cannot show this difficulties, otherwise they will be considered as a weak and not a tough person. Someone behaves differently as Luther Wright, who wrote a book “A Perfect Fit” in which he talked about his story from celebrity, NBA player, to drugs and drunk. In the book he said that you cannot become ill, or did you come out, because all think that you will not reach the performance highest level. (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700087866/Book-review-Luther-Wrights-book-describes-time-with-Utah-Jazz.html?pg=all)
Mental skills are essential in team sports and they are largely disjointed from the technical and tactical skills. Those most important to me are self-confidence, commitment, concentration and team spirit. The concentration is reltaed at two functions. The first, together to the commitment can predict the opponent’s game and impose its own. The second, it concerns the ability to stay focused even after an error. Finally, collaboration is essential, and each player must be at the service of others. This applies to everyone, from the stars of the team to the last reserves. These four characteristics are closely related to each other, there is no cooperation without self-confidence and even concentration without commitment. Therefore, the team mentally stronger is not the one has the best players, but the one that gives the best results using the best of the interaction among these psychological dimensions. The mind decides what to do and tells the body how to do it. The audience sees the body of a player to take good action and admires the athlete technique , it does not see, however, the work of the mind, thinking that the body moves only driven in automatic mode. So often in coaching sessions it is only trained the body without being aware that the movements depend on the invisible work of the mind, which should be further supported in this effort.
We often speak about football teams who are not technically up to be able to be competitiveas they want in our League (Serie A). The comments are often centered on the technical difficulties of teams or individual players. They are rarely made on the psychological aspects. In my opinion there are some mental abilities that are largely separated by technical and tactical skills. They are self-confidence, commitment, concentration and team spirit. It’s known that the players have to be confidents to themselves and the collective. Then we have the commitment, that ensures to play intensive game. When we say that a team is determined by means playing with conviction and intensity. Players must play with this attitude even when the opponents are stronger, even when they have lost contrasts, because these difficult situations represent a good measure how strong the individuals and collective confidence and what it is the limit beyond which the commitment decreases. In essence, players and coaches do not have to hide behind the technical limits of the team to justify negative performances in terms of mind approach, because these aspects must be considered as independent also if they occur at the same time of technical skills.
The criticism after Catania-Juventus:
Maggiani, assistant referee, says “I am confident”.
Braschi, the manager of top football players, says not to conspiracy.
Nicchi, the Aia manager, says Maggiani was wrong but he is also appreciated abroad.
Not a word about what to do to avoid these errors, so never get any better.
The question that does not say it is how to train the referees to minimize these errors? Nobody says.
The main sources of stress that result in the fear that the referees have of the consequence of his decisions. If the anxiety levels are high, the referees’ ability to focus in the games’ important clues (ball movement and players’ behaviour) decreases. In this way they reduce their ability to analyze the ball movements and those of the players. This is happened yesterday in Catania-Juventus, when the referees have spent almost a minute to talk to each other before making a decision. It is no coincidence that the main-referee Gervasoni has accepted the decision of another colleague which he is an international referee, Rizzoli, for this role must have been regarded as more competent to decide than himself.
Basically if the referees does wrong call for the stress generated by the fear of making mistakes, unfortunately for them this attitude will not change from game to game. Not just the usual scolding of the chief of referees or to see the video of the errors. It’s a matter of mentality that only an adequate program of psychological preparation of these referees could teach, in order to increase the belief in their choices. The referees are afraid of the amplification of their mistakes by media and teams, as it determines the depreciation of themselves. It is not a problem that it is resolved by replays or by multiplying the number of umpires on the field, they have to improve their minds but I think this is the last thing that referees and their managers will talk about in their meetings.
Yesterday the Italian Football Association (www.figc.it) has presented the Social Report – 2012, which contains, inter alia, the numbers of Italian football:
14,653 Football clubs
71,689 Teams
1,151,437 Players
670,589 Players of Youth and School Division
62,286 Coaches
2907 Doctors
34,728 Referees
132,163 Managers
591,496 Games Played
