U.S. surfer Garrett McNamara rides a 100 foot wave at Praia do Norte beach in Nazaré, Portugal
Monthly Archive for January, 2013
“Tennis has been invented by devil, “said Adriano Panatta because it pushes you in error, to think, for example, that today you are playing just fine … and suddenly you start to go wrong, or you want that your opponent make an error … and so you get angry and do not take no more balls. Or you want to pull hard the first, you dare … and you start having difficulty on the second.
Why is it wrong to think this way?
Because the devil has led you to think only of the result you are getting (“how good I am today”) or what you want to achieve (“Pull hard, make them pay”). All right are legitimate thoughts that pass in everyone’s mind. Only the strong tennis players take them away while the others will dwell a while. ‘The effect is that instead of being focused on what needs to be done to force the service or how we must respond to the opponent, we lose time thinking about what you want to achieve.
Think about making a point is useless, even harmful.
We must focus on the action to be done to beat the opponent and push her to make mistakes. Sometimes you do not need to do anything special, just get the ball over the net, because then we think the other will do a mistake.
The mind is everything in tennis, the champions must also guide themselves through each game in order to enhance their play, it is not a coincidence that the breaks will be extended beyond the seconds allowed just to allow the player to carry out this work and mental recovery concentration on the next game.
It’s called Highlander syndrome , or immortality syndrome, taking the title of the famous films of the ’80s that speaks the exploits of an immortal. To suffer are adults over50. More likely to affect the athletes who continue their activities after the youth period, or those that interrupted the sports activities, they start again in advanced age, sedentary pretending to be athletes. Too often these athletes are mistakenly convinced that exercise protect us from any medical condition, and so minimize symptoms and risk factors, past or present. The consequences are often serious: from skeletal system problems to heart disease.
Some simple tips: be followed by a qualified coach (not by another over50) for deciding the training program that you intend to follow, listen to the feelings by not train when you have pain, be aware that recovery is part of the training , learn to be satisfied with what you do and not for the results.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.
Juventus score a few goals even if it builds a lot of scoring chances. Many people say that the problem are the forward players who have difficulty making a goal. Reading the statistics of the goals of the past seasons of the four strikers should be noted that the percentage of goals made in their best years is more or less the same as today, in fact there is some slight improvement. In fact, Vucinic has moved from an average of 0.4 goals per game to 0.38 of this year, Quagliarella from 0.36 to 0.7 , Matri from 0.34 to 0.4 and Giovinco from 0.4 to 0 , 5. Therefore, they are all on average with their past performances, the question is that they are now playing for a team that plays to win the league and champions league and their average is too low, because it does not ensure the number of goals that need to win so often is necessary. It should also be analyzed how many decisive goals they have realized, that is, those that have allowed to win the game. In my opinion the problem is also mental, as playing in a team whose goal is to win every game should be more frequently in situations of scoring. Maybe they do not feel to be ready to play this role, and so every game represents a test to prove they are not only athletes of middle ranking teams but also of top teams. In other words, what is the mental change that should take to be more confident and decisive in the field. The club has already given its answer by taking a player (Anelka) for the second part of the season and it bought another one for next year. How will they digest these choices? Do not just hide behind the phrase “we are professionals, we respect the commitments”, are these choices perceived as a stimulus or as an additional source of pressure and mistrust?
“Penalty is when referee whistles,” said Boskov (it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vujadin_Boškov) with humor and closing immediately the controversy that often arises in relation to arbitration calls. At Juventus was denied a penalty at the 93 ° in the match against Genoa but Conte’s and some players’ reaction against the referee is to blame. The Juventus president Andrea Agnelli said that you can not lead by Lord against error so obvious and damaging the team. I would like to know when then that we should behave as Lord, what is the scale of behaviors that at one point the Lord leaves the stage and enters the bully. It has this behavior when you want to intimidate the referee and run at the same time a warning to refereeing organization. But the behavior of Conte was similar at the player’s reaction foul and should be equally punished. Juventus have of course the right to express its reasons in relation to events that occurred during the game, to ask for explanations and more clarity in relation to rules that appear ambiguous. This does not mean passively accepting what is happening, but act in accordance with the rules. Otherwise it seems to reply the dominant culture in Italian football that is “first beat and think only if you’re forced.”
All coaches are aware of the close interaction between motivation and learning. The motivation is, however, a theoretical concept that can not be directly observed and which can only be hypothesized on the basis of their behaviors. In any case, knowledge of the motivational processes is a crucial factor for any coach who wants to teach effectively.
The most important reasons recognized by young athletes are related to:
- competence (learn and improve their sports skills)
- fun (excitement, challenge and action)
- affiliation (being with friends and making new friends)
- team (being part of a group or team)
- compete (compete, succeed, win)
- fitness (feeling fit or feel stronger)
Conversely, the main causes of the decrease in motivation or drop out in sport are lack of fun, lack of success, competition stress, lack of support from parents, misunderstandings with the coach, boredom and injuries.
In summary these are the three main needs that the athlete wants to meet for half of the sport:
- fun, satisfies the need for stimulation and excitement;
- demonstrate competence, it satisfies the need to acquire skills and to feel self-determined in the activities
- being with others, it satisfies the need for affiliation with others and being in a group.
With reference to the need of stimulation it can be stated that:
- The success is built by calibrating the program to be carried out with the skills and the age of the athlete.
- The training must be maintained challenging and varied.
- Each athlete must be active, do not let the athletes time to get bored.
- While exercising, you need to provide athletes with the opportunity to do challenging exercises.
- You have to teach athletes to identify realistic goals.
- During training is useful to establish times when athletes practice without being evaluated by the coach.
With regard to the need for competence, it is up to the coach to stimulate both the child and the player evolved not only to learn specific sports techniques, but also to develop the desire to progress and curiosity about themselves and the environment in which acting.
In this regard, the coach must remember that:
- Specific goals, which are difficult and challenging are more effective than specific targets but easy to reach or defined in terms of do-your-best.
- Athletes must have a sufficient number of skills to reach their goals.
- The objectives are most effective when they are defined in terms of specific behavior than when they are defined in a vague way.
- Must defined intermediate goals to interact with the long-term goals.
As for the need of affiliation it is based on the need to belong to a group and to be accepted, thus establishing with other team members in meaningful relationships. Satisfying the need for affiliation and esteem, the athlete experiences increase the confidence in himself and more control in respect of the situations. In fact every athlete and coach knows from experience that when there are communication problems between them is difficult to follow the training program that has been set.
The key points to meet the need for affiliation and esteem of the athletes can be summarized as follows:
- Listen to the demands of athletes.
- Understanding the needs expressed, directing them in the annual program of training.
- Establish the role of each athlete, setting realistic goals for each.
- Openly acknowledge the efforts made to collaborate on team goals.
- Teach players to be fair.
- Provide technical instruction and encourage personal commitment.
- Reduce the competitive stress, providing feedback about to to perform at the best of themselves and reducing the emphasis on results.
In other words, the coach must develop in his athletes the sense of belonging to that particular group, and he must appear credible and consistent in his attitudes and behaviors.
To be credible, we must be honest with all the athletes: young and older, experienced and inexperienced. In this respect, the coach must:
- Share with athletes the technical program, highlighting their skills and areas for improvement.
- Explain the reasons of techniques and strategies: they will be better remembered .
- Do not make promises, either personally or indirectly, that he might not be able to keep.
- Answer the questions with competence, honesty and sensitivity.
- Avoiding pronouncing phrases which might affect the athlete confidence (eg, “You’ll never part of the best group). As a guide he wil ask himself:” If I were an athlete, I would like to be told this by the coach? “.
During the semi-finals of the Australian Open, Azarenka at 5-3 in the second set for her lose fifth match points. Returning to sit for the change field has accused a pain in the neck, she asked the doctor and the match start again only after 10 minutes. Her opponent Sloane Stephens complained saying that Azarenka is not agaisnt the rules but certainly she bent them in her favor. In the statement immediately after the game, which went on to win, she said that she had a mental block. At a press conference later claimed that she had hurt her neck and that’s why she asked for medical care that have allowed her to return to the field and win. The culture of winning at all costs determines these behaviors even by the champs. In fact, take long pause when stressed helps to regain self-control and prevents the opponent from continuing to exert pressure. I do not think it’s fair, because she failed to respect the opponent. gaining an extra long time permitting to have in her hands her mind and then the game.
“The government needs to show long-term and committed leadership at the very highest level if Britain is ever to become a nation of cyclists, a pioneering parliamentary inquiry into getting more people on to bikes has heard.
The MPs and peers were told repeatedly that if the country was to start catching up continental neighbours on cycling levels – currently around 2% of Britons use a bike as their main mode of transport, one of the lowest levels of all 27 EU nations – it would require the sort of strategic, non-partisan planning seen on other major transport infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail lines.
“We will not create a cycling culture until we have leadership that makes it clear this is a commitment for the long term,” said Phillip Darnton from the Bicycle Association trade group, who formerly headed the now-disbanded Cycling England quango. “This is not a party-political thing.”
The commitment needed to be like that made in countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands several decades ago, Darnton said, in that cycling should be treated as an important and integral part of all transport planning.
“We need to take that stance and no political party ever questions it again. We could start tomorrow if we wanted,” he said/
The inquiry, entitled Get Britain Cycling, was set up by the all-party parliamentary cycling group in an attempt to turn the generalised enthusiasm for cycling following the Olympics and Bradley Wiggins’s Tour de France win into an increase in the numbers using bikes as regular transport. Another key impetus for the inquiry was a concerted and energetic cycle safety campaign set up by the Times after one of its reporters was severely and permanently injured by a lorry while cycling.
The first of six evidence sessions saw input from cycling groups such as the national campaign group the CTC, British Cycling and Sustrans, experts including Darnton, academics specialising in cycle use and media including the Guardian and the Times.
Witness after witness told the gathered MPs and sole peer, Lord Hoffman, that cycling levels would only increase significantly with sustained investment in dedicated cycle infrastructure, notably segregated lanes and safer junctions, as well as places for people to store bikes at home, work and public transport links.
Such a joined-up approach was vital, said Roger Geffen, head of policy at the CTC. “A cycling journey is only as good as its weakest link,” he argued. “If all those things are not in place someone is not going to make a cycle trip. They will take the car instead.”
Another key argument was one about the culture of cycling and how it could be seen as an everyday thing – “an enhanced form of walking” in Hoffman’s phrase – rather than a sport or a pursuit needing daring and special knowledge. One of the committee, the Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, recounted hearing from a group of around 30 local young people that around half currently cycled but only two planned to continue as they all aspired to own cars. Corbyn said: “One of them described it by saying cycling is for losers.”
Among ideas suggested to combat this was a cycling element within the driving test and encouraging more women and children to cycle, for example making the Bikeability cycle training scheme part of the regular school curriculum, as with swimming.
Time and again the committee was told such changes needed commitment from the prime minister and cabinet. Anything else, Darnton said, would be just “tinkering at the edges” and achieve little.”
Ambitions should be great, he said: “It’s not about cycling at all. It’s about what sort of streets, what sort of towns, what sort of communities we want to live in.”
(By Peter Walker, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/23/uk-cycling-culture-commitment-government)
