The coach opposition to the mental coaching

One of the factors that limit the diffusion of the mental coaching among athletes lies in the resistance that coaches show toward this activity. For many of them the psychological preparation is “something more” to use only in those cases in which athletes show obvious mental limitations that hinder their performances. Coaches usually send to the sport psychologist those athletes that they call “athletes good for training” and that they have poor performances in the race. In other words, they send those athletes on which after having “tried everything” cannot “unlock”. Athletes who start a program of mental improvement from a negative state  hope to achieve positive results in a short time, which is very difficult for athletes who often have the same problem for years, have never done anything to change and live every race with the hope that will be the one that will overcome their problem. In addition, these athletes are not used to invest economically on them, except for a few sessions of physiotherapy for physical problems, and then think about having a mental coach for at least a year with which to carry out a specific program becomes an additional obstacle. In favor of the athletes must be said that in Italy the sports federations and sports organizations of the State do not offer any support and, to be more clear, this sport side it’s completely misunderstood. Consequently, what are the athletes who attend programs of psychological preparation? They are usually the strongest athletes, those can win a medal in the international competitions, they understand the added value of mental work and are willing to invest financially. They are also the parents of those who practice sports such as tennis, golf and shooting in the planning of future career also consider this aspect and these athletes are generally motivated to follow these programs. To reduce the economic impact on the individual, sports clubs could arrange meetings with their athletes, but nobody else does. On the other hand it is extremely rare for a coach to follow a program of psychological training, so while on the one hand we tend to ever more extreme knowledge for physical  and technical training, with regard to psychological ones we are still left at the principle of the stick and the carrot that everyone interprets according to his/her personal experiences.

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