Dear colleagues train yourselves in sport psychology otherwise left

I check every day how necessary is that the psychologists who intend to work in sport are competent in sport psychology. Means have good knowledge in this field, have the skills required to make a significant contribution to the sport environment and finally know the sport. Considerations that are obvious for an American, a German or a Norwegian, but not at all for an Italian psychologist. This represents a major limitation to the development of this profession in our country. This is because psychologists know nothing about the  psychology (not just sports ), they do not know the rules of motor learning that are the basis of training, they do not know the needs of sports organizations, they do not know what it means to deal with very intense competitive situations  when the athletes are called to give their best. In relation to stress management they have not developed a specific professional sensitivity to understand and support the athletes. These skills can not be invented, you can only learn from experts psychologists who carry out this work for years. Unfortunately, federations and sports clubs too often rely on untrained and young psychologists or psychotherapists, certainly good at treating psychopathology, but without the minimum knowledge of this world and they usually treat athletes as patients. Every week I meet coaches and athletes who tell me their negative experiences with psychologists . My advice to colleagues, please choice other job or otherwise follow a good training in sport psychology.