Monthly Archive for January, 2014

I’ve never organized training courses in the field of sport dedicated to improving the psychological skills of the coaches. Instead it’s  a bit of time I thought about it, because the psychological role played by coaches is of the great importance at all levels, from beginners to top athletes, from personal trainers to children coaches, from team sports to individual ones. Now that the competence profile of the coach cannot longer be based as it was in the past on an industrious “do your best” it’s necessary that technical knowledge is accompanied by a knowledge on how to manage individuals and groups. So here I gladly accepted the idea of the Center for Sport Psychology of Macerata to organize in Roma four days of sport psychology devoted to practical issues having as goal to increase the professional skills of sports coaches.

Each meeting one is organized on a main theme. The first “I coach” will address the issues of interpersonal communication and emotional intelligence. How many problems arise because we do not feel understood, during this day we will talk about this and how to improve ourselves. The second day will focus on “Team”, be able to set team and individual goals, understand why some are joined together while others hate each others, and yet is it true that it is easier to lead a group of boys rather than a group of girls ? Can male coaches understand their female players? These are just some of the questions that this second meeting will provide guidance and practical solutions. The third day is dedicated to the “Training mental aspects” and it will be dealt with the psychological aspects of physical preparation. Are the routines  just a ritual or play a more complex function? Is it correct ask for more attention or is a phrase that means nothing? Is the imagery useful  only during competition or its practice is also useful in training? Can we talk about mental preparation for an exercise or not? The fourth day is instead focused on “Working in the youth program.” We will speak of course of the parents: are they a resource or just a problem? And then if the kids do not think like adults , because do we continue to train them as if they were ? And many other topics , including: which are the characteristics of the coach of the youth activity?

With this brief summary, I wanted to point out that the issues will be addressed by the professional side, because our aim is to provide an opportunity for critic reflection on their skills and an opportunity for professional improvement . These are our goals and what we will ask the participants is to be ready to interact in an active approach so as to make these days really special for all of us.