Monthly Archive for February, 2014

Give a kick to homofobia

Published on February 28, 2014 in Calcio and Generale. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

L'iniziativa di Paddy Power

It was presented the initiative ‘ Let’s kick homophobia ‘ , organized by Paddy Power, in collaboration with the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport; testimonial footballer Davide Moscardelli and former basketball player Gianmarco Pozzecco .

# ALLACCIAMOLI – The initiative will invite many players to wear or carry colorful laces for shoes, and use the hashtag #allacciamoli on Twitter, to express their no to homophobia. ” Who fastens puts his face … and his beard,” said Moscardelli . “I am with you ,” he said by telephone CONI president Giovanni Malagò. Also important is the intervention of Damiano Tommasi , president football player association: “Fasten a rainbow is a gesture that infects easily, and I ‘d like to understand how to deal with this issue as chairman of the players.  We also need to respect the silence of those who would not want to talk about it.”

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Published on February 27, 2014 in Generale, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

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Team concentration index in football

Published on February 26, 2014 in Allenatori and Calcio. 0 Comments

The following is the abstract of my presentation at the Congress in cognitive psychology held in tese days at Al-Ain University, UAE.

Main issues in football talking about attention are: (a) how can measure on the pitch the team focus and (b) how can understand that the team has focused during the different match periods. This study proposes to use as concentration index the goal distribution, dividing the football match in 6 periods of 15 minutes each one. The study has analyzed three different championships, first League, in four European countries as England, Italy, Spain and The Netherland. The data collected shown that there are no differences among all the four championships, most of the goals are scored in the second half-time and mainly in the last 30 minutes. Concerning the Italian Serie A when the match finishes with a draw or with one or two goals more of the opponents, the goals are again mainly scored in the last 30 minutes of the games. The study has shown that the team concentration index could be defined by the reduction of goals scored by the opponent team in the last time period. Example of specific Italian Serie A teams are reported to show the relevance of the goal frequency, scored in the last period of the match, on the final results.

 

 

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Italians, we are victim by ourselves also in sport

Published on February 26, 2014 in Calcio and Generale. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

We are a people accustomed to blaming others and in sport too we show this mentality. Parents beat the referees, most of us think Juventus steals the games as usual, athletes who use doping  justified themselves by saying that it was a lightness and mainly …  we have not hope.

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A psychologist for England penalty

Published on February 25, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio and Stress. 0 Comments

England manager Roy Hodgson will consider using a psychologist at the World Cup in Brazil to ensure players are better prepared for penalties. Six of the last 10 major tournaments England have qualified for have ended in defeat via spot-kicks. “We have some confident penalty-takers, but others less confident,” Hodgson told Sky Sports. “It’s how we get to them. We need to know they are as well prepared as they can be.” Hodgson, who was in charge when England were beaten on penalties by Italy at Euro 2012, believes a professional sports psychologist could help his players handle the pressure of a shootout.

“It will be about their character, their confidence and their ability to block out the next morning’s headlines,” he added. “If a psychologist can find a way to block that out, then we’d be very, very happy.” Hodgson has also asked British cycling chief Sir Dave Brailsford to talk to his players before the World Cup gets under way on 12 June.

“One forgets sometimes how important these tournaments are and what big occasions they are,” said Hodgson. “You don’t get that many shots at it and you have a lot of time to regret if you don’t give it your best shot. “I bet the world is full of players who reflect back on tournaments they have had and have said ‘I wish had done a bit more, I wish I had concentrated a bit more, I wish I had known then what I know now’. “Maybe Brailsford can put a few thoughts in their head.” (From: http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/26332893)

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5 steps to mindfulness meditation

Published on February 22, 2014 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Meditation tips: sit cross-legged, notice your breath

Meditation tips: don't judge yourself or try to ignore distractions

(da Time, February 3, adapted from Full catastrophe living, 2° edit. by Jon Kabat-Zinn)

 

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Extreme bullying for Miami Dolphins

Published on February 21, 2014 in Generale and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Homophobia, racism, bullying this is the sport culture expressed by Miami Dolphins football team. Players with the behavior that lead to teammate depression,  guilty for them of playing like sissies. Coach John Philbin says he did not know this phenomenon was happening regularly in the locker room of his team, until it was published on the report (144 pages) commissioned by Roger Goodell, NFL League Commissioner. It’s a history of repeated abuse and constant over time, that no one until now had wanted to see and stop!! As usual.

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Published on February 20, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale and Mental coaching. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

First International Conference in Sport Psychology and Embodied Cognition
UAE University–Abu Dhabi Sports Council
24th-­‐27th February 2014,
Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE

This academic conference aims at exploring important points of connection between the empirical studies of sport psychology and the embodied approach to the cognitive sciences. It will offer a unique occasion of interdisciplinary collaboration, and foster opportunities of reciprocal learning between theoretical and applied sport scientists, exercise and performance psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, psycholinguists, philosophers of mind, phenomenologists, and practitioners who work in the sport environment, including coaches, trainers, and athletes of various disciplines.

Embodied cognition theory offers the most suitable paradigm to pursue this integration and cross-disciplinary collaboration: successful sport psychologists recognize that the results and the models of embodied cognitive science can allow them develop more effective training methods; reciprocally, attentive cognitive scientists can’t overlook sport and exercise psychology, as this field is one of the richest terrains for empirical exploration, experimental discovery, and epistemological validation of models and theories. Cooperation between these two fields promises immediate and tangible benefits, as it allows proving the correctness of the theoretical models by testing how effectively they can improve the athletes’ performances; at the same time, it raises the value of sport science for cognitive science, proving how the empirical study of athletic performance can inspire and validate new explanatory models of sensorimotor capabilities, control, attention, memory, and language-action interfaces. Sports can provide invaluable insights for the sciences of mind, telling how skills are actually enacted and controlled, through the body, defining dynamic boundaries between mind and world.

I will be there with a keynote entitled “Improving concentration in football teams.”

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GianMario Missaglia: sport is more civil than its time

Published on February 20, 2014 in Generale and Olimpiadi. 0 Comments

“Let us return again to the foundation of the sport, the idea of the Games and the original synthesis of de Coubertin – a world one, unlimited progress, equality of opportunity -. Sport is most civil of  its time, the society in which it’s born. It’s not only more civil of the most popular games, but also of everyday life, family relationships, forms of  class conflict, the practice of the rights, relations between peoples and states. In the stadium staged a society more just, more modern, more democratic, more mobile, more legitimate. ‘This is the deepest root of the victory of the sport, its ethical foundation. ” (Di GianMario Missaglia, il baro e il guastafeste  - the cheater and the troublemaker -, Seam Editions)

Today, doping, violence and all kinds of fraud have made this idea of this sport less obvious, but it is important that we do not forget it, making the mistake of thinking that is no longer current.

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Self-esteem, performance and training

Published on February 19, 2014 in Allenatori and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Every day I realize more and more how the self-esteem of the athletes is challenge during the races. It happens for the high expectations that those who have high commitment have toward their performances. This does not mean that athletes are individuals with a low level of self-esteem.  The situations they face require they test every time the will to do their best. Only the musicians live in situations of this kind or students who want to excel. If these are the circumstances that athletes have to face, it’s necessary that the daily workout is different than in the past, because it’s one thing is to learn/improve the technique, but something very different is knowing replicate during competitions, when the emotional tension can destroy even the best coaching. Are the coaches aware of this difference  and are the athletes willing to get more involved ?

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