Monthly Archive for March, 2014
Page 2 of 3
Some specific issues about the mental training of the athletes:
Some believe to have a routine useful to start the competitions, but very often it’s only behavioral to warm-up the body and for the mind at max they listen music.
Usually the athletes don’t know that relaxation is useful not only for controlling the anxiety but also to recover from fatigue, to spleep relaxed, to reduce the tension of every day, to be calm most of the time and in a hurry, to control the jet lag.
Have I the feeling or mood to start well my next session? Or do I start just to start? These two questions are not so common in the athletes’ mind.
We cannot escape the rule of the 10,000 hours to become an expert whatever the field. At this respect in England to solve the problems of the students in the study of mathematics teachers will arrive from China, because the Far East students are the best in the world in this discipline. At the basis of their skill there is to study mathematics with difficult exercises and for many hours. They study in the way that it is well known and that it’s the basis of excellence: train like jackasses. In other words, they study a lot, becoming confidents to be able to learn even the most difficult operations. The sciences and sports teach it, there are no shortcuts, you have to swot and then again to swot.
The serve in tennis does not improve during the match, but whatever it’s your level of technical mastery of this act, it’s necessary for the implement to the highest level you’re capable of , regardless of the outcome of that moment. Remember:
When the ball went into the net or goes out, the error is obviously technical. So you say you ‘d have to hit it the ball in another way or the arm rather than your legs did not do the job right … all this is true but do not forget that the body does not move by itself is ‘THE MIND THAT LEADS, TELLING WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.
The error is always technical, but you should always ask yourself, ” How important is the mental component in this mistake I made in the serve?” And then you have to know how to reduce the error percentage, certainly the first answer that comes to say is: ”I need to improve my technique.
To improve the mental approach to the serve you have to be aware of what are the psychological pitfalls that you fall down when you run this fundamental. To this end, I propose to answer a questionnaire in which you are asked how often you make mistakes more related on your mental attitude. No matter about your current technical limitations in the game you have to serve proving the quality of your action as well as now you possess, without being affected by the mental condition of the match- moment. If you use a mental approach also correct your technique will benefit from it and you can play in a more satisfactory way.
“How I cope with my serve”
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Instructions: Please read each statement and indicate how often you behave in situations as outlined below with an X marking the number that best indicates what is true for you.
1 means never and 7 forever – All other numbers indicate intermediate levels
How often:
Never Always
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Today is a No-day because of these numbers:
15% are managers Italian graduates
37% are managers who have completed only compulsory education
38% are Italian footballers of Serie A
5,000 young graduates who have gone abroad in Sicily
72% of the graduates are willing to go abroad
In Italy, we have other difficulties, but the ignorance of the leaders and the escape of the young people in my opinion are devastating for any nation. The players fall into the category of young people on where in Italy we do not want to invest, in this case is resolved by buying abroad often mediocre football players.
The last two Sundays I have been with shooters, 16/19 years old, and I realized again how important it’s for them even in training to be supported by a calm and peaceful mood. Trap shooting is a sport that requires before shooting a condition of total concentration followed soon after by a period of relaxation and waiting for about 40 seconds before the next shot. This psychological situation is repeated 25 times, which is the number of shots for each round. The confidence to perform effectively the shot and as a result to hit the target, is based on a mental state of calm that when it fails opens the door for a thousand doubts that hinder the performance. To these young athletes is then required to be 25 times in this state of mind, and especially after having made a mistake it’s not easy to push away the critical thoughts that appear and getting focused on the next shot. Perform this task, to quickly find serenity after an error is an exercise that educates their mind to react more positively otherwise there would be a very real possibility of committing right after another. Thing that can happen on the other hand, as it is impossible not to make mistakes. So this exercise, to relax and focus, must be performed each time, knowing that in any case some plate will not be equally hit, who is more constant in this exercise will improve more quickly than others. In this way the shooters train them to maintain a calm and peaceful mood with the awareness that it’s the basis of the confidence of knowing how to hit the next target.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden showed their support for First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign by having a brisk jog around the grounds of the White House. A video of their exertions was released in support of the campaign, which aims to tackle the issue of childhood obesity.
I publish with pleasure part of an article of Debbie Jevans, new CEO of England Rugby
“Women in sport is not rocket science. Women make up 50% of the population. Ignoring one half of the talent pool in this country does not make good business sense. Getting more women into senior positions in the sports industry is not a “female thing”. It is just common sense. The fact that our Rugby World Cup team is 50% female is great and is a result of interviewing widely and recruiting the best people – men and women – for the job. The barriers so often cited as reasons why women cannot progress in their careers, such as motherhood, are outdated. The workplace is changing. It is dynamic and flexible. In a modern world it needs to be. The leadership of any ambitious organisation has to be open-minded.
… UK Sport and Sport England set a target for all sports governing body boards to be made up of 25% female directors by 2017. For most of my life I have actively disagreed with targets and quotas for women but where a target can be helpful is that it shows ambition. And that is important.
Is 25% ambitious enough? I do not think so. Surely we have to be aiming at 50%, to reflect the population. I am absolutely not saying give women jobs for the sake of it. I would never advocate that. But I do think we need to create the opportunity for women to shine. And that is about sports organisations proactively encouraging women to join their workforce. Seeking out female talent when they are recruiting. The talent is out there, the problem is that too often the default position is to see jobs in sport as male. When you think of the many remarkable women working in British sport right now that attitude is misplaced. Just look at the talented women on this list.
… I believe that being an athlete has given me an essential skillset that translates into running an organisation. That is not just my view, a report published in America last year told a compelling story of women with sports backgrounds – from Hilary Clinton to Christine Lagarde – reaching senior positions in their industry.
I know absolutely that my own career as a tennis player has influenced the way I work today. As a player you could never go on court with anything left in doubt. If I hadn’t practised my backhand 200 times to take the ball earlier, I would be exposed in a match situation. The same thinking was applied in delivering the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We did not leave a stone unturned. And that is why I believe I have been successful in my career. I am always looking to learn and to improve – it is the athlete in me.”
Please, thank you, and sorry are three words so important in our life that we very often forget. They are necessary to maintain healthy relation in every field of the life. In sport the relations among coaches, players, parents and managers might be ruled by these three simple words but also in the dialogue we have continuously with ourselves it is very bad that we insult ourselves after mistakes and that we don’t show respect for what we do. Reading these words of pope Francis will provide insights about our communications style with ourselves and with the other persons we meet everyday.
Pope Francis emphasized the importance of three words: please, thank you and sorry, which he has repeatedly stated in the past as being fundamental to the family.
“‘May I’ is a kind request to be able to enter into the life of someone else with respect and care,” said the Pope. We must learn to ask: may I do this? Are you happy if we do this? That we make these plans, that we educate our children in this way? Would you like to go out this evening? Asking permission is knowing how to enter somebody else’s life with courtesy. Sometimes we can charge in, as if we were wearing heavy walking boots and stomp around the life of a partner. True love does not impose itself with hardness and aggression. And today, in our families, in our world, often violent and arrogant, there is a need for far more courtesy.”
“‘Thank you’: it seems easy to say,” explained Francis, “but we know this is not always the case. We teach it to our children, but then we forget ourselves. Do we know how to say thank you? In your relationship, and in your future as married couples, it is important to keep alive your awareness that the other person is a gift from God, and we should always give thanks for gifts from God. … It is not merely a kind word to use with strangers, in order to be polite. It is necessary to know how to say thank you, to journey ahead together”.
The Pope then discussed the word ‘sorry’. “In our lives we make many errors, many mistakes. We all do. … And this is why we need to be able to use this simple word, ‘sorry’. Let us learn to recognise our mistakes and to apologise. ‘I’m sorry I raised my voice; I’m sorry I didn’t stop to say hi; I’m sorry I was late; sorry if I was quiet this morning; sorry if I spoke too much without listening; sorry I forgot’… Also in this way, the Christian family grows. We are all aware that the perfect family does not exist, nor does the perfect husband, nor the perfect wife. Let’s not even think about the mother-in-laws. We exist, and we are sinners. Jesus, who knows us well, teaches us a secret: never let a day go by without asking forgiveness, or without restoring peace to your home… Arguments between husband and wife are normal, but never end the day without making peace… the next day, the feelings you kept inside will be colder and harder.”
