Monthly Archive for November, 2014

Mental coach and sport psychologist: confusion also among the psychologists

Published on November 30, 2014 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

To work in sport performance is necessary to have a specific preparation. For the psychologist is necessary to have a university degree in sport psychology, as well as a physician becomes sport medical physician through post-graduate studies. This idea is quite simple, and in most other countries there are institutionalized paths to build these competences. Therefore the specialist in sports psychology is the professional who is responsible, for the training received, to do the work of mental coach. Why today it’s so widespread the use of the terms “mental coach.” The reason is that it’s used by anyone who wants to work in the psychology fieeld without having the degree, therefore it  has been found this expression, clear and understandable that allows to stay on the sport market (and beyond) without carrying illegally the  psychologist profession. Therefore anyone can be called mental coach without finding any opposition from institutions or organizations. Specifically these people propose miracles in short term to an environment that largely ignores the job of the sports psychologist . Often managers, coaches and athletes fall into this trap because they do not want to select truly competent consultant but they just want to dump their problems on someone else .

I’m really shocked by the interview that the psychologist Laura Messina wanted to give to those who asked what was the difference between a psychologist and mental coach. These are answers that continue to spread misconceptions, superficial and harmful to the world of sports

“But what is the difference between the psychologist and the mental coach?

The psychologist has specific training  focused on the behavior of individuals, their mental processes and the inner part of the conscious and unconscious. The mental coach does not work in a clinical setting, it has no competence to manage the psychological distress. He is focused on improving the performance, helping the individuals to express themselves at their best.

Besides a different training (the psychologist must have a degree, and the mental coach just a training course) is different the work context (the psychologist works on pathology and clinical recovery; the mental coach works in the field of motivation, concentration, performance) and the scope of intervention (the mental coach operates on a demand for improvement; the psychologist uses psychodiagnostic tools  and operates on a demand for change).

Underlined the differences I would say that it would be desirable that the two professionals could integrate synergistically and be complementary to an excellent result. “

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What is mental readiness?

Published on November 28, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The mental readiness is based on the concept of resilience. Resilience is the capacity of an athlete to recover quickly, resist and perform at the best in front of the performance pressure and stressful situations.

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Ettore Messina: an example of winning mind

Published on November 27, 2014 in Generale and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

How nice to hear Ettore Messina to say on his debut as head coach on a  NBA bench : “I was terribly frightened by this debut, generally I am confident, today it was different. I have not thought to be the first non-American coach who can to win an NBA game, because I wanted to stay focused on the end goal. It was great. ”

The former coach of the Italian national team, now assistant manager at San Antonio Spurs, has replaced the on bench the head coach Greg Poporvich, forced to stop for health reasons and to undergo some medical treatments: the Texan team, the defending champion, has passed the Indiana Pacers 106-100.

Ettore Messina has an incredible palmares: 4 Euroleague (2 with Virtus Bologna, 2 with CSKA Moscow), 4 Italian championships, 7 Italian Cups, 1 Cup Winners Cup, 6 Russians and 1 silver at European Championships with the Italian national team.

But he is not afraid by his feelings and even to admit them in public. This is certainly one of the main winner characteristics: to accept even extreme fear and stay focused on the end goal.

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So little and already sedentary

Published on November 27, 2014 in Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I wrote yesterday about the relevant role played by parents in determining the lifestyle physically active or passive of their children. Today, the results of the research titled “Piccoli più” have been presented and unfortunately they are not positive for the Italian parents. This study is a national project funded and promoted by the National Centre for Prevention and Disease Control – Ministry of Health. The research is based on the observation of 3000 children in five Italian cities. The participants were studied through questionnaires completed by parents and visits at 6, 12, 24 months of life. Unfortunately, the results demonstrate the negative role played by many parents in the first year of life, that with their lifestyle stimulate the children to a sedentary lifestyle.

Healthy weight – Comparing the weights and heights of children participating in the project with the guidelines of the World Health Organization it has been showed that at 12 months 23.4% of males and 22.1% of females is above the threshold used to define overweight. Childhood obesity is already present in the first year.

Accidents in the 1st year of life – The 21.2% of the children had an accident in the first 12 months of life, largely a fall from a mezzanine floor which necessitated the emergency room.

Use of TV, PC and tablet – 72% of parents stated that the child of one year uses the television or other electronic media (PC, tablet, smartphone) with no difference between weekdays or weekends. In 21% of cases the exposure is already more than 1 hour per day. The 8% of parents said to leave the child alone in front of the television.

Moving – Only 1 in 4 women have practiced sport during pregnancy on regular basis. Also 1 in 3 women reported having risen at least once a week in activities like walking or cycling on average for 3-4 hours a week.

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Roma with poor confidence in its skills

Published on November 27, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

After the game CSKA-Roma I wondered whether to defend the result of 1-0 as did Rome, staying for two-thirds of the second time in its half field is a sign of realism or it’s a demonstration of a mental limit that prevented the team from continuing to do its usual game. Florenzi seems to favor the latter interpretation of the result:  It’s a great insult to us, but we’re almost deserved because we played  differently in the second half. We were all behind and we did not  the hold ball, we are sorry because conceding goals in 15 ” is very sad.

Also interesting is the interpretation of  Francesco Totti who compared the goal did to his team at the last second to a Tyson’s punch. Continuing with the same metaphor, I would say that it is quite obvious that you can not leave for long time the initiative to Tyson because sooner or later comes the knockout punch .

There is a third explanation, Roma played back because the team was not confident about of its physical condition … but it would be very strange not to have this certainty, because adequate physical condition is the basis of the mental confidence to be competitive and successful throughout all the match.

In summary, I believe that Roma should work hard to change this defensive mentality and this lack of belief in itself. First, his coach should avoid such mistakes since he is the boss and he has to transmit to the team the conviction of being able to fight in the same way until the final whistle.

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Family builds the young sedentarity

Published on November 26, 2014 in Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Often to explain the high percentage of young Italian sedentary it’s said that it’s the fault of the school that does not promote program of physical activity, not by stimulating their participation in the world of sports. Certainly this is one of the explanations of the reduced athletic involvement of adolescents. But there is another important issue to keep in mind and directly affects families. Let’s just say that most of the Italian families do not conduct a lifestyle physically active, even adults aged 25 to 65 years practice rarely sport and are often overweight:

  • 32% of adults are overweight and 11% are obese.
  • 20% of adults are physically active on a continuous basis, the remaining 80%  occasionally practice or it’s completely sedentary.

Many of these adults are parents and their daily example  teachto their children their own life style. So it is not a coincidence that, in Italy, the peak of sporting activities for girls is around 11 years while for boys to 14 years. In the following ages abandoning sports is a constant, characterizing the rest of adolescence and early adulthood.

I heard that instead we should be glad, because these percentages indicate a considerable increase of the sport of adults and young people in the last 30 years. This reasoning is wrong, however, because at that time the adults were much more physically active because they walked more often and for longer distances and the obesity had not yet become a national health problem. Moreover, even if the young at school did little physical activity, they could play in the street and go to the oratory and this made them more active. And they were not chased by parents with their snacks. Today this is impossible, there is no more free  and spontaneous play, and there are other forms of entertainment that take them away from the sport.

Finally, the parents are a decisive issue for the development of a physically active lifestyle and they should be sensitized and helped to make the right choices for themselves and for their children.

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The athlete development is a long term process

Published on November 25, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Giovani, Tennis, Tiro a volo and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

How many of us know that these are the phases of the athlete development from the very beginning to the adolescence, the years of the athlete activity and the retirement.

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Sport, role and ball dimensions

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

The National Science Foundation announced the following study results on corporate America recreation preferences:

  1. Sport of choice for maintenance level employees: bowling.
  2. Sport of choice for front line workers: football.
  3. Sport of choice for supervisors: baseball.
  4. Sport of choice for middle management: tennis.
  5. Sport of choice for corporate officers: golf.

Conclusion: the higher you are in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls.

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How our society prevents the movement motivation

Published on November 20, 2014 in Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Sport in italy

  1. The young of the city walking four times less than those living in the city more pedestrian oriented.
  2. More adults watch the news that amplify crime facts, the more they are intimidated and remain at home watching TV.
  3. Children who do not go to school on foot, lose one of the first moments of individual training and adventure.
  4. TV, computer, video games and internet limit the opportunities for movement already reduced by the car use .
  5. In town to walk becomes a symbol of inadequacy and of belonging to  the disadvantaged people.

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