Monthly Archive for January, 2015
Page 2 of 3
Project 45 is the name that has been given the development program of Kei Nishikori, the new star of men’s tennis, 5th in the world ranking. Project 45 because it is a place ahead of the 46th position, which has been the best ranking achieved by a Japanese. To obtain this result Nishikori at 14 years moved from Japan to Florida. His father, an engineer, thought: “that the Japanese players were unsuccessful because their individualism is weak when compared with that of the players from overseas.” The same concept exposed by IMG Tennis vice-president Olivier van Lindonk: “Japan is so respectful culture, but you don’t get ahead in tennis by bowing.” Concepts hard but also shared by Masaki Morita, Sony’s executive and younger brother of its founder, who was the honorary chairman of Japanese Federtennis. He sent the best young players in the US to learn the hierarchical structure of Japan: “I had noticed that Japanese children were playing very well from the technical point of view at home but when they could not win overseas.”
In Florida he found Brad Gilbert as a coach, impressed with his technique but too shy on the field. They did play against players who were playing ugly and he had to cope them alone, without anyone to help him. Only Nishikori resisted this treatment while the other Japanese players left. Nishikori remembers that he was lonely, he did not know how to express his thoughts and that he was afraid in the same time. He pursued and he came out winning this challenge.
Serena Williams, tennis player, asked a shot of espresso after losing 6-0 against Flavia Pennetta, the first set of a match at the Hopman Cup in Australia. Williams went on to win the next two sets and the match (6-3, 6-0). In my experience I’ve known athletes in fencing and shooting whose few minutes before the start took a coffee. We know that the caffeine stimulating effect occurs after about 10 minutes the shot. Therefore in short performances like those of fencing and shooting sports, any positive effect is mostly mental. The athletes are convinced to beready because they drank coffee.
I’m In to Finish tells the story of Frederick Villa and his biggest goal: to run the New York marathon with his handbike. Federico is suffering from Friedreich’s ataxia, a rare genetic degenerative illness inhibiting the coordination and muscle capacities. With him you will live a long way from the preparation process of the finish line. A special journay.
We are at the beginning of the Pre-Olympic year. In fact the Olympic Games begin in Rio on August 6, 2016 and the Paralympic on September 7, 2016. For most of the athletes will start a decisive period for their sporting careers: they must train and compete to qualify for the most world important sport event. Each of them will live this time in a personal way. There are those who have not participated in the Olympics that they hope to achieve this goal, and next to them there are the more experienced athletes who have already had this experience but who want to be there and be competitive again. Even the psychological preparation is now an integral part of the programs of many athletes and teams. These programs are not only popular in Europe, North America and Australia but also in many Asian countries. So much so that it was just published a book entitled “Secrets of Asian Sport Psychology” which contains 22 experiences conducted in many nations of this continent.
Below there are the major psychological skills of Olympic medalists:
- High motivation and commitment
- Toughness
- High level of confidence under pressure
- Identification of objectives
- Emotion self-regulation in the decisive moments
- Having well-organized routine during competition
- Knowing cope with distractions and unexpected events
- Focus
- Visualization
In the world, this approach is not diffuse every where as it should be and for this reason many athletes do not reach the level they aspire also if they are technically and physically well prepared, because they do not spend resources in the mental coaching or because they rely on low-skilled professionals with no experience in international competitions.
In addition there is not an organization recognized to ask questions on this issue or to request a contact with a counselor for information on what is a program of mental coaching.
My company, CEI Consulting, wants instead to offer this FREE SERVICE to athletes, coaches and sport managers who want to know more about this aspect of sports training and competition.
To undertake a process of mental training necessary to know what to expect from it. In particular athletes and coaches will find specific answers in relation to:
- Timing of implementation of the program
- Skills that will be developed and optimized
- Utilities for the athlete and the coach
- And his mode of training periodization
- Frequency of participation of mental coach to practices and competitions
- Psychological evaluation of past races
Finally, the proposed system is absolutely new in collaboration with Enhanced Performance System of San Diego related to:
- Analysis and workout style attentional staff (team) compared with the demands attentive and speed / accuracy of the sport practiced
- Comparison between attentional and interpersonal style and that of the coach of the athlete (strengths of the report and likely points of friction)
- Identification of the level of Killer Instinct athlete, decisive in times of increased competitive pressure
- Feature Comparison attentive athlete with those of athletes from many nations who hold a world record
Those interested in knowing more in relation to mental coaching applied to their sport do not hesitate to contact us on: info@ceiconsulting.it
“Take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator and feel better” is something we often hear or read in the Sunday papers. Few people actually follow that advice. Can we get more people to take the stairs over the escalator by making it fun to do? See the results here.
“fai le scale invece di prendere l’ascensore e starai meglio” è qualcosa che abbiamo spesso sentito dire o letto. Poche persone però seguono questo consiglio. Possiamo aumentare il loro numero trasformandola in un’attività divertente? Guarda i risultati.
This is the thought of Ignazio Visco, Governor of the Bank of Italy concerning the role of the knowledge:
“The challenge we face is not only to provide younger energies to our teachers but especially as to attribute to the many teachers who daily have to cope with limitations and difficulties imposed by tradition, school programs, budgetary constraints, new goals: that is to say, to teach their students “learning how to learn”, to convince them of the importance of ongoing training throughout their lives, working or not, to become permanent researchers, regardless of their occupation contingent “(from Investing in Knowledge, 2014, p. 141).
This is one of the main actions to be put in place to cope with the challenges of the new century.
Our moods influence many things in sport and in life. Moods affect how shooters respond to the various situations they might encounter during a shooting competition and, ultimately, how they perform … Compared to normative mood data for athletes generally, international shooters from India, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Malaysia, and Singapore have, on average, tended to report lower scores for tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion, and report vigour scores very close to the norm (see Figure 1: mood).
This pattern of mood responses among international shooters can be interpreted in several ways. It could, for example, be seen as an indicator of good mental health among shooters… Alternatively, given that most data were gathered during periods of international competition, it could reflect the tendency of shooters to suppress their feelings, especially negative ones, at such times due to the dispassionate, controlled demeanour required of them by the demands of sport shooting. Finally, it is possible that the stereotypical personality of the calm, introverted shooter, largely devoid of emotion … is evident in reality and explains the observed mood profiles.
Regular mood profiling of individuals, especially at the competition venue, can quickly help to identify when a shooter’s mood is less than optimal. Anger, confusion, or depression scores elevated above what is normal for an individual usually signify a potential threat to performance,
as do very low vigour and/or very high fatigue scores. The format of international shooting competitions, where events usually extend over a period of 1-2 days, gives opportunities for intervention in the form of brief, solution-focused techniques … or even just an opportunity for a shooter to ‘get something off the chest’. The ability to implement short-term mood regulation strategies, for example through humour, music, massage, or just by listening to the shooter … is a valuable asset for all those who play a supporting role with elite performers.
Marathon Training
Randy Accetta and Greg Wenneborg
Human Kinetics
http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all-products/Marathon-Training-eCourse?associate=16042
Course online
Marahon Training is a course online with an e-book including training strategies for novice marathoners and novice, experienced and competitive runners alike. It is organized in seven main chapters describing the key factors for marathon training, how to use three training efforts, and how to design a complete training plan including daily workouts. The readers will also learn how to design a complete 16-week marathon training programme for each of the four general categories of runners using a periodized program.
It is a book useful not only for coaches but also for sport psychologists for the reason that it describe the mental aspects of the marathon. For instance the autors write: “Training for a marathon requires patience, goal oriented and focused training, and personal and physical sacrifices that are not as necessary in shorter race distances.” The authors show to understand very well the great commitment reuired to train at least 4 days a week a long period before to be able to run a race.
For this reason they say that “a large part of the romance associated with the distance is the commitment to the task. Training week after week for months on end often becomes a sort of spiritual an therapeutic endeavor for many people.” They are very realistic in the training approach probably because they know that this text is more oriented to provide information to build a marathon program for novices and beginners, and therefore they explain the relevance of: easy running for months, extension of long running and to start fast running only when you run more than 25 miles a week.
They talk about the mixt system “walk and run” and provide a 16 weeks program for the novices who would like to use this system to appoach the long distances. Another aspects they find useful for novices consists to have explained the psychophysiological positive role to practice a conversation pace running.
For the authors, novice runners are individuals who has never run before or they run less than 10-15 miles a week. They are usually excited about learning, they need daily advices not to run too much. One goal for them is to become aware of their body signals. Novice marathoners run more than 25 miles a week, may be they have already run a marathon in 4h30m and they want to break the wall of 4h. For this reason they have a good runner self-confidence but they need a lot of attention by the coach, because they suppose to know how to do. Experienced runners run between 25- 50 miles a week, may be they completed a marathon or may be not. They already followed a program but they need to be convinced to change it to improve. The competitive runners run over 60 miles including a long session each week. They need to start to believe in the new program proposed. They need a coach spending significant time quantity of counseling to move toward a different coaching program.
This are in my opinion the most important themes that a sport psychologist can learn from this course. Obviously the coaches will learn how to build a marathon program for these different kind of runners. Finally, I recommend this book also because it’s full of practical advices for the young coaches or those who are new in this track and field discipline.
