Monthly Archive for February, 2015

Ultramarathon psychology

Today, in Siena (Italy)  at 17.30 as part of “Terre di Siena Ultramarathon – 2015″ will be held a conference on “Psychological Preparation in ultramarathon” edited by prof. Alberto Cei, consultant psychologist at the Olympics sincc Atlanta
We discuss:

  • Why the long distance running is the best for human being,
  • about the mental skills which requires the marathon and ultramarathon training (patience, goals, focus and willingness to  support physical and personal sacrifices);
  • the mental skills used during the race: patience, constructive thoughts, positive emotions, plan to cope with the sudden problems.

The coach/athlete communication

To Know how to communicate with the athletes is one of the most important psychological skills for a coach.They are:

  1. Stable personality aspects – This refers to dimensions such as honesty and fairness in communicating in a direct and clear style with athletes, without wanting to manipulate. They are proud to be part of that group.
  2. Competences – They are professionally competent, oriented to continuous improvement and to pursuit innovation. They accept the limitations and errors they commit. They know that admitting them is a sign of strength and not a weakness.
  3. Commitment – These coaches are strongly committed in carrying out their activities. They possess and transmit a positive vision of their team, and they are strongly committed to achieve their goals. They are passionate about putting their enthusiasm in their job. They feature a lot of energy, are convinced and tenacious.
  4. Caring – They are sincerely interested in their athletes, as individuals and as a group. They spend time with them and are interested in their present as well as the future.
  5. Consistency – They are individuals who act consistently, acting their training philosophy while adapting their behavior to the demands of the environment and unforeseen situations. To this end, they control their emotions, as well as convey confidence to the athletes. They are consistent in enforcing the rules and standards of conduct to which the team must adapt. Therefore, they act in organized way and work in a highly responsible style.
  6. They build trust – They timulate relentlessly the athletes’ confidence.  They ask to perform at the best but they are also patients in helping them to develop and improve.
  7. Being good communicators – Coaches credible are good communicators. They are open, honest and direct when they talk to the individuals and to the team. Continuously remind the athletes what they need to do to be winners. They demand maximum involvement and take into account the information coming from them. They know how to really listen and for this reason they are aware of the problems and conflicts, which actively seek to resolve before they can get even worse.

The women surfer and the great waves

Justine Dupont, French surfer, holds the European record for having ridden the wave higher for a woman.

 

The athletes’ depression: a diffuse and ignored disease

At least 20% of the athletes is suffering from depression, the phenomenon regards a athlete on two when they get to the end of  their career.  When we talk about depression in sport two aspects must be taken into great consideration. The first, the psychopathology produced from neurosis and unstable behaviors is uncommon among  the elite athletes, because the sport is already a sort of  medicine against this type of event. At the same time, however, there is another risk factor: the choice to depend throughout the lives by achieving sports results, in addition to the contemporary value judgment as a person. So in the event of failure, to be questioned is the athlete whole life. A failure that can lead to a very severe depression and in extreme cases to suicide. The most critical phase in the athletes’ life is the approach to the end career. Here to take the risk and depression it’s the 50%. It does not depend on the popularity of the sport or the  academic degree of the person. When you turn off the limelight the lives of former athletes can become empty and dull. Who has been not prepared an alternative to the field ends up in the vortex of depression. In Italy,  the “dark evil” affects 6% of adults aged between 18 and 69 years, most of them are women. These data come by the system called ‘PASSI’ coordinated by the National Centre for Epidemiology and Health Promotion (Cneps) – Institute of Health. Also in sports, athletes who have used doping, such as abusing anabolic steroids, they run a strong risk of developing depressive phenomena. That’s why in addition to soccer,  cycling, athletics and endurance sports are the sports where the depressive illness is more prevalent. The risk, for many athletes is to lose the contact with the reality. The attention to the athletes’ problems is low. Often the young talents show symptoms of indolence against psychological pressure that undergo to become super-champions: consequently they train and perform poorly. Thus demonstrating to others that there is a problem. Moreover, they are often too stressed by their family, where parents from an early age have encouraged their sons to  get always the maximum. To be competitive at all costs.

The patience is the most important skill to win

It’s well known that patience is an important mental skill, allowing to tolerate mistakes and failures. It allows, in fact, do not forget what we are able of doing and continue to use it to achieve our goals. Therefore those who do not have the patience, while refusing to accept the mistakes,they are not exempt from committing more and end up suffering more.

Parents and coaches need to practice this mindset because it allows them to maintain high motivation and belief that with the commitment and dedication to their children and athletes will compete at their best. The athletes, from their side, have to accept as written Lucio Dalla “that life is tough fight, courage and the desire to invent.”

It’s not enough to know the path, it needs to walk on it

Sometimes athletes and teams commit a serious error, they trust too much of what they they know to do well but in therrace they do not do it because they are convinced that just because they have thought then happen. It’s the Roma case of this period who start the matches convinced to win but then it does not play because it had already won it in the locker room. Or those asthletes who say “every time I do well the warm-up then I play bad.” Warm-up prepares to play well, but then you have to do it in the game: they are two separate aspects.

Be a good, well-trained and mentally prepared athlete is useful but it’s equally important to know that you must show these skills on the field. Otherwise they are useless.

Do not copy the Murray’s thoughts

The Ten Commandments written by Andy Murray to support himself in the game have done the world tour and certainly they should not be copied. They are the ideas of a specific person and for him they have a value but they must not have it for other players.

As always, what it’s important is the mental process behind these words and that highlights the relevance of following a own personal guide to stay focused on the tennis career.

The issue is that, instead, most of  the young players have not been trained to follow a mental journey that keeps them focused on their goals even in difficulty times. Many of them do not know what they need to play a match with a winning mind, they rely on technique or the mood of the moment or the blows they are good … these guys will never get to be in the top 100.

So guys do not copy the Murray’s thoughts but learn from him that it take key-ideas to win.

Empathy and kindness for our children

Very well brief article written about a central topic concerning the parents-children relation. Each of us has to improve in this area.

“When asked, many parents say that they value kindness in their children above many other traits. We instinctively know that social skills like gentleness, kindness, and sharing, are important to the long-term health and well-being of our children. But these social and emotional skills are also linked to empathy, or the ability of a person to understand what another person is experiencing. Without empathy, it is difficult for a person to understand and express many of the feelings that help them get along with others.

According to The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning at Vanderbilt University, young children experience several stages of development that influence their social and emotional skills from birth—and their empathy. From birth through the first few months of life, babies learn how to react to other people’s actions and emotions from their parents and caregivers. If parents and caregivers express loving, calm attention to their children and others, then babies learn that they are loved, and how to show kindness to others. As very young children learn to understand their own feelings, they also learn to understand, and care for, the feelings of others.

There are many ways that parents and caregivers of young children can help them learn more about their feelings, and how to care and express concern for others. Parents and caregivers can do this by expressing love and attention to their babies from birth. They can also use storytime to talk about how characters in books are feeling—anger, fear, love, or sadness. And songs like “If You’re Happy and You Know It…” can be adapted to express many kinds of feelings.”

(by Too Small to Fail)

Ebook: Be focused under pressure

TennisWorldItalia  presents the ebook “Concentrarsi sotto stress” (Be focused under pressure) by Alberto Cei.

Feel a sense of stability and solidity before playing a tennis match is crucial: sometimes the players (sometimes completely unaware) perform a deep breath, that often it’s nothing more than an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the match pressure. Even when they perform well their mind continues to be prey to unnecessary and harmful thoughts.
The ability to stay focused on the goal in situations of high stress can be built: training, perseverance and concentration are essential to achieve a level of optimum performance.
Alberto Cei in this text teaches the practice of centering and focusing.
Thanks to the techniques described in the book, anyone can learn to control stress to reach his/her best in the court whatever level you play.

Concentrarsi sotto stress: Come concentrarsi nei momenti decisivi di una partita di tennis

The run for all and the ultramarathoner

Friday, February 20th at the Press Hall “P.Maccherini” Palace Berlinghieri, Siena, Italy, will host a press conference at 11:30 of the second edition of  ”Terre di Siena Ultramarathon”, track event competitive and not to be held on Sunday, March 1 with departures differentiated from S. Gimignano for 50 km, from Colle val d’Elsa for 32 km and 18 km from Monteriggioni. Will also be a walk of about 6 km through the streets of the historic center of Siena. An event that combines the theme of sport for all organized by UISP Siena, to promote the Siena tourism and culture.
Saturday at 17.30 will be held also a conference on “Psychological Preparation in ultramarathon” by prof. Alberto Cei, consultant psychologist at the Olympics in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London. At the end of the meeting will be presented the race courses.

Registration is open until Wednesday, February 25 on the site  www.terredisienaultramarathon.it