This morning while applauded Giorgio Calcaterra passing in Piazza del Popolo, during the Rome Marathon, many close to me were amazed of rooting for him and asked: “But who is Giorgio?”. Giorgio is that athlete, several times world champion of 100 km, which reached the finish line will start again for the second time the Rome Marathon, ending it with the latest. Giorgio is a top runner (2,34h today) who wants to witness through his passion for running, that if it possible to run it twice consecutively, everyone can at least once. From elite sport to sport for all the marathon would become a journey that a healthy individual can participate. Often people tease runners employing 5-6 hours or more to run this distance. It’s the exact opposite way in which they must be perceived. They want to conclude it because it brings us back to the legend of Pheidippides. It’s'succeed in a physical and mental challenge at which you never thought to attend and finish. Precisely for this reason, he joy is immense when we finish a marathon, we feel proud to have achieved the impossible. We will have forever this feeling within us. Calcaterra is running for all of us, for all those who have not yet run it and for those who are still struggling. Why run the marathon means finding pleasure in feeling tired, and sharing this state of mind with others around us, because the challenge is to finish it, bringing this feeling for life. This is making George, share his joy with everyone.
Monthly Archive for March, 2015
Page 2 of 3
Marco Tardelli at UN to speak to the young about sport and values.
“It is not a good time for our football. Scandals, betting, society on the brink of failure. For an Italian it’s even more difficult to be believable when talking about these things. I think that the students, however, have perceived my passion and the desire to return to a different kind of football, as what I experienced as a boy. ”
“I am very harsh on my country, because I love it and I cannot just remain indifferent to certain episodes so shameful. I always say to the club supporters, the real ones: you have to be the first to be indignants, you have to isolate those fifty, one hundred idiots who think only of cause and place offensive banners, those who reported “boo” to the black opponent, the revolt must begin with you. Those hooligans should be thrown outside the stadiums, otherwise nothing will ever change. ”
“… I’m sorry to say but I do not think we will do it, because no one has the will to do it. And also the clubs often want not to notice anything.”
(Text by Repubblica.it)
Carmine Consalvi and Nicoletta Tinti face a new sport challenge: are the first complete paraplegics to attend the Rome Marathon, using a wearable exoskeleton. Sunday, March 22, Carmine and Nicoletta will walk viale delle Terme di Caracalla, for about a kilometer, showing how the exoskeleton has revolutionized their lives. The initiative, sponsored by the Saint Lucia Foundation in Rome, aims to get to know this technology, which promises to change the daily lives of so many people today forced into a wheelchair.
For the first time in nearly half a century, the synchrony between economic growth and energy-related emissions seems to have been broken, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, prompting its chief economist to wonder if an important new pivot point has been reached — one that decouples economic vigor and carbon pollution. It’s a historic achievement that I hope to confirm the start of a development more suitable for everyone.
Charles Eugster, Britain’s 95-year-old world sprint champion. The nonagenarian broke the 200m sprint world record for his age group at the World Masters Athletics in Birmingham last August and has now gone viral, after footage of his run was posted on YouTube on Sunday. Eugster, who is also a competitive rower, says he has always been interested in competing, but more importantly winning. He run 200m in 55,48 seconds.
The American former sprinter Michael Johnson, Olympic winner of five gold medals and eight-time world champion, summed up the importance of motivation:
“My best motivation is always coming from the pure joy of running and racing, is the same thrill that I had as a child of 10 years. Have you ever met a 10 year old child sickened by what he does? You have to find their initial motivation for this reason you will become an architect. This is the secret of perseverance.”
Sport should allow the emergence of an attitude that can be summarized in the following sentence: “It’s thanks to my commitment and the pleasure I feel that I became increasingly good at what I do.” The performances motivated by an inner strength are based on the subjective perception of satisfaction coming from performing a specific task. Therefore any outside intervention to reduce this athlete’s perception will negatively affect their motivation. This is the case when the athletes perform only to receive a reward. Sport performance represents only a mean to achieve another purpose that becomes, instead, the true purpose: the young do not act for their pleasure to practice sport but to receive a specific recognition. Therefore, the external reinforcements encouraging the athletes to perform for external reasons reduce their internal motivation. The coaches should not make use of reinforcements that are perceived as most important of the same sport participation, but they should provide helpful tips to increase the athletes’ feeling of satisfaction.
If the sport results will be perceived as the result of internal factors personal, such as the ability, dedication, commitment rather than external factors (luck, limited ability of opponents, refereeing decisions in favor) they are associated with personal satisfaction and pride.
The external reinforcements that an athlete receives however can also play a positive action. For example, children who have not yet had an experience sports or with adults who have reduced sports experience. In this case external reinforcements for the supply of sports equipment or gadgets, or social support derived from practice are elements that encourage participation. The same applies to the financial rewards obtained by high-level athletes in recognition of their sporting value.
Every coach knows that the goal setting is essential to enhance the motivation and improve the performances. In this regard:
- Working on goals defined and accepted helps to improve the overall atmosphere and the emotional climate of the workout. You get a reduction of problems related to delays, laziness and lack of group discipline.
- Athletes, even the youngest, strengthen more and more their autonomy and learn to take responsibility for their choices. in this case it’s increased the determination to achieve the objectives and to maximize the individual potential.
- The coaches leadership is accepted by the athletes through the increase of their personal credibility.
Finally, despite the importance played by goal setting in increasing the performance, there is also another reason that it makes it necessary on the part of the athlete. In fact, if the sport and competition have a social value, so each individual has the right to succeed. Certainly in the sport of absolute level, the struggle for success is for the podium and who can aspire to this kind of result is aware of the difficulties he/she will meet along this road. Then there is the success of all of those who have set their goals properly and are committed to achieving them. Every person involved in the sport has the responsibility to reach the personal success. It’s the case of those who want to run a marathon in 4 hours, if they reach this result they won their race.
The observation of children engaged in sports activities not organized by adults should teach adults something very important: if they do not reach the goal they have set themselves, they lower the level, learning from mistakes and trying again and again. After a series of adjustments and tests the success is guaranteed. The opposite happens when instead they are successful, they increase the level of difficulty. In other words, this means that almost spontaneously the young people change their goals by moving them to the limit of their capabilities. The mistakes are used as an integral part of the learning process and they are not perceived as a failure.
Speaker: Alberto Cei
Date: April 15, h. 6pm-7,15pm (CET+1)
Abstract: Participation in the marathon is one of the most extreme performances that enroll every year hundreds of thousands of people. Many runners are at their first time, others are more experienced runner and finally some athletes are of absolute level. For all the psychological preparation to tolerate the mental and physical fatigue is a task from which no one can escape. The main topics of the webinar will cover the mental skills that runners of all ages and levels have to use to deal with success and satisfaction the 42,195 km.
By attending this webinar you will gain skills on:
- The management of the fatigue
- Thoughts of marathoners
- Be able to maintain the race pace
- The management of the wall of the marathon runner
- The final part of the webinar will be devoted to the question time, where you can ask questions to Alberto Cei
You will receive a confirmation e-mail within 24h from the payment
Speaker: Emiliano Bernardi
Date: April 23, h. 6pm-7,15pm (CET + 1)
Abstract: The webinar is open to futsal players, coaches, managers, psychologists and sport psychologists. We will deepen the main psychological implications of this sport following a path in search of better performances adapted from the Emiliano Bernardi’s experiences in clubs and national youth futsal teams.
You will acquire skills of:
- The main mental futsal skills
- The speed of thought
- Create a pre-performance routine
- Stay focused at critical
- The benefits of futsal in the players’ psychophysical growth processes.
- The final part of the webinar will be devoted to the question time where you can ask questions to the speaker.
You will receive a confirmation e-mail within 24h from the payment
Mourinho describes very well what does it mean to choke under pressure after the Chelsea defeat against PSG.
“PSG deserved to win,” said Mourinho. “When a team cannot defend two corners, and concedes twice, that team doesn’t deserve to win. When a team cannot cope with the pressure of being with one player more playing at home, and the stadium doesn’t accept the team has to control the game and want them to go on and win it… we couldn’t cope with that pressure. For them it was easy: 10 men, defensive organisation, two lines of four, long balls for the counter-attack, waiting for free-kicks and corners. Mentally, for them, they had nothing to lose. They were experienced, they were good, and they deserved it.
“Clearly some of my players couldn’t cope with that pressure. The individual performances were not good enough. When you concede twice from two corners, it’s about a lack of concentration, a lack of responsibility to cope with the markers and the space you have to control. So we deserved to be punished with this draw. Sorry, this defeat.”
The American former sprinter Michael Johnson, Olympic winner of five gold medals and eight-time world champion, summed up the importance of motivation:
“My best motivation is always coming from the pure joy of running and racing, is the same thrill that I had as a child of 10 years. Have you ever met a 10 year old child sickened by what he does? You have to find their initial motivation for this reason you will become an architect. This is the secret of perseverance.”
Sport should allow the emergence of an attitude that can be summarized in the following sentence: “It’s thanks to my commitment and the pleasure I feel that I became increasingly good at what I do.” Performance motivated by an inner strength are based on the subjective perception of satisfaction coming from performing a specific task. Therefore any outside intervention to reduce this athlete’sperception will negatively affect their motivation. This is the case when the athletes perform only to receive a reward. Sport performance represents only a means to another purpose that becomes, instead, the true purpose: the young do not act for their pleasure to practice sport but to receive a certain recognition. Therefore, the external reinforcements encouraging the athletes to perform for external reasons reduce their internal motivation. The coaches should not make use of reinforcements that can be perceived as most important of the same sport participation, but they should provide helpful tips to increase the athletes’ feeling of satisfaction.
If the sports results will be perceived as the result of internal factors personal, such as the ability, dedication, commitment rather than external factors (luck, reduced ability of opponents, refereeing decisions) the athletes will feel satisfaction and pride.
The external reinforcements that the athlete receive can also play a positive action. For example, children who have not yet had an experience sports or with adults who have reduced sports experience. In this case external reinforcements for the supply of sports equipment or gadgets, or social support derived from practice can encourage participation. The same applies to the financial rewards obtained by high-level athletes in recognition of their sporting value.
Every coach knows that setting targets is essential to enhance the motivation and improve performance. At this regard:
- Working on goals defined and accepted helps to improve the emotional climate of the workout. YThere will be a reduction of problems related to delays, laziness and lack of discipline.
- Athletes, even the youngest, strengthen more and more their autonomy and learn to take responsibility for their choices. In these cases the determination to achieve the objectives and to maximize their potential will increase.
- The coaches’ leadership is accepted by athletes through the increase of their personal credibility.
Finally, despite the importance that the choice of tgoals plays in increasing the performance, there is also another reason that makes it necessary on the part of the athletes. In fact, if the sport and competition have a social value, so each individual has the right to succeed. Certainly in the top sport, the struggle for success is for the podium and who can aspire to this kind of result is aware of the difficulties he/she will encounter along the way. Then, there is the success of all of those who have set their goals properly and are committed to achieving them. Every person involved in sport has the responsibility to obtain the personal success. It’s the case of those who want to run a marathon in 4 hours, if they reach this goal they won they race. The observation of children engaged in sports activities not organized by adults should teach something very important: and if they do not reach the goals they have set, the hildren lower the level, learning from mistakes and trying again and again. After a series of adjustments and trials the success is guaranteed. The opposite happens when instead they are successful, they increase the level of difficulty. In other words, this means that spontaneously young people change their goals by moving them to the limit of their capabilities. In this sense, the mistakes are used as an integral part of the learning process and are not interpreted as a failure.
