Head coach and staff management: challenges, responsibilities and perspectives in high-level sport events
Cristiana Conti e Cristina Montesano
Movimento, 2017, 33, 71-79
Monthly Archive for February, 2018
Page 2 of 2
2018 Winter Olympics begin and many athletes to achieve their dream will find themselves in the position of having to provide the performance which is worth a life. The Olympic Games are the most important event for each athlete, it’s the competition that can change their sports career, much more than a world championship. it’s true for those who have already won and would like to repeat and for those athletes who are for the first time in the leading role. In fact, despite the doping scandals, winning a medal in the Olympics is still the dream of every athlete and for those who have a realistic chance of success is really all they don’t dared to think, for fear the desire take place.
In these last days, the athletes have to handle their panic, they can swing by the peaks of confidence in their abilities, supported by the results obtained, with moments of sheer terror in which negative scenarios seem to take over. More rare that these emotions leaping those athletes who cannot aspire to the Olympic podium, who aspire to a good performance, which are already satisfied to compete during the world’s biggest sport event.
For others, those who compete for a medal, those at the top of the world ranking, the wait can be exhausting. They have to know how to handle this waiting phase, accepting this emotional background noise in all its shades, reducing the destructive emotions with constructive moods and thoughts. The race with themselves doesn’t begin just before the start moment, it has already begun in these days. Because the before determines the after, as you face the days immediately preceding determines how you will get to race day.
I often asked the athletes which the mental part of their warmup. For many consists to mentally repeat their performance or use key words, chosen by them, to reach a level of optimal emotional activation. This mental work determines a mixture of emotions, physical sensations and thoughts, used to be focused only on their performance. In this way, they lead themselves to the moments preceding the start, inside their mental bubble, totally caught up in what they’re doing; then they start and everything happens, or should happen, in a way apparently spontaneous.
The inauguration of the Olympic Truce Mural took place in monday at the PyeongChang Olympic Village. With the theme of ‘Building Bridges’, the mural has been designed to change the negative perception of a wall into a positive one and reinforce the message of peace and unity for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 which begins in three days’ time. The murals have been installed in both Olympic Villages (Gangneung and PyeongChang) and athletes and officials will be asked to sign their name or message of peace on the murals using special stencils. The mural is 7 meters long and 3 meters high and will be moved to the PyeongChang Olympic Plaza and Gangneung Olympic Park where they will be on display for spectators until the end of the Games. The Olympic Games is seen as an event which ‘bridges’ the world through sports. The mural is a reflection of this as it signifies PyeongChang’s vision to use the Olympic and Paralympic Games to open bridges between nations and help achieve a better world through sports. One section of the wall is “peeled” and shown as a bridge. This signifies PyeongChang 2018’s intention to break barriers and build bridges for peace.
The sport is increasingly getting closer to the world of youth with autism (ASD) and it can be of considerable help in improving their motor skills and their degree of autonomy, reducing the risk of acquiring a sedentary lifestyle. This review, although published a few years ago, provides valuable information to those who want to propose physical education and sports programs for young with ASD. They are not practical information but those theories, science-based, that who is approaching these young should know (obviously along with many others).
Motor Coordination in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Synthesis and Meta-Analysis
Kimberly A. Fournier, Chris J. Hass, Sagar K. Naik, Neha Lodha, and James H. Cauraugh
J Autism Dev Disord (2010) 40:1227–1240
The literature focusing on gross motor behavior and development in ASD is plagued by inconsistent findings.
ASD is associated with greater clumsiness, motor coordination abnormalities, postural instability, and poor performance on standardized tests of motor functioning
Several studies failed to detect differences between children with ASD and those with learning disabilities or mental retardation, general developmental delay and language disorders across reflexive, intentional, fine and gross motor tasks.
These studies provide critical information regarding the types of motor impairments seen in ASD, but the specific patterns and sources of motor deficits in this population remain unclear.
Other approaches to elucidating motor components of ASD include neural signaling. Abnormal transmission in the serotonergic, dopaminergic, and GABAergic systems, frequently observed in ASD, may potentially affect motor performance
Individuals with ASD have larger total brain, cerebellar and caudate nucleus volumes; however, the area of the corpus callosum is reduced.
Several related studies in which motor behavior was evaluated using home videos of children later diagnosed with ASD compared to typically developing children demonstrated motor differences within the first 2 years of age.
This review study showed:
Differences in motor performance observed are not dependent upon a specific diagnosis within ASD. Indeed, individuals diagnosed with autism, globally as ASD, or Asperger’s syndrome all possessed significant motor deficits compared to the individuals with normal neurologic development.
An immature postural system may severely limit the emergence and performance of other motor skills.
Movement disturbances such as akinesia, dyskinesia and bradykinesia may affect a person’s ability to initiate, switch, continue or effectively communicate, interact socially, or perform activities of daily living.
That motor coordination deficits were more prevalent in individuals diagnosed with ASD than in controls with neurologically typical development.
Consistent evidence for an increase in total brain volume as well as specific brain regions including the cerebral hemispheres, caudate nucleus, and cerebellum in autism. Conversely, the corpus callosum was consistently reduced in size. Moreover, post mortem studies have detailed increased numbers of altered cortical mini-columns that may lead to a less well-organized cerebral cortex and less integration among brain regions reported children with high functioning autism demonstrated diffusely decreased connectivity across the motor execution network relative to children with normal neurodevelopment.
Children with high functioning autism had significantly smaller grey matter volumes in subcortical, posterior cingulate, and precuneus regions than those diagnosed with Asperger’s. Compared to controls, smaller grey matter volumes in predominantly frontopallidal regions were observed in high functioning autism where as in Asperger’s less grey matter was observed in bilateral caudate and left thalamus. It has been found higher white matter volumes around the basal ganglia in high functioning autism than in Asperger’s or controls. Both ASD groups, however, possessed greater white matter volume than controls. Conversely, both ASD groups had less frontal and corpus collasol white matter.
Taken together these mechanistic findings suggest a broad, large area with disarranged neuronal organization and cortical connectivity across ASD.
The tactic is a key factor of success in many sports, not just team sports. In summary, it’s to do the right thing at the right time and therefore requires timing, precision, awareness and quickness. They are skills that athletes must develop, otherwise they will probably perform doing the right thing at the wrong time or even they choked because dominated by performance anxiety.
The tactic consists of a set of factors that lead to sports action:
- Have specific and achievable performance goals, adapted to the situational demands of the competition.
- Know your skills and expertise, knowing the odds of success and risk.
- Develop the situational awareness, perceive and analyze situations, choose between alternatives and use the personal insights.
- Quickly change the action plan, if it does not produced the effects expected.
- Act supported by thoughts and emotions.
