Monthly Archive for October, 2019

UK sport is recruiting sport psychologists

… ancora una volta lo sport UK mostra che assumere uno psicologo in una squadra olimpica è una cosa seria, richiede competenze specifiche, che solo uno psicologo dello sport ha sviluppato. Sono contro i ciarlatani dello sport, persone non qualificate che spesso lavorano nello sport con il nome di “motivatore” o “mental coach”  ma anche contro il lavoro affidato per clientele personali o familistiche così diffuse nel nostro paese.

Sport Psychologist/Senior Sport Psychologist

 Location: flexible

Salary: £26,266 – £36,988 p.a pro-rata

Contract Type: Permanent

Position Type: Part Time

Interview Date: Tuesday, 10 December 2019

Closing Date: Wednesday 20 November 2019

Questo ruolo guiderà e realizzerà il programma di Psicologia e la strategia di salute mentale per la Boccia UK, fornendo un supporto efficace e mirato alla performance agli atleti e ai loro allenatori. Il supporto massimizzerà l’opportunità di successo ai Giochi Paralimpici, sostenendo gli atleti senior a sviluppare le capacità mentali per vincere a Tokyo. Lo psicologo favorirà lo sviluppo di un ambiente di allenamento e competizione ad alte prestazioni e promuoverà una salute mentale positiva, lavorando a stretto contatto con il Performance Director, Head of Performance Support and Performance Coaches.

COMPITI E ATTIVITÀ PRINCIPALI

  • Lavorare con il responsabile del supporto alla performance, lo psicologo capo e il personale della federazione per migliorare le prestazioni attraverso lo sviluppo, l’implementazione e la valutazione dei servizi di psicologia.
  • Fornire in modo proattivo agli atleti servizi psicologici focalizzati sulle prestazioni, che sviluppino e consolidino comportamenti coerenti in termini di prestazioni attraverso l’uso efficace del supporto psicologico.
  • Fornire servizi psicologici agli atleti per promuovere la salute mentale positiva, migliorare il benessere psicologico e sostenere il benessere degli atleti.
  • Sostenere gli allenatori allineando i servizi psicologici con i programmi di allenamento di questi atleti.
  • Utilizzare l’esperienza nel campo della psicologia per consigliare il Boccia UK Senior Leadership Team sullo sviluppo culturale di Boccia UK WCP.
  • Utilizzare l’esperienza nel campo della psicologia per consigliare il Performance Team sulla costruzione di relazioni di lavoro efficaci con atleti e allenatori.
  • Contribuire con competenze psicologiche a progetti di squadra multidisciplinari e sostenere il lavoro con gli allenatori, lo staff di supporto e gli atleti.
  • Garantire che l’erogazione del servizio di psicologia soddisfi efficacemente i suoi impegni nei confronti di atleti, allenatori e organi direttivi nazionali, compresi gli obiettivi di allenamento appropriati.
  • Mantenere un database completo e indicizzato del lavoro svolto con atleti e allenatori.
  • Partecipare, contribuire e fornire relazioni periodiche alle riunioni appropriate associate al programma e alle principali parti interessate, compresi altri colleghi dell’EIS e il personale dell’NGB.
  • Contribuire allo sviluppo delle conoscenze, all’aggregazione e alla condivisione all’interno dell’organizzazione per sostenere lo sviluppo di servizi psicologici di livello mondiale e del sistema di alta prestazione #CollectiveBrilliance.

Questa descrizione del lavoro non è da considerarsi esclusiva o esaustiva. E’ da intendersi come un’indicazione di massima delle aree di attività e sarà modificata alla luce delle mutevoli esigenze dell’organizzazione.

 

Successful coaching in 10 rules

The 10 rules for successful training

  1. Self-awareness - The purpose of training is the improvement and optimization of all the athletes’ skills and the development of awareness of what they can do, what they still need to improve and what they need to learn.
  2. Want to learn - The athlete lives in a continuous process of improving the performances and they must be fully aware of it.
  3. Recognizing opportunities - Training consists of a set of situations to be addressed and resolved with the full commitment.
  4. Commitment with consistency and accuracy – Motivation is based on these two aspects that are the basis of any activity in which the athletes are engaged.
  5. Wanting to take risks - Training is not an exact science and even the best trainings are based on the athletes willingness to take the risk of making mistakes.
  6. Tolerate difficulties - The athletes must be aware that every time they reaches a level of performance higher than the previous one, he detaches the ticket to face new difficulties.
  7. Accepting defeats - In sport, mistakes happen frequently and they must be accepted as unavoidable facts; for top athletes, they may be infrequent but are often decisive in preventing a winning performance.
  8. Give importance to time – To become expert it takes a long time and the athletes must be fully aware of this condition.
  9. Collaborate with coaches and staff - Recognizing the coach and staff leadership is a decisive factor for the athletes’ success.
  10. Analyzing one’s own performance - The athletes must know how to evaluate they performances with specific and precise criteria, without evaluating them only in terms of results.

Risk of overweight and obesity in children with autism

The risk of overweight and obesity in children with autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Kahathuduwa CNWest BD  Blume J  Dharavath  Moustaid-Moussa N Mastergeorge A

Obesity reviews. 2019 Oct 8

Multiple studies have suggested that autism spectrum disorders seem to increase the risk of overweight and obesity. We examined the pooled prevalence and relative risk of developing overweight or obesity among children with autism spectrum disorders in a systematic review and meta‐analysis. We searched PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases and subsequently screened the records to identify studies that reported prevalence of overweight and/or obesity in children with ASD and matched groups of neurotypical children. DerSimonian‐Laird random‐effects meta‐analyses were performed to examine pooled prevalence and relative risk of obesity in children with autism spectrum disorders using the “meta” package in R software. Among children with autism spectrum disorders, the prevalence of obesity was 22.2%. Children with ASD had a 41.1% greater risk (P = .018) of development of obesity. Non‐Caucasian race, increasing age, female sex, and living in the United States emerged as positive moderators of the association between autism spectrum disorders and prevalence of overweight or obesity. Autism spectrum disorders seem to increase the risk of childhood obesity. Increased awareness of this association may allow the implementation of early interventions to reduce obesity and prevent potential deterioration of quality‐of‐life in this population.

Eliud Kipchoge moves human limits forward

If the marathon is a metaphor for life; Eliud Kipchoge’s performance is the demonstration that the limits are a cultural expression that can be overcome with work.

You have to lead a life adequate to the goals you want to achieve and what you want to succeed.

Some people argue that unexpected events can prevent this from happening. That is true, but you have to commit yourself every day as if it could not happen.

Excellence does not require two lose the private life, which instead must find a place within the project.

It is said that “if you don’t dream big, you’re not realistic”, we have to teach it to young people.

You have to want everything, knowing that only by working hard and at best you could get it, but nothing and no one can ever guarantee this satisfaction: you have to run the risk of failure having given everything.

#WorldMentalHealthDay

To tackle chilhood obesity

Protecting children’s rights: why governments must be bold to tackle childhood obesity

Oliver T Mytton, Claire Fenton-Glynn, Emma Pawson Russell, M Viner Sally C Davies

“The UK Chief Medical Officer’s independent review of childhood obesity, Time to Solve Childhood Obesity, was published on Oct 10, 2019.

In England the prevalence of childhood obesity is too high; about 20% of children aged 10–11 years are obese(≥95th centile on the UK90 growth charts).

There is widespread public support for action with three “chapters” of an ambitious plan outlined by the UK Government.

Now we need a focus on implementing solutions, and the independent review calls for bold action to improve children’s health.
Today, the high prevalence of obesity in children is the canary in the coal mine, an early warning that things are wrong in the environment. Too few children have access to healthy, affordable food, and too few are sufficiently active for health. Additionally, many environmental factors contribute to child ill-health:
  • shops and many public places flooded with heavily promoted less-healthy food options;
  • advertising and sponsorship that place less-healthy foods centre stage in young minds;
  • urban streets dominated by traffic, with too few opportunities to walk to school, to ride a bicycle, or simply to play and explore.
These issues affect all our children. However, not all children are affected equally. Children who grow up in deprived neighbourhoods are disproportionately affected.”

Our action build us … little by little

Da Memorie di Adriano di Marguerite Yourcenar

“Different characters reigned in me from time to time, none of them very long; but soon the exhausted one regained power: the meticulous officer, fanatic of the discipline, ready to share with joy the privations of the war with his men; … the young haughty lieutenant who retires under the tent, studies his maps, and makes no mystery to his friends of his contempt for how the world goes; even the future statesman ….Little by little, a newcomer, a company director, a director came into operation. I knew the names of my actors; I regulated their plausible entries and exits; I cut off useless answers; I carefully avoided vulgar effects. Finally, I learned not to abuse the monologue: Little by little, my actions formed me.

 

Thoughts about the football coaches

… but do coaches make a list of what has to happen to be fired from a football team and preview effective countermeasures? Or do they always go to the wrong place? #MIlan #Sampdoria #Genoa and others.

At the end, they do no t lose the money … and then why should they be more flexible, lose their jobs but risk nothing in terms of economic security.

They are little Caesars, not willing to change their game ideas … for the series will go better next time?

How much do they questions their ideas afterhave been fired? Or do they just live waiting for another team to demonstrate the goodness of their ideas?

How the coaches have to build cohesion

In this early period of the team games season, I am often asked how to improve the cohesion of a team especially by the coaches who work in junior teams and and also not professional teams. I make this distinction because among these coaches there is a widespread idea that having little time available, everything that goes beyond the technical work done in the field is unnecessary work, which we do not have time to do, precisely because: “We are not a professional team, where the players are always available.”

This attitude is the motivation that drives many coaches to believe that the players must adapt to their working method and the hierarchies proposed. Physical and technical/tactical preparation are the masters and if someone doesn’t agree, it’s worse for him/her.

Leadership is essentially manifested in the administration of a training program that must be followed without discussion. They start from correct considerations (limited time, reduced economic resources, not optimal hours for training) to arrive at wrong conclusions. Those who do not accept this approach are usually labeled as lazy, unwilling to make sacrifices or presumptuous.

Unfortunately for them, the culture of work and team cohesion are essential factors in a team sport and are not built with this approach. Team performance instead draws its strength from the daily training of the concept of US: the winning performance comes from the integration of the behavior of various players, teaching more players to do different things well, together and at the same time.

Coach has to:

  1. Encourage participation by listening to the players’ suggestions
  2. Avoide favouritism
  3. Reward altruistic behaviour
  4. Reduce individualistic behaviour
  5. Assign challenging and achievable goals to each player
  6. Assign each player a specific role
  7. Encourage a learning and collaborative training climate
  8. Stimulate maximum commitment and constantly reinforce it
  9. Always support the team when it is in negative momentum
  10. Spend time with athletes to evaluate their commitment to training
  11. Analyse coldly with the team the results of the matches

The question for coaches is: how much time do you spend developing these performance factors?

The pitfalls of life affect everyone

The year is 1986. The sign on Maradona’s shirt says “No drugs” , on Platini’s “No to corruption.”

They must remember us that every human being is a tangle of contradictions, even if he is a champion. We must always pay attention to the pitfalls that life presents us, recognizing them to avoid falling into it and respecting our well-being and the rules of social coexistence.