Monthly Archive for July, 2021

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Federer is the master test for each tennis player

Published on July 5, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Federer has won more than 100 matches at Wimbledon in about 20 years. This minimal statistic is enough to explain the value of who you are talking about and to understand why the coach suggested to Sonego to imagine playing with a faceless player. Otherwise he would have crushed him.

Sonengo was very good in the first set, lost 7-5, he put his opponent in difficulty and above all he was not intimidated. Then, little by little, this approach crumbled and there was no more game.

The continuity of the attitude on the court held in the first set was the mental difficulty that Sonego had to face. He often lacked patience, facing the conclusion of the point.

Maintaining a continuous approach during the match is perhaps the most relevant problem in the game of tennis, who fails to do so becomes emotionally unstable, begins to give importance to his fears and to face them exaggerates in agonism, trying to conclude points quickly.

At every level this problem appears, its solution can be compared to a maturity exam that allows you to pass from one level to the next. Until you reach the top of the ranking and you meet Federer who represents the last test to become champion.

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“We are a cohesive group” said the Italian football player

Published on July 4, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , .

These days there is a lot of talk about the value of the cohesion of the Italian national soccer team, emphasizing how this dimension of the group, from the manager to the players, is a decisive factor for success.

But what does cohesion mean in sports psychology?

The term “cohesion” derives from the Latin word cohaesus, which means to coexist. It is used to:

  • describe the tendency of group members to stay together and stick together
  • reflect the strength of the boundary between members of a group
  • state that a group that is not cohesive cannot exist.

These definitions well highlight the attraction of the group to its members, while others have placed more emphasis on the concept of the group. In this sense, cohesion consists of the degree to which the group is united or the resistance of the group to its destruction.

In order to fully know what cohesion is, however, it is necessary to know what the goals of the group are. Each group has its own goals, and these vary according to the nature of the group itself, which may be, for example, a school class, an amateur basketball team, a counseling group, a group of friends on vacation, an army platoon, or a professional soccer team. Even in the diversity of their goals, these groups are similar in that they all need to show some degree of cohesion; in fact, the individuals who make up these cores stay together because they share common goals. The first thing anyone who wants to do is to be aware of what goals these people share. In this respect, cohesion is a dynamic process that reflects the tendency of a group to stay together and remain united to achieve its goals.

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Roger Federer is back despite his physical limits

Published on July 3, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Roger Federer probably does not sweat, because that would be a sign of fatigue, which against Cameron Norrie does not seem to be there. He seems to live the match as a sort of boredom, to get to the ones that will then have to engage him. Federer’s gaze is always a focus on the court; it might seem an obvious observation but only some manage to maintain this kind of attention for every point.

He lost the third set but Federer’s attitude hasn’t changed except for some minimal signs of annoyance. His tennis is not physical and in the fourth set at the beginning he seems to pay for this limitation, consequently he reduces the number of exchanges. Norrie understands and starts playing conservatively instead to lengthen them.

Norrie shows his toughness when after having suffered the break on 2-2, the next game he immediately recovers bringing the score back to 3-3. On the 40 for all the next game he pays the tension with a double fault, but still manages to win the game in two points.

Finally, Federer shows himself to be human when on 4 even he goes to 40-15 and for the first time he cheers at the end of the point won.

He wins 6-4, last game really nice points. In the interview Federer shows himself happy and this must give us an idea of how much stress he held back and did not show us during the match.

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Working with young talented athletes

Published on July 2, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

Working with young talented athletes, roughly between the ages of 14-20, is in my experience the biggest challenge for a psychologist and of course for coaches.

These young people go through the phase where the goal of their activity is to learn to be competitive and acquire a winning mentality. This is accompanied by the fact that high level youth sport has become increasingly challenging as young athletes compete against their peers at European and world level, consequently the competition to reach the top ranking is very strong.

I realize that in these contexts learning to dominate the game, in the case of tennis and all opposition sports (fencing, table tennis) or knowing how to perform to one’s own standard as in athletics or diving competitions is really difficult.

The main issue is the management of the competitive stress generated by mistakes and the need to immediately return to a mental condition of orientation to the next point or the next execution. This work is not easy, it requires toughness and a mentality oriented to live these difficulties as phases of the performance and not as something that should not happen or even worse as signs of incapacity.

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