Coach and psychologist role to develop the young

To teach young athletes to compete with satisfaction, deriving pleasure from the competition with their opponents and from solving the difficulties that are usually present in competitions, it is necessary for coaches and psychologists to work together to guide them through this experience.

Today, young people often experience competitive situations with insecurity compared to the past. As repeatedly mentioned, an important cause of this psychological condition stems from growing up from childhood to adolescence in environments almost always organized by adults, where play managed autonomously by them has been and continues to be almost entirely absent. In these situations, there are always adults teaching them how to do things, thus creating a vicious circle in which teachers, family members, and coaches completely organize their lives.

In this way, young people must constantly be accountable to an adult and are rarely free to behave spontaneously.

This way of living leads young people to never feel fully responsible for their actions, not learn to correct themselves, and never decide how to do an activity because it is already organized and they are expected to participate while respecting the rules.

This is one of the reasons why these young people tend to become less autonomous and develop a psychological condition of low self-confidence. On this basis, no professional can alone solve the situation. The coach cannot become a psychologist on their own, but together they must integrate their skills to promote the sport and psychological development of the young people they work with.

It is quite obvious that young people may be more influenced by the coach because they spend all the time dedicated to sports with them, compared to the psychologist with whom they do not have such daily contact. However, it is the adults first, the coach and the psychologist, who must interact frequently with each other to decide how to act with the young people, each respecting the different professions to make the young people they work with increasingly autonomous.

It is an exchange of work that should take place on a weekly basis, like a real training program that develops gradually. It would be a serious mistake if the coach’s work took precedence even in the psychological area because they do not possess the necessary skills.