Archive for the 'Corsa' Category

Page 2 of 157

The coach mindset

I quote this text by Vern Gambetta on the mindset that every coach should possess.

Regardless of how many years you have been coaching, always approach what you do with a beginner’s mind (“Shoshin” in Japanese). Never lose this perspective, because it is full of possibilities. It helps to see with a child’s eyes. It is seeing what is actually there, as opposed to seeing what we think is there. Erase confirmation bias. Expect nothing, and you will be surprised with what you see.

Getting better, step by step –some practical pointers:

  • Have a clearly defined vision and mission statement. Turn the words into action and live them in coaching and in life. The vision statement is a statement of purpose; it is why you do what you do. The mission statement is a clear description of the route; it is how you will do it.
  • Practice daily self-reflection, and make it a habit. Debrief after every training session. It can be formal or informal; do whatever fits your situation. Keep a journal and answer these questions: What did I plan to do? Did it get done? Was it exceptional, average or good? Why and why not? What do I need to do better next time? Taking time to answer these questions is a simple but effective way to constantly improve.
  • Read everything you can – read books, articles websites and blogs. Learn from anyone you can. Try to have a focus or the theme to direct your reading. Take notes. Discuss your reading with others.
  • Write – keep a journal. Tie this to your self-reflection and debrief. Take notes on your reading and things you hear or read.
  • Do it yourself –try it and feel it. There is no better way to teach a skill than to learn it yourself. That will give you a feel for what the athlete has to do when they are learning.
  • Network & Collaborate –work together with someone. Together is better. Seek diverse opinions and critical evaluation of your work.
  • Find a mentor both in and out of coaching. Find someone who has been there before and is willing to share their success and failures.
  • Go outside your sport and outside of sport – go far afield. I have found a wealth of ideas look- ing at design thinking. Look at the performing arts.
  • Know what you know, and know what you do not know. Be confident, but never be con- strained by either.
  • Remember that communication is the essence of good coaching. It is also the cornerstone of getting better. It demands intention and attention: intention that the meaning be shared and at- tention that it has been shared. Pay attention!
  • Observe –watch good coaches coach, and for that matter, watch bad coaches coach. You can learn what to do and what not to do. Watch and read interviews of coaches.
  • Specialize in being a generalist –get uncomfortable and go outside your area of expertise. Make connections between seemingly unconnected areas. This will allow you to make more diverse connections to deepen, as well as broaden, your knowledge.
  • Practice tech free coaching days
  • Leave your iPhone and iPad in the office. Put the Go Pro away.
  • Stop! Look! Listen! Heighten and sharpen your observational skills. Don’t worry about bar

Football and autism: To enhance the sports and psychosocial skills

Cei, A., Ruscello, B., Sepio, D. (2023). The role of Football in Enhancing psychosocial skills in Youth with Autism spectrum disorderInternational Journal of Sport Psychology, 54(5), 373-388.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit deficits in social interaction, understanding of tasks, and verbal and nonverbal communication (APA, 2013). Several studies have examined the role of physical activity and sports in promoting skill acquisition in these areas and also in improving psychological and social abilities (e.g., Cei et al., 2017; Cei and Luiselli, 2017; Bremer et al., 2016; Luiselli, 2014).

The main reason for increasing these activities in children with ASD is to counter their predominantly sedentary condition (Lalonde, 2017), enhancing their body functioning, cognitive and emotional processes, as well as enriching and improving interactions with peers and adults. These are certainly ambitious goals but are the same ones developed and valued by typically developing peers in sports clubs.

Up to now, the dissemination of physical activity programs in youth with ASD has been neglected, even though research data show motor, psychological, and social benefits from continued practice over time. Additionally, sports can serve as effective support for therapies involving these youth. Despite these positive findings, it remains more likely for a young person with intellectual disabilities to lead a sedentary lifestyle, which in turn contributes to problems like obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory issues (De, Small, and Baur, 2008; Kahathuduwa et al., 2019).

In contrast, engagement in physical activity programs, even at moderate levels of intensity, can improve flexibility, increase muscle strength, reduce weight and body mass index. It also impacts psychological issues by reducing behavioral difficulties (reduction of stereotyped movements and self-stimulating behaviors), improving self-concept, and developing cognitive functions (Luiselli 2014; Sowa and Meulenbroek, 2012).

Major literature reviews have highlighted that the activities mostly involve individual sports such as running, cycling, weight training, roller skating, horseback riding, walking, and water activities  and treadmill use (Bremer et al., 2016; Lang et al., 2010; Sowa and Meulenbroek, 2012; Lancioni et al., 2009). These studies have shown that short and intense exercises can facilitate learning and reduce behavioral problems during and immediately after training sessions.

The reason why individual sports have been used more frequently compared to other sports lies in the apparent ease of teaching strategies and the reduction of practical cooperative activities and development of social skills compared to team sports. However, team sports and group activities might facilitate those prosocial behaviors and interpersonal communication that play a more marginal role in individual activities.

To address this need, Cei et al. (2017) developed a naturalistic intervention to study the effects of a football-based training program on children with ASD. In the initial phase, “Calcio Insieme” (Football Together) project recruited 30 children (6-13 years old) with ASD from the public schools.

To assess the impact of the training program on psychosocial skills (collaboration, communication, socialization, problematic behaviors, self-support), interviews were conducted with parents and school teachers before and after the training period. The results showed that after 8 months of activity, parents and school teachers perceived that participants had improved their psychosocial and motor skills, with differences based on the severity of their condition.

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.

Walking is good but at least more than 2200 steps

We have been told for years that walking 10,000 steps a day reduces the risk of heart disease and premature death, even in those who spend the rest of the day sedentary.

Recent research has highlighted that the minimum number of steps is 2,200 per day and that health risks decrease as we increase our steps throughout the day. The risk is significantly reduced among people who take between 9,000 and 10,500 steps per day, with a 39% reduction in the risk of premature death and over a fifth reduction in the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Although the results have shown that any number of daily steps above 2,200 was associated with lower rates of death and heart disease, regardless of sedentary time, the benefits increase with more steps taken by individuals.

These new studies indicate that every single step toward reaching 10,000 steps a day counts in reducing the risk of death and heart disease.

So let’s stay active for our health as advised, through 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. And in any way possible, we should strive to reach 10,000 steps a day.

It’s truly alarming if global health organizations have to remind us to walk, to engage in the simplest and most natural action a human can take.

Nevertheless, we must follow this advice because, as the saying goes, “it’s a matter of health.”

Physical activity and interventions on psychopatology

Singh B, Olds T, Curtis R, et al. Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: an overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2023; 57:1203-1209.

PA was effective at reducing depression and anxiety across all clinical conditions, though the magnitude of the benefit varied between clinical groups. The larger effect sizes observed in clinical populations may reflect that these populations experience above-average symptoms of depression and anxiety and have low PA levels, and, therefore, have a greater scope for improvement compared with non-clinical populations.

All PA modes were beneficial, including aerobic, resistance, mixed-mode exercise and yoga. It is likely that the beneficial effects of PA on depression and anxiety are due to a combination of various psychological, neurophysiological and social mechanisms. Different modes of PA stimulate different physiological and psychosocial effects, and this was supported by our findings (eg, resistance exercise had the largest effects on depression, while Yoga and other mind–body exercises were most effective for reducing anxiety). Furthermore, our findings showed that moderate-intensity and high-intensity PA modes were more effective than lower intensities. PA improves depression though various neuromolecular mechanisms including increased expression of neurotrophic factors, increased availability of serotonin and norepinephrine, regulation of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity and reduced systemic inflammation. Therefore, low-intensity PA may be insufficient for stimulating the neurological and hormonal changes that are associated with larger improvements in depression and anxiety. Overall, our findings add further support to public health guidelines, which recommend multimodal, moderate and vigorous intensity PA.

PA was effective at reducing depression and anxiety across all clinical conditions, though the magnitude of the benefit varied between clinical groups. The larger effect sizes observed in clinical populations may reflect that these populations experience above-average symptoms of depression and anxiety and have low PA levels, and, therefore, have a greater scope for improvement compared with non-clinical populations.

All PA modes were beneficial, including aerobic, resistance, mixed-mode exercise and yoga. It is likely that the beneficial effects of PA on depression and anxiety are due to a combination of various psychological, neurophysiological and social mechanisms. Different modes of PA stimulate different physiological and psychosocial effects, and this was supported by our findings (eg, resistance exercise had the largest effects on depression, while Yoga and other mind–body exercises were most effective for reducing anxiety). Furthermore, our findings showed that moderate-intensity and high-intensity PA modes were more effective than lower intensities. PA improves depression though various neuromolecular mechanisms including increased expression of neurotrophic factors, increased availability of serotonin and norepinephrine, regulation of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity and reduced systemic inflammation. Therefore, low-intensity PA may be insufficient for stimulating the neurological and hormonal changes that are associated with larger improvements in depression and anxiety. Overall, our findings add further support to public health guidelines, which recommend multimodal, moderate and vigorous intensity PA

Paris 2024 posters

In the spirit of equality that has become a hallmark of the upcoming Games, Paris 2024 chose not to make a distinction between the Olympics and Paralympics in the design of the posters. As with the torch and the mascots, the posters are linked together and united.

On Monday 4 March, a giant version of the posters went on display at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. They will remain there until 10 March for visitors from all over the world to see.

“It’s a new, key moment in the Paris 2024 story,” said Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet at the event where the posters were revealed. “We’ve tried to be different and imagine posters that look like us, posters that go beyond a mere logo.”

Paris 2024 hired Ugo Gattoni, a Parisian illustrator with a vibrant style, to create the posters. He worked in his studio from 19 September 2023 to 19 January 2024, spending a total of 2,000 hours creating the two posters that will become a lasting symbol of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.

Paris 2024 poster

Obesity, OMS: is a complex multifactorial chronic illness

Globesity  - as named by the Italian economist and agronomist Andrea Segrè – shows that the global costs of overweight and obesity will reach $18 trillion annually by 2060.

The WHO defines obesity as a chronic multifactorial disease characterized by excessive fat deposits, which can compromise health, due to obesogenic environments, psychosocial factors, genetic variables, as well as major etiological factors such as diseases, medications, forced immobilization, and iatrogenic procedures.

In an obesogenic environment, the availability of healthy and sustainable food at locally accessible prices is structurally limited, there is a lack of easy and safe physical mobility in daily life, and there is an absence of adequate legal and regulatory context.

The progression towards obesity is aggravated by the lack of an effective response from the healthcare system, which fails to identify early in the initial stages the excess weight gain and fat deposition in people who are at higher risk of getting sick.

Obese individuals have an increased risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and tumors. Obesity also significantly influences bone health and reproduction and impacts quality of life, such as mobility and good sleep.

Childhood and adolescent obesity have negative psychosocial consequences, from lower academic performance to worsened quality of life. It is exacerbated by stigma, discrimination, and widespread bullying.

Epidemiological data show that, compared to 1990, obesity has doubled in adults and quadrupled in adolescents. It appears that in 2022, one in eight people worldwide lived with obesity: there were 890 million people (aged 18 and over), representing 16% of the adult population. Another two and a half billion adults are overweight (43%). There are also 37 million children under 5 years old and 390 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 who are overweight, with 160 million of them living with obesity.

It seems paradoxical that in the poorest countries, malnutrition in all its forms and obesity commonly coexist. There is a double burden of malnutrition. Children, more vulnerable to inadequate nutrition, are more exposed to high-energy foods – high in sugars, fats, and salt – but poor in micronutrients, which cost less but also have lower nutrient quality. WHO believes that these dietary patterns, associated with reduced levels of physical activity, lead to a sharp increase in childhood obesity, leaving malnutrition problems unresolved.

To reduce risk, people can enjoy a healthy life by taking better care of their diet, the duration and quality of sleep, emotional self-regulation, as well as avoiding tobacco and alcohol and engaging in regular physical activity. It is also important to be careful not to gain too much weight during pregnancy, practice exclusive breastfeeding for an extended period, and support all children, regardless of their weight status, to ensure they eat healthily, sleep well, and are not sedentary.”

How to improve the relationship with the athlete?

Often, coaches ask how they could improve their relationship with the athletes they coach.

My first response is always to advise them to listen to them and talk to them more. Some understand while saying they don’t have the time. I reiterate that it is better to stop the activity 10 minutes earlier to talk to them than to coach technique for 10 minutes longer.

Athletes like any other human need to share thoughts and emotions. It is not enough just to do, you also need to learn that you need to give words to what you have done in training and competition. It is not enough just to do, you also need to be able to explain it and let others know through a process of observing and evaluating yourself. Is this not part of training? Or should training mean just doing drills, like a robot doing without knowing the meaning of what it is doing and, therefore, cannot understand the meaning for itself.

Easier and less demanding for the coach is to administer exercises with the hope that what he teaches will come true, just as a doctor administers medicine to a patient.

The coach should get out of this ambiguity of wanting to lead with only a directive approach and lacking interest in building autonomy and developing the young decision-making skills.

The physical activity supports the psychopathology treatment

Ben Singh, Timothy Olds, Rachel Curtis, Dot Dumuid, Rosa Virgara, Amanda Watson,  Kimberley Szeto, Edward O’Connor, Ty Ferguson, Emily Eglitis, Aaron Miatke, Catherine EM Simpson, Carol Maher. From Alternative to Mainstay: the overwhelming evidence supporting physical activity as a treatment for anxiety and depression.

There are thousands of research trials examining the impact of physical activity for treating anxiety, depression and/or stress. Our review included a total of 97 systematic review, comprising of 1039 trials and 128 119 participants.

Taken together, results clearly show that physical activity had moderate effects on depression, anxiety and psychological distress compared with usual care across all populations. The largest benefits were seen in people with depression, HIV and kidney disease, in pregnant and postpartum women, and in healthy individuals.

Higher intensity physical activity was associated with greater improvements in symptoms. Effectiveness of physical activity interventions diminished with longer duration interventions.

The size of these benefits was comparable to, and slightly larger than, the benefits of medications and psychotherapy. There is a very large rigorous body of scientific evidence showing that physical activity is effective for improving depression and anxiety. These benefits apply across a very wide range of populations.

While all physical activity modes are effective, higher intensity physical activity is associated with greater benefit. The findings from this umbrella review underscore the significant potential for physical activity to improve mental health outcomes and support the integration of physical activity interventions in mental health treatment.

Juventus crisis

The psychological situation of Juventus may be interesting to understand, as in my opinion it demonstrates an established idea of psychology. The idea would be that when expectations are disappointed by not having achieved the result for which until recently they were striving, subsequent performances are undermined by the establishment of the thought that there is nothing more to be done.

In the absence of direct knowledge this is a hypothesis, which seems to me in any case quite probable. No longer able to fight to try to win the championship, Juventus has reverted to its usual tired way of playing, which needs to find itself in trouble to find the motivation to change.

It is curious that quality players fall into this psychological trap, created by themselves, without putting in place forms of resistance to this motivational fall. A team should not reason in this way, which lead to losing to teams obviously of lower levels, but this is of no use if the opponents are playing and they are limited to ordinary and slow management of the game.

This mental regression of the players should be countered by the coach and staff. It was seen to have lasted for at least three games after the defeat to Inter. That’s more than 270 minutes played at the least worst. How can players and team justify to themselves individually and as a collective this prolonged negative moment?It sounds to me like Al Pacino’s words as a coach in Any given Sunday when yhe tells the players, “Either we rise up as a collective or we will be annihilated individually.”