Archive for the 'Olimpiadi' Category

About the crisis of their best player, the team’s coach said that “we are working together with the player and the team’s psychological staff to solve the problem as soon as possible and to see him finally play on the field as he knows how.

I think we will never hear such statements in soccer. This is because the real taboo that resists in relation to evaluating the psychological aspects of any player is to consider them according to a positive/negative logic. Either things are good or there are problems. The very word “problem” associated with another “psychological” immediately reminds one of something that must be hidden, a fault to be ashamed of and which then publicly must be called something else so as not to stigmatize the young person as one who has a “psychological problem.”

That is why then the “problems” shown on the field by Vlahovic, Leao, Donnarumma, and so many others who are not mentioned in the media because they are not famous are explained in terms of playing problems, the desire to overdo it, contract-related problems, difficulties in recovering after an injury or finding the match rhythm again. What is not said is that these situations just listed are the footballer’s way of showing his current psychological limitations. If one replaces the word “problem” with “current limit” it becomes more obvious that talking about psychological limits is analogous to talking about physical or technical-tactical limits and that through training it will be possible to reduce these limits.

Thus, by bringing the issue back to typical difficulties of those who do a job, that of a footballer, in which one should always be ready, knowing of course that this is not possible, it becomes easier to accept that psychological limitations demonstrated at certain times during the sporting season are part of a footballer’s life, they should therefore not be hidden, they are like a muscle contracture or a wrong pass. When they occur, the club must be equipped as with any other eventuality to treat the player, through experts in sports psychology, with the aim of reducing or eliminating this difficulty.

Instead, we are still stuck thinking that the support of teammates and fans and chats with the coach are enough. Certainly they are important, but no one would think of solving an injury with a pat on the back.

In Italy there is still a craftsmanship conception of high-level sport particularly true in individual sports. In most cases, the development and success of an athlete is based on a deep collaborative relationship with his/her coach. It is not uncommon that the coach is the husband of the athlete or the parent (father/mother). It’s obvious that this system is subject to all interference that are typical of the dual relationships.

The psychological components of each of these relationships have unbelievable significance, because the training is to build situations with predetermined levels of stress that the athlete must successfully deal to improve in his/her performances.

In this context, the coaches have a reduced exchange of ideas and discussion with other colleagues and the use of innovations produced by the sports science depends only on their curiosity and desire to upgrade. The limitation of this approach lies not only in the limited use of the contributions of science by the coaches but also the failure of researchers to listen and understand what are the needs and demands of the coaches.

In other words, there is need to talk together, to share ideas, to criticize each other in a constructive way and to build work plans based on collaboration.

Simeone, manager of Atletico Madrid, said that “you can win by losing if you give it your all.” It is a key concept in the development of an athlete and should be taught from the very first day a boy or girl enters a playing field. On the contrary, we see young people who as soon as they make a mistake become angry with themselves or depressed. We know that this happens because of the conjunction of different reasons:

parents often do not recognize the value of effort and think that it only matters to win, so they get angry at their children for their mistakes and would like to take the place of the coach to give them technical guidance,
coaches are more focused on teaching technique and do not emotionally coach athletes,
young people themselves are unable to express their emotions constructively and lack self-control.
And so we see young tennis players slamming their rackets to the ground after a mistake alternating between angry and depressed moods against themselves or in other sports made one mistake almost quickly follows others, because frustration due to the first mistake dominates in athletes. Changing this way of experiencing defeats and mistakes requires parents and coaches who are more aware that their role includes teaching self-control, working with their children and athletes to change these destructive behaviors.

One certainly does not have to impose our adult solutions to their problems. We need to listen empathetically and not to judge, so that young people feel supported and respected in their states of mind. Only after this stage should we start talking about what could be done differently, giving time for the young people to express their ideas and for us to stimulate their awareness in regard to how they act and identify possible solutions. Acting in this way takes time, and it is often for this reason that adults do not follow this path.

We need to be aware, however, that if we often refrain from intervening, young people will begin to think that their reactions do not interest their parents and coaches, and worse, they will continue to behave negatively toward themselves. If we want our young people to develop the ability to deal effectively and satisfactorily with their daily stresses, we must spend time teaching them how to behave, feel and think in those moments.

We often don’t teach boys/and girls to think. I often hear coaches continue with those phrases they used to say to me 50 years ago, too.

1. “With experience you learn.”
2. “Just do it once and then you get it”
3. “It would be enough for him/her to win once and then he/she would be unblocked”
4. “I was like that at your age, too”
5. “You’re only 16 … we can’t expect that …”
6. “It’s age they are caught up in hormones”
7. “He/she doesn’t think (He/She doesn’t listen), they are all the same”
8. “Too impatient (Too sleepy)”
9. “Calm (Wake up)”
10. “Hopefully mature”

Instead, let’s learn from the coach of tennis legend Rod Laver how to be taught to be more competitive.

Hollis believed these were the traits of good tennis players. He would share stories of great players with Rod to illustrate the significance of these traits. At every opportunity Hollis re-enforced the rewards to be gained by chasing down every ball, remaining positive, relishing the challenge of working hard, never giving up and learning from defeats. Hollis instilled in Rod, when things did not go his way, he had to knuckle down and play even more intensely. Importantly, it was not necessarily about winning; it was also about learning. Aided by his coach’s holistic approach to teaching the game, Rod gained an understanding that “tennis is as much a mental game as a physical one.” (Janet A. Young, Pearls of Wisdom from Rod Laver)