Archive for the 'Stress' Category

Eliud Kipchoge moves human limits forward

Published on October 12, 2019 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: Eliud Kipchoge, Ineos, limits, marathon, record.

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.

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#WorldMentalHealthDay

Published on October 10, 2019 in Allenatori, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments

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To tackle chilhood obesity

Published on October 10, 2019 in Generale, Giovani and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: cibo, infanzia, obesità, pubblicità. sponsor, strade urbane, traffico.

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 Lancet, October 10, 2019

“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.”

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How the coaches have to build cohesion

Published on October 7, 2019 in Allenatori, Calcio, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: Basket, coach, coesione, leader, leadership, pallamano, player, rugby, volleyball.

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:

Encourage participation by listening to the players’ suggestions
Avoide favouritism
Reward altruistic behaviour
Reduce individualistic behaviour
Assign challenging and achievable goals to each player
Assign each player a specific role
Encourage a learning and collaborative training climate
Stimulate maximum commitment and constantly reinforce it
Always support the team when it is in negative momentum
Spend time with athletes to evaluate their commitment to training
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?

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The pitfalls of life affect everyone

Published on October 6, 2019 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: corruzione, droga, maradona, Pelè, Platini, regole.

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.

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Eliud Kipchoge challenge the human limits

Published on October 4, 2019 in Allenatori, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: 1h59, disciplina, Eliud Kipchoge, Libri, maratona, mente, record, Vienna.

Eliud KipchogeKenyan

35 years, 1m67, 52 Kg
Marathon runner, 230km week
Married, 3 children
Olympic gold and world recordman on the marathon in 2h1m39s

Goal: Run the marathon in 1h59m in Vienna in the next few days

Mental Attitude (mindset)

Training, passion and self-discipline
He writes down everything he does in notebooks.
He writes down his feelings to remember them
Read Aristotle, Confucius and Paul Coelho
He runs with his mind relaxed
“Respect a law, that of never telling you lies”
“Only the disciplined are free, the others are slaves to moods and passions.”
“When I train, I try to feel my body and give more and more. I don’t believe in limits.
“You have to have a great conviction and a team that believes in you and supports you. Shoes are also important. And then you have to be stronger than any other runner in the past. Everything is possible”.
“Marathon is life. If you want to be happy you have to enjoy life and I enjoy running the marathon. That’s why I smile.

He leads a spartan life:

Always gets up at 5 a.m. in Kaptagat (Kenya)
The weekend returns to the family
He cleans his room and bathroom
He washes his knits and socks in a bowl that he then spreads like the others
In the afternoon, he drinks a cup of tea and eats a slice of bread.

(Source: Emanuela Audisio, Repubblica e correre.it)

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Make mistakes is a part of the game

Published on October 3, 2019 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: errori.

Losing is a part of the game in which athletes are involved. Everyone knows it, few people accept it. They close out in shame of not having been able to win a race, to avoid coldly assessing what they will have to do in the next race.

Losing is seen as a wound at ourself: “It means that despite training, I cannot do what I know to do. In this way, the athletes don’t develop self-confidence and this explanation of defeat continues to weigh in the next race. The mind is not free, it is not focused on the present but it is taken to see what will happen this time: “Will I be able to do what I know to do or will I fall back into the same mistakes?”

A vicious circle is established limiting the athletes and the performances, because this negative attitude does not allow them to stay focused on the task, waiting for the catastrophe that at some point will come.

Then the justifications: I was tired, I did not sleep well, I felt the burden of responsibility, everyone expects I perform at my best, “Yes, I could … But it’s difficult… in those moments I don’t react”.

There is a well-established mindset to find alibi for the negative performance and there is no humility in saying: “Ok, I’ve got this and that wrong. Well, next time I want to commit myself to finding solutions to these difficulties.”

Competitions are not a health walk. For athletes the races are extreme tests and those who are most able to deal with the difficulties that the extreme situation offers usually win.

We as sports psychologists can play an important role in determining this awareness and teaching positive ways of living these extreme situations. It is not a problem to make mistakes. It is a physiological fact, because the one who makes the least mistakes wins. Making mistakes is part of the race, even those who win make mistakes. They probably make fewer mistakes and are less influenced by their mistakes.

We chill do mistakes: only those who are presumptuous can think differently. We make one mistake and the next minute we think: “I’ll correct myself in this way.”

How many times do you have to do this? I don’t know, it depends on the duration of the race but one thing is certain:

“It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, but how quickly you get up.

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New AASP president: Natalie Durand-Bush

Published on October 2, 2019 in Generale, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: AASP, Natalie Durand-Bush, president.

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Tottenham and Atalanta without resilience

Published on October 2, 2019 in Allenatori, Calcio, Mental coaching and Stress. 2 Comments Tags: Atalanta, Champions League, resilienza, squadra, tottenham.

Yesterday Champions League matches showed a resilience problem in some teams, such as Tottenham (it lost 7-2 to Bayern) and Atalanta (2-1 to Shaktar). Both teams were unable to react positively to the difficulties of the match.

In fact, resilience refers precisely to the ability to react immediately to a problem. It is the ability that allows people to react to defeats by going back stronger than before. These people, rather than being overwhelmed by failure and blocking their determination, find instead a way to rise from those defeats.

Let’s also say that teams that often lose matches, as in this period in Serie A (Spal, Sampdoria, Genoa and Milan) and those that, usually, play below their level show a lack of resilience. The same goes for the coaches who lead them.

To develop the resilience players and teams need to:
Know the situations you have to deal with in detail
Have a plan to deal with them successfully
Be prepared to adapt immediately to new and unforeseen situations
Believe in one’s own personal and team skills, making the maximum effort to implement them
Be able to react positively and immediately to an error
Communicate and support companions throughout the match
Reduce tension when possible and during game breaks

These are skills that should be constantly improved. For the coaches the questions are: