Archive for the 'Stress' Category

Review: Ai vostri posti: Il mondo, lo sport, le Olimpiadi. I campioni che hanno vinto e quelli che non ce l’hanno fatta

Published on June 23, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Libri, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Ai vostri posti 

Il mondo, lo sport, le Olimpiadi. I campioni che hanno vinto e quelli che non ce l’hanno fatta

Valerio Piccioni, Gianni Bondini, Ivano Maiorella e Nicola Sbetti (Eds.)

Edizioni BookLab, 178 pagine a colori

The book can be requested at:

Ufficio stampa e comunicazione UISP, email: uisp@uisp.it  tel.+ 39 06 43984305.

This book, published in 2016 Olympic year, contains biographies of about 50 champions of sport and humanity, They played a role in the sport history while not necessarily won the gold medal.

The Olympic year is an opportunity to re-read the Games through the lens of the social value of sport. Starting with the stories of champions who have won despite not having arrived first, women who made off in a historically male chauvinist, athletes and world symbol of the long March of rights, equal opportunities, anti-racism. “Here are the Pipers of this story: they are often the winners is inevitable but can sometimes also be the losers –  writes in the opening of the book Valerio Piccioni, journalist – the readers have not to expect a single story, capable of saying anything at all. Rather, stories to discover or rediscover, that deserve to be told, helping us to understand the world.” The index of the book is very spread and divided into chapters evoking suggestions that they do read in one breath.

“War and peace” where we talk among more of the rivalry and friendship that did not like Hitler between American Owens and German Long, or the history of Zatopek between victories and Russian tanks, or that one of Black September and the Munich Olympics. “Losers or winners?” the Dorando Pietri’s story and the Games lost, to Ron Clarke, the Kenyan champion who was told he could never run. “Olympic challenges teachers of history” whenTito beats Stalin on a soccer field in 1952, the Hungarian war and water polo, the baseball match United States of America-Cuba at Olympic Games Atlanta.

These 13 chapters show how history, sport, society and culture constitute together an inseparable relationship. It’s a book for everyone, for those who love sports and want to understand its deeper meaning, beyond the current trends, but it is also a book for those who think that sport is a simple exercise, without understanding the value for the development of the human being. Finally, it’s a book where it’s showed that sport is an expression of the culture in which we are immersed and sometimes expressed, as in all forms of abuse which we know, the worst values of our society. For these reasons, sport needs to be defended, to spread its constructive role in the development of the culture where we live. “Ai vostri posti” provides precisely this contribution and the only regret is that it has not been found a wider diffusion as it deserves.

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The winning athletes’ main competences

Published on June 14, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The psychological skills the athletes must show in competition and in training are often difficult to list, because the risk is to do a very long and too generic list. Nevertheless, today I would like to try to identify, from my point of view,  the skills that can represent milestones in the athletes’ sport careers.

  • Self-control – it means knowing what are the behaviors to put in place to address the competition requests. The self-control requires respect for opponents; at the same time the athletes must be the leader of themselves, to overcome the difficulties posed by the races and opponents with the aim of providing the best performance.
  • Readiness for action – the athletes are persons oriented to act and therefore they must be ready to kick a ball, pulling a shot, to run in a precise rhythm, to anticipate opponents, to start rather than conclude effectively a race and so on. Readiness goes with high levels of situational awareness: the athletes have to know what to do at any given time and do it at their best.
  • Toughness and resiliency – I did not completely understand the distinction between these two psychological concepts, but I believe the athletes should continue to do the best even when they are tired, when all seems lost, during the decisive moments, at the end of the race, when they feel confused but know they have prepared an action plan for those moments.
  • Attention – Robert Nideffer said the attention is the only important thing in the decisive moments. I agree and, that is the reason, I consider it as the ability allowing to lead the mental commitment. The athletes have to know what to look for, knowing when to use a broad attentional style oriented toward the environment rather than a narrow attentional style, more focused on very few external factors. Without proper attention they cannot understand what is going to happen and to move in advance.
  • Optimism – The explanation of the performance results is an important factor, because it determines the expectation in relation to the future competitions. Humans are often engaged to explain their positive and negative results. It is therefore essential, the athletes develop an optimistic perception of their performances, because if they explain the positive results in term of luck or lack of competent opponents is unlikely they improve and gain a winning mind.

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$170 million to fight against sedentary

Published on June 13, 2017 in Generale and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans don’t get enough exercise and a growing segment doesn’t get any exercise. Technology has allowed us to get by with less and less physical activity. Seventy-five years ago, it was very difficult to even make a living sitting down, but nowadays more and more people work sedentary jobs where they are seated a big portion of the day—and their bodies are rebelling for it!

  • Diabetes is on the increase and predicted to affect 1 in 3 people by 2050.
  • 70.7% percent of Americans aged 20 and older are overweight
  • 37.9% of Americans aged 20 and older are obese
  • Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in America. One in three deaths is related to heart disease

In 2017, US-NIH will launch a huge study to document in detail exactly what is happening in the body when exercising and prove that exercise is medicine.

The six-year, $170 million study will follow 3,000 sedentary people ranging from children to the elderly as they embark on an exercise program. A control group, who will remain sedentary, will also be tracked for comparison.

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Do like in Manchester to win terrorismo fear

Published on June 5, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

The events of recent weeks have driven us to be afraid to go to the public events or take a trip to London but the response should not be to close inside home but to do as in Manchester, 50,000 people together again to say that we trust and believe in freedom. We live in a present dilated at global dimension. Whatever happens somewhere in the world we immediately know, from bombs in Kabul, the attack in London until the panic of the crowd in Turin. They are different stories but linked by the information; we are constantly overwhelmed in real time. This continuous whirl of news has made smaller the world in our perception, because this instant sharing reduces geographical distances and stimulates us to feel in danger. The attacks want to achieve this goal by hitting our lifestyle, the freedom to walk freely in the streets, going to concerts, having fun, going to a game or see it in a square. The speed of information is an additional weapon used by the terrorists, as we know all the while after that happened, without being prepared to mitigate the backlash on our minds. To not feel crushed by the weight of these news and insecurity that can generate, we must then learn to reassure ourselves and who lives with us. In fact, there is no ready way to respond to these tragedies and fears that we seek, we have to keep doing what we’ve always done. Sports and music can help, because they are passion shared and meet in deep the desire to be together. They represent, therefore, an antidote to the unspoken tension lived under skin, which accumulates every day if not melted in the practice of interests that unite, feeling shared emotions and which enrich our existence. We must continue to spread the culture in all its forms from sports to music and art. As individuals we are the keepers of our culture, that we must be able to demonstrate freely, don’t forget it when we’ll we have the doubt to go to a game, to participate in a race or allow our sons to go to a concert.

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Totti’s farewell to the fans

Published on May 29, 2017 in Calcio, Generale and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Totti’s farewell to the fans: «his strength has been to show their fragility»

The sport psychologist Alberto Cei: «Now Francesco must seek a way to make peace with himself, to fill those voids that inevitably he will have»

Risultati immagini per totti

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Are you willing to make mistakes?

Published on May 26, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

At any age you can choose to change

You can always start over

as long as you are willing to make mistakes.

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10 questions to understand the psychological component of sports.

Published on May 25, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments

10 questions to understand the psychological component of sports.

  1. Understand the mental side of warm-up.
  2. The way to be in the pre-race or pre-workout optimal condition.
  3. The way to use the mental rehearsal before an exercise.
  4. The mental aspects of physical preparation.
  5. Be aware the athlete is doing the training just to execute the coach’s instruction.
  6. Recognize the athelete’s mental intensity in training and competition.
  7. To know the attentional demands of the various sports.
  8. Be able to react immediately to an error in a constructive way.
  9. Use the breaks in training and competition to retrieve not only physically but also mentally.
  10. Optimize the situational awareness.

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Optimist or pessimist?

Published on May 24, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The optimist accepts stressful events

learning something from these situations

while

the pessimist does not address situations that may be a source of stress

and shows a reduced awareness of the problems

Risultati immagini per optimist pessimist

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What excellence is

Published on May 12, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

EXCELLENCE

10% Talent & 90% Perspiration

Risultati immagini per gladiator fighting movie

Just to remind those who have forgotten for a moment

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Youth sport: problems and solutions

Published on April 28, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Youth sport is becoming a great problem and an article published in the magazine of US Olympic Committee helps to understand what might be the reasons and proposals for solutions. I wrote in a short summary but the  article by Christine M. Brooks (Summer 2016) is certainly wider and interesting to read.

  • There is a high pediatric dropout rate from sports (between 2008 and 2013 there were 2.6 million fewer six to twelve year-old kids participating the six traditional sports).
  • Coaches are using higher training intensities at younger ages than ever before possibly causing long-term harm to young athletes (the LTAD model attempts to guide coaches about the appropriate training for children who are at different maturational phases).
  • There is an increase in childhood obesity and subsequent health problems (in the United States, 17 to 31 percent of children and adolescents are obese).
Goals
  • The principle of enjoyment embraces Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s notion of ‘FLOW,’ that in turn, explains why individuals enjoy an activity. Approximately 40 percent of pediatric athletes in one survey claim they dropped out of sports because they were not having fun. The coaching goal is to train athletes in small, manageable learning steps so they remain in the zone of FLOW. Research indicates that educated coaches lower kids’ anxiety levels and lift their self-esteem.
  • The principle of striving for improvement involves enticing young athletes to constantly strive for the upper limits of their genetic potential while concurrently keeping them in FLOW. If they are out of ‘FLOW,’ it is theoretically impossible to motivate ongoing practice and striving, and therefore progress toward full genetic potential will be blunted.
  • The principle of appropriate training goes hand-in-hand with the child’s growth and maturation. The LTAD model attempts to match structural growth and maturation to the appropriate motor skill complexity and intensity of physical training.
  • The principle of doing no harm is at the basis of coaching. Four million school-age children in the US are injured while playing sports every year. The reason can partly be attributed to stressing a body that has immature balance and coordination beyond its capacity.

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