inside excellent life
“Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake.
Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked…
men the world over possess amounts of resource,
which only exceptional individuals push to their extremes of use.”
William James (1907), The Energies of Men, pp. 322-323
“A sophisticated understanding of failure’s causes and contexts will help to avoid the blame game and institute an effective strategy for learning from failure. Although an infinite number of things can go wrong … mistakes fall into three broad categories:
Preventable - Most failures in this category can indeed be considered “bad.” They usually involve deviations from spec in the closely defined processes of high-volume or routine operations … With proper training and support, employees can follow those processes consistently. When they don’t, deviance, inattention, or lack of ability is usually the reason. But in such cases, the causes can be readily identified and solutions developed.
Complexity-related – A large number of …failures are due to the inherent uncertainty of work. A particular combination of needs, people, and problems may have never occurred before … To consider them bad is not just a misunderstanding of how complex systems work; it is counterproductive. Avoiding consequential failures means rapidly identifying and correcting small failures.
Intelligent - Failures in this category can rightly be considered “good,” because they provide valuable new knowledge that can help an organization leap ahead of the competition and ensure its future growth—which is why the Duke University professor of management Sim Sitkin calls them intelligent failures. They occur when experimentation is necessary: when answers are not knowable in advance because this exact situation hasn’t been encountered before and perhaps never will be again.”
The focus is on the present. To show a consistent focus during all the points means be tough.
We live between a fall and the following. So it doesn’t matter to spend to much to learn how to do not to fall. It’s more relevant training ourselves to reduce problems caused by impact on the ground and to get back up quickly.
Think, speak and walk can be a good way to respond to the difficulties.
Think, it refers to know what it could happen and the choice of strategies to reduce this chance and still manage it in his favour when it happens.
Talk, it means to share with others, such as our fears and building what to do in those moments and the choice of those who can guide or help us.
Walk, it means keep moving never stopping just to confirm that we can no longer go on. There is always a way to pursue also if many times we must look for it tenaciously.
The use of mindfulness seems to be one of the new strategies and techniques to train mentally athletes to stay focused on the present and on their performances, rather than be dominated by competitive stress. It want to remember that 40 years ago transcendental meditation and zen were already described as modes suitable to sports. At this regard, I report what had written at that time two of the sports psychologists who have provided significant contributions in term of innovation and efficiency of their approach.
Robert Nideffer (1976) in the book “The inner athlete”:
“Trascendental meditation (TM) procedures can be helpful in improving an athlete’s general feeling of well-being as well as increasing his energy level and his ability to concentrate … they are very useful to athletes who engage in endurance events which require little in the way of external attention … keeps him from becoming locked into negative, self-defeating thoughts and feelings … most applicable in those competitive situations where an athlete’s responses require non thought, where movements have been learned so well that they have become automatic … complicated gymnastics routines or dives are often practiced to the point where they are almost reflexive” (p.179).
Terry Orlick (1980) in the book “In pursuit of excellence”:
“Thinking is useful in many ways, but there some occasions when thinking interferes with the task and you have to leave it behind …
In such cases, you cease to be your own conscious master but become an instrument in the hands of the unknown. The unknown has no ego-consciousness and consequently no thought of winning the contest … it is for this reason that sword moves where it ought to move and makes the contest end victoriously. This is the practical application of the Lao-tzuan doctrine of doing by not doing” (p.146, corsivo è di Daisetz Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture).
The athletes’ main psychological mistakes:
Confidence is a relevant topic for the psychologists and very often the coaches use it to point out the errors of their athletes are caused by a deficiency in this psychological dimension. Sometimes this explanation is used to hide the coaches’ mistakes but other highlights limits in psychological development.
On this topic we can say a lot. One such example comes from the interationist approach to the study of personality, it explains the behaviors are derived from the relationship between the personality, the situational challenges, the specific skills and expectations of the social environment.
Since the question is so complicated, no one among athletes, coaches and staff, sports organizations and parents can shirk their responsibilities, which determine the athlete long term development.
How many address the issue of poor performances with this vision? How many clubs are organized to meet this need, taking into account these variables?
A new scientific Journal in the world of sport sciences.
“We wanted to focus on a quality journal, a prestigious publication that could, in some way, convey to a wide readership our point of view on the evolution of training, and, in particular, on the evolution of strength training applied to weightlifting …
Strength was a major element in standing up to observe and do- minate the surrounding area and beyond: slowly and steadily or with bursts of strength, mankind has come a long way. Strength was also paramount to the develop- ment of man’s cognitive abilities, the ability to move in his immedia- te surroundings, to interact with the environment and to process the ensuing stimuli …
We must invest in culture, the vehicle with which we can spread knowledge and experience. The world of sport needs to reflect on the importance of culture and we feel it is our duty to set the ball rol- ling and continue on this journey.”
(Source: Editorial Antonio Urso EWF President)
Mental coaching for coaches, analogous to that of managers, is a project not yet so widespread in the world of sports. This article highlights the main areas of improvement required to coach and how to organize an individual improvement plan.
(Source: European WeitghtLifting Federation Scientific Magazine, Alberto Cei, Coaching Skills, 2016, 4, 16-23.
Alberto Madella ha rappresentato un punto di riferimento nel campo della ricerca scientifica applicata allo sport. Il contributo più rilevante del suo lavoro è stato il tentativo, efficacemente riuscito, di conciliare la centralità del metodo di ricerca con la necessità di spendere i risultati della ricerca nell’esperienza del campo.
Il Coni, per ricordare l’importanza di tale figura, ha istituito questo Premio che, giunto alla sesta edizione è rivolto ai campi di ricerca che il Professor Madella ha contribuito a sviluppare:
- Metodi, mezzi e valutazione dell’allenamento e dell’insegnamento nello sport
- Le scienze sociali applicate al contesto sportivo
- La gestione, l’organizzazione e la valutazione delle organizzazione sportive
Le finalità del concorso sono:
- Valorizzare e promuovere le attività di ricerca nell’ambito delle scienze dell’esercizio fisico e dello sport, sia in campo professionale, sia in campo accademico, nelle discipline scientifiche applicate allo sport di cui si è occupato il prof. Alberto Madella, nello spirito della multidisciplinarità che ha contraddistinto la sua vita professionale
- Stimolare la comunità scientifica nazionale ad approfondire gli studi in campo sportivo per lo sviluppo di una pratica sempre più di qualità che, nel rispetto dell’etica, tenda al miglioramento di tutti quei fattori che concorrono alla performance sportiva intesa nel suo senso più ampio, scientifico, sociale ed umano
Il Premio mette in palio tre borse di studio e un invito a partecipare ad uno dei seminari organizzati dalla Scuola dello Sport. Scadenza improrogabile per la presentazione: 30 settembre 2017.
