Tag Archive for 'allenatori'

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Doping or commitment

I often wonder who has the sense to keep talking about excellence in sport when continually discover how doping has got into this world and how the ethics in many athletes confuse with the code of silence. The ethics in these cases is to protect another athlete who dopa, according to a pathological definition of morality, according to which you must protect your environment regardless of the actions are illegal and immoral. The main reason given to justify this approach to doping consists in thinking that it’s not possible to excel without this help. Taking this point of view, those who oppose, condemning this kind of sports culture, he is considered a moralist who wants to impose  anachronistic rules, since all dope. Domina Embé philosophy: “Have you seen that that athlete took doping”, “Embé that will never be, so they do it all, if you want to win there is no alternative.” This philosophy is characterized by two main ideas: “So much the worse, the better” and “They’re all thieves.” When this view is widespread among adults, many have begun to take drugs to participate in Master events; there are cases in which parents have asked the doctor a “little help” for their son, increasingly gyms have become places of sales of illegal products and there are doctors and physiotherapists who have undertaken this type of advice to increase their earnings. It’s instead starting from the wide distribution of this bleak conception of sports culture that we must respond and continue to talk about excellence. Regards the absolute level of sports performance, depending only on the commitment and dedication of the athlete, prepared by teachers and programs as value. We must not give in to the philosophy dell’Embè because this devastates our young people and their teachers. The doping in sport and any illegal action must be fought by spreading the culture of commitment and the right to dream that it is possible to achieve any result. We have to legally pursue who uses doping but at the same time we need to change this culture of sport deadly. Children and young people are our future and they have to learn that they can have success thanks to their efforts. We must do more and better because the coaches are not only professionally competent but totally involved in a  work ethic vision of their work.

One million arm: a story of talent transfer

I saw the movie “One million arm” which tells about the story of a US visionary manager willing to discover talent for baseball in young people who practice other sports. He believes that India is the country still less exploited for this search and convinces a rich Chinese to fund this research. Who will throw a baseball ball 80 miles will attend a training camp and then the two best athletes will win a prize and will move for a year in the United States to train. At the end of the year the two Indian athletes fail to pass the audition organized with the best baseball scouts and the story seems failed. The manager, however, obtains financing for another year, after which instead the two boys convince the experts with their launches. Conclusion, they have been the first two Indians to play in the Major League.

This is a true story that tells how the search for talent is still anchored in  too rigid scientific stereotypes that prevent that stories like this are much more frequent. The British have understood for a long time and over the last 8 years have enriched their national teams of about 100 athletes using a system like the one described in the movie.

In Italy, I’m trying to introduce this concept but sports organizations are rigid, the biomechanicals and coaches believe that we should always start from the children and basically everyone wants to protect is knowledge rather than to try new paths. Patience!

In the field with youngest soccer players

In a few days the coaches of the football schools will go on the fields and everyone will manage a new group of young players.

It is important that coaches should remember that in addition to technical and tactical skills as important is the knowledge of the psychological dynamics characterizing the different age groups. The management of a group and its transformation into a team cannot ignore the knowledge of the correct methods of communication with the children. The first of the categories in order of age is called in Italy little friends. Here are some points on what to do and how to communicate when the coaches are in the field with them.

  • Involve them in an intense way
  • Give priority to movement and fun
  • Propose a wide variety of stimuli

Communicating with young palyers:

  • Avoid long explanations
  • Propose simple and specific rules
  • Ask to respect the rules in a calm but firm communicaion style
  • Strengthen their commitment
  • Drive gradually toward the autonomy
(by Daniela Sepio)

Sport learns from sport

The third time in rugby is the moment in which the opposing teams and fans gather to eat and drink together, exchanging thoughts and opinions, beyond who won and lost. The third time celebrating something more important than a competitive match:  mutual respect and fair play, all qualities that have made ​​this sport first in sportsmanship.

In recent years, youth and school division of Italian football federation has included in its official document provided to the clubs at the beginning of the seaon, the promotion of the third time: “The Youth and School Division promotes the organization of the Third Time Fair Play. During the Third Time “FAIR PLAY”, the two clubs and families make available to the participants snacks to share among them, spreading naturally the invitation to the coaches, managers and parents involved in the match. In this way, the Youth and School Division wants to disseminate the values ​​of fair athletic competition.”
The introduction of the third time in football has been much criticized because the less than correct behaviors that characterizes the Italian football, little befitting with the tradition of rugby fair play. I believe that young players do not need to pay the expenses of adult football and for this reason, if football does not know how to teach to himself the fair play, it must learn from those who have most deeply rooted traditions. I remember it to the presidents of the football schools, leaders, and parents who often forget that and even more often ignore the existence of the third time. It is not a theft of football, I see it rather as a sign of reflection of a sport first in popularity, which borrows from those who know more. Much of my work is to provide psychological tools to the adults involved with the young players to ensure that their sport experiences will be the best, and if  the tird time can be an additional tool to send a positive message, then we have to promote it. Today the professional soccer does not know how to sustain the third time, while children can do being an example for the players. People too often forget that real change can only happen in football from its roots: the football schools.

(by Daniela Sepio)

Italian youth football: from where to restart?

A few days before the election of the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) many talks are about of youth soccer and how to re-organize it. It’s said to teach the technique before the tactic, it speaks of the importance of the soccer school of the clubs and about coach education too. It’s all right, but the changes must inevitably go through a cultural revolution of youth football that it’s often perceived only in terms of results. In one of the last courses for youth coaches that I conducted, most of the coaches who were there, just to learn how to manage and lead teams of children, would rather not be in front of the youngest categories rowdy and playful, because they had too problems to manage and to learn to win. Most coaches would have liked to have entrusted to himself at least a team of older boys. The explanation was: the opportunity of making an adult football. I remained amazed, because I would expected the desire to grow the players of tomorrow and instead they want boys already grown up. The categories of football school seem to fear, perhaps because the enthusiasm of small noisy children and vibrant can be handled only by competent coaches who are also capable leader, able to transform children into rowdy gamers, who never lose the desire to enjoy it. Every coach wants the winning team and the small champion right away, but no one seems to want to work to build the win. The victory will probably arrive, but who could be the champion of tomorrow will be “burned” already at twelve years, because of the desire to win of an adult who thinks to know everything about football. This is one of the problems of Italian football, definitely a key part that needs new decisions for the future.

Coach the youth’s emotions

After the Champions League defeat Simeone, the coach of Atletico Madrid,  said that: ” you can win by losing if you play at your best.” It’s a key concept for the development of an athlete and it should be taught until the first day that a child starts one sport. On the contrary, we see young people who just made ​​a mistake they get angry with themselves or get depressed. We know that this happens for the conjunction of different reasons: the parents are distracted and do not give much weight to these behaviors, the coaches are more focused on teaching the technique rather than emotionally to train athletes and the young people themselves also are not good at expressing their emotions and to take care of themselves in a positive way. And so, I look every day tennis players slamming their racket to the ground after a little mistake, alternating moods of depression and anger against them or in other sports in which after one mistake they made ​​a repeat others, because they are dominated by frustration. To change this way of life setbacks and mistakes parents and coaches must be more aware of their role as emotional-coaches and the need to work with their children and athletes to change these behaviors. We must not impose our solutions of adults to their problems. We must instead listen empathetically without to judge, so as to feel supported and respected in their moods. Only after this stage we should start talking about what could be done differently, giving time to express their ideas and for us to express our own. Acting in this way takes time and often it’s this reason that adults do not follow this path. But we must be aware that if we often act in this manner, the young people will begin to think that their reactions are not interesting  for their parents and coaches, and worse they will still continue to behave in a negative way. If we want our children develop the ability to effectively manage their daily stresses,  we have to spend the time to teach them how to behave, feel and think in those moments.

The emotions might be teaching opportunities

Sport is an activity that tests the skills of young people in managing their emotions. In sports, you win and lose, you make mistakes easily and frequently, and for these reasons it is a situation that calls constantly even self-confidence. It is therefore important for every coach to learn to recognize the emotions of the athletes as a teaching opportunity. The errors they commit as well as new learning and the performances are the optimal situations to train them to handle the disappointment and anger rather than joy. The coach might be aware of the emotions of their athletes, understand the educational opportunities they represent, listen boys and girls with an empathic style, helping them to understand and explain what it happens and seek solutions possible setting the limits within which to find them.

Coaches who act in this way they get from their athletes better results than those who behave differently .

When to start the mental coaching?

To develop and maintain during the season a good set of mental skills, the athletes must train them as they do for the physical skills.  The mental skills training must be integrated into the daily sessions. Mental and physical skills have to proceed in parallel every day. The best moment to start this practice is off-season or early pre-season. For instance, to start the attentional training it’s easy at the beginning when the athletes are more calm and less tired and practice is not yet  very difficult as compared to the following training periods. The worst moments to start is when the athletes have shown problems during their performances and the coaches thinks that they are mind difficulties. At those moment they ask for an intervent of the sport psychologist. Usually this happens because the coaches believe that they have done all that they can do but the athletes look de-motivated, or anxious or distracted and they do not know any other options to training them.   It’s a crisis intervention that the sport psychologis can manage but the coaches and the athletes need to understand that the mental training must be integrated inside their sessions and not only used as a solution for the bad moments.

Special stress of football commanders-in-chief

In football there is a growing generation of coaches commander-in-chief, always protagonists. The controversy between Conte (Juventus coach) and Capello (former Juventus coach and now Russia coach) is one example. The important thing is not to accept the criticism but attack. Coaches today are little Caesars, to the great power received by the clubs and the desire to be protagonists, even when it would not be the case. They play the role of the leader always at war, unsheathe aggression, not controlled anger, they want the center of the scene, Trapattoni, Liedholm and Boškov, with equal charisma, had the irony of which today the coaches lack. I think to always need enemies to recharge yourself  is a very expensive way to live,  role of the coach requires to be perfectionists without necessarily being against the world. In any case communication styles are personal and coach should feel free to express how he feels better.

Coach psychological training

I’ve never organized training courses in the field of sport dedicated to improving the psychological skills of the coaches. Instead it’s  a bit of time I thought about it, because the psychological role played by coaches is of the great importance at all levels, from beginners to top athletes, from personal trainers to children coaches, from team sports to individual ones. Now that the competence profile of the coach cannot longer be based as it was in the past on an industrious “do your best” it’s necessary that technical knowledge is accompanied by a knowledge on how to manage individuals and groups. So here I gladly accepted the idea of the Center for Sport Psychology of Macerata to organize in Roma four days of sport psychology devoted to practical issues having as goal to increase the professional skills of sports coaches.

Each meeting one is organized on a main theme. The first “I coach” will address the issues of interpersonal communication and emotional intelligence. How many problems arise because we do not feel understood, during this day we will talk about this and how to improve ourselves. The second day will focus on “Team”, be able to set team and individual goals, understand why some are joined together while others hate each others, and yet is it true that it is easier to lead a group of boys rather than a group of girls ? Can male coaches understand their female players? These are just some of the questions that this second meeting will provide guidance and practical solutions. The third day is dedicated to the “Training mental aspects” and it will be dealt with the psychological aspects of physical preparation. Are the routines  just a ritual or play a more complex function? Is it correct ask for more attention or is a phrase that means nothing? Is the imagery useful  only during competition or its practice is also useful in training? Can we talk about mental preparation for an exercise or not? The fourth day is instead focused on “Working in the youth program.” We will speak of course of the parents: are they a resource or just a problem? And then if the kids do not think like adults , because do we continue to train them as if they were ? And many other topics , including: which are the characteristics of the coach of the youth activity?

With this brief summary, I wanted to point out that the issues will be addressed by the professional side, because our aim is to provide an opportunity for critic reflection on their skills and an opportunity for professional improvement . These are our goals and what we will ask the participants is to be ready to interact in an active approach so as to make these days really special for all of us.