Tag Archive for 'bambini'

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The origine of the sport ignorance

Published on January 6, 2015 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis, Tiro a volo and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

We analyze together some data that we have on the reading frequency in Italy, the mental development of children, and try to understand if it could affect their eventual sporting career.

1.

  • In Italy in 2012, over 26 million people from 6 years and more have read at least one book, for reasons that are not strictly educational or professional. Compared to 2011, the share of book readers remains stable (46%).
  • Women read more than men: in the year one book has been read by 51.9% of the female population compared to 39.7% of men. The difference in behavior between the sexes begins to manifest itself as early as the 11 years and tends to decrease after 75.
  • Having parents who read encourage to read: 77.4% of boys aged 6 to 14 years with both parents readers, compared with 39.7% of those whose parents do not read.
  • In Italy, even those who read, read little: 46% of readers read more than three books in 12 months, while the “strong readers”, with 12 or more books read at the same time, are only 14, 5% of the total.
  • One family of ten (10.2%) do not have any books at home, 63.6% have a maximum of 100.

2.

  • The Nobel Prize for Economics James Heckman has shown that children of unemployed in kindergarten possessed a vocabulary of 500 words, those of parents of low-skilled 700 words, while the sons of the graduates came to 1100 words. Unfortunately these differences persist even in later allowing to predict well in advance the career, income, family stability and health condition. Therefore it need educational investments such as to develop the cognitive and social skills in children from 0 to 5 years, and also in later life.
  • Novak Diokovic  wrote in his book: “Jelena made me listen to classical music and read poetry to calm down and learn to concentrate (Pushkin was his favorite poet). My parents, however, spurred me to learn languages, so I learned the ‘English, German and Italian. the tennis lessons and life lessons were one, and every day I could not wait to take the field with Jelena and learn more and more on sports, on myself and on world. “(p.5)

It is not hard to understand from these data and evidences what it should be done to educate young people and that sport would benefit from an education centered on the development of reading. I am convinced that the absence of sport culture found in many countries derives precisely from this kind of ignorance and of which many young people are paying for, ruining their lives well before adulthood.

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Be critic: it’s to easy destroy, it’s difficult to build

Published on December 23, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Giovani, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The past week I met  the various faces of youth football: coaches, managers and parents.

What I often notice is  the desire of each of these categories to act out of their responsibilities, preferring to misrepresent the other roles, avoiding reflection on themselves and on their ability to change.

Parents, coaches and managers are blaming each other in a game with no winners.
I am very impressed that most of the talks turn into destructive criticism most often taken to hide the responsibilities, rather than to suggest healthy changes.
Constructive critic is a complex skill that includes empathy, communication skills, willingness to listen, managing their emotions and motivation to change. They are skills needed in sports and education to: express thoughts and ideas, identify the feelings, define and respect the individual and other limits, communicate and listen.

The role of educators toward the children implies the ability to assess and  intervene on the mistakes made by others but also, and above all, to be able to highlight and corrects their own mistakes.
Constructive criticism, properly used, is used to improve performance, relationships, and, in general, the sense of efficacy of the various actors in the field for the education of children.
Make constructive critic means to  understand the reality  starting from own knowledge, listening carefully people and facts, accepting contradictory, trying to reach an assessment oriented to the good of the child. One of the deeper reasons for the conflict is not being able to make or accept critics. It is important to learn that our values and our personal opinions are not in danger when they are disputed but rather often reinforce.

How can we recognize a destructive criticism by a constructive critic?

The destructive criticism:

  • It is addressed to the person, which is labeled negatively
  • It is inaccurate
  • Aims to blame the person
  • Tends to close the dialog

The constructive critic:

  • It’s addressed to the performance or behavior of the person.
  • It’s given the opportunity to understand what are the behaviors to change
  • It’s specific and provides tips
  • It’s oriented to improve the performance and  behavior
  • Maintains open dialogue and conveys confidence

“We should make a long conscience examination before thinking to criticize others” (Molière)

(by Daniela Sepio)

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Pygmalion Effect: the bias damage & trust benefits

Published on November 10, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Giovani, Tennis, Tiro a volo and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

A lot of coaches have children a little bit slower to learn than the others, perhaps less dynamics and less coordinated. How they are treated by the coach and teammates? He is given them the same opportunities of the others?
In psychology  have been carried out studies on what it’s called the “Pygmalion Effect” resulting from the reserches about the self-fulfilling prophecy. The underlying assumption of these studies is easily applicable to the field of sport learning: if the coach believes that a child is not able as the others, even unknowingly, he may be will coach him differently from the others; the child internalize the judgment and act accordingly; consequently establishing a vicious circle in which the child will tend over time to become just like her coach had imagined. In practical terms, we can say that often the lack of confidence in the ability of the children learning blocks the learning itself and pushes the children to satisfy their coach getting exactly what she expects, the prophecy comes true.

We can imagine the kind of result that this coach attitude may have on the children development.
Children motor development, but also their psychological development is constantly changing and a moment of stasis may be followed by others of fast change. The Pygmalion Effect when linked to a negative judgment binds the children progresses to the judgment of their teachers. This behavior is attributed to the fact that the children act the behavior elicited by the adult expectations: therefore low expectations solicitate low learning results.

If you accept the notion that acoach will face a clear idea of the athletes according to this pre-judgment, it’s easy to understand the relevance of the prophecies and positive expectations about the success of the children within their learning process. Coaches having positive expectations of their students can, in turn, create a  warmer socio-emotional climate around them, provide more feedback about the quality of their sessions, they seem to give more information and expect better results in addition to giving more opportunities for questions and answers. According to the Rosenthal’s observations, the teachers who believe they have good students in front of them smile more often, they make approval movements with the head, stopping over them looking longer in the eyes, they speak with a positive body language. They are more likely to praise and correct errors without taking a critical stance. “In essence, a professor who believes he has to do with gifted students teaches more and better” (Rosenthal, 1976).

Understanding the Pygmalion Effect in its negative and positive aspects allows us to understand the importance of the dynamic effect of trust in the development of the children full potential. Trust is a very important part in our lives, it’s a means by which we can enrich our lives and the lives of others. The lack of confidence, to the contrary, produces frustration and paralysis.

Trust is able to open up a world of endless possibilities.

(by Daniela Sepio)

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Should I coach my son?

Published on October 21, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

More and more often I am asked how to handle the difficult situation in which you find yourself being the coach of your son.
In professional football is hardly ever done, although over the years we can find some football stars like by  Cesare Maldini who coached is son Paolo or De Rossi father who coached his son in Rome youth team. In the world of the football school (5-12 years old) by choice or not, it happens that often  fathers coach their sons. Sometimes they are driven by an inevitable logistic choice and sometimes this choice is not just random. I would not demonize the situation, but I invite the fathers to think about this situation:  ”Why am I to coach my son? Is it really a coincidence or in my thoughts there was a desire to make sure that he is followed in the right way. Do I want to have the control of  him at home and outside? Do I believe that there are not others? Noboby will be able to train him as well as I am able.

I know it can happen and that it is a conscious choice or not I think is important to do some basic steps.
The first step is to reflect on the necessity of choice: is it really so inevitable? Once you have decided to go ahead it is important to have the ability to look inside and figure out which of these categories you belong inevitable:

  • Avoidance: to avoid incurring the criticism of nepotism that inevitably affecting their child label of “recommended”. You treat him worse than all the others: the fault is often its less encouragement (maybe then I’ll tell at home) and less attention.
  • Too demanding: demanding-father risks to challenge too much his son, never being satisfied with what this child does.
  • Feel-good: let go and end up justifying behavior becoming permissive at regards of those behaviors and habits that are wrongs.

Each coach-dad is unlikely to reach the right position within his dual role, but he should work to stay as close as possible to the ideal situation in which his child is a member of the team like everyone else, he will have qualities to improve, mistakes to correct and many things to learn as his teammates. It will be visible the potential to express but also the limits to overcome or inevitably to accept.

Finally I leave all the dads in search of the Champion, who does not ask if the real desire of their child is staying on a football field, with an invitation to reflect on a passage of the famous biography by Andre Agassi:
“I have seven years old and I’m talking to myself because I’m afraid and because I am the only one who listen to me. Whisper softly: Forget it, Andre, surrender. Laying the racket and exit immediately from this field. Would not it be wonderful, Andre? Just let it go? Do not play tennis again? But I cannot. Not only my father run behind me throughout the house brandishing my racket, but something in my gut, a deep  invisible muscle prevents me. I hate tennis, I hate it with all my heart, and yet I continue to play, I continue to dribble all morning, all afternoon, because I have no choice.“

(by Daniela Sepio)

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Review book: The movement for the children

Published on October 20, 2014 in Generale, Giovani, Libri and Mental coaching. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Attività Motoria-Cognitiva nella Scuola Primaria

Carmelo Pittera

2014, p. 127

Euro Centro Studi “Gabbiano d’Argento”

I knew Carmelo Pittera more than 30 years ago, I was very young and he had already reached the 2° place in the Volley World Champioship as a coach of the Italian team. In the following years we became experts in the children movement working on his insight. Carmelo has continued to work in this direction and he is published a new program for children called SELL. In these years he started to apply this model in the North of Italy (Gorizia), in Slovenia and in Argentina.  I believe that it’s a new approach well based from the theoratical side, it’s innovative and every teacher in school can easily use. I will come back on this project in the next future but for the moment I want to introduce to you, helping you share my same enthusiasm.

What it follow is the presentation by Carmelo Pittera.

My interest toward Minivolley begins at the end of the ’70, when I met the person that we can define as the inventor of Minivolley, Professor Horst Baacke, who introduced in Eastern Germany an early form of volleyball for groups of children aged ten to twelve years.

From a cultural and educational perspective, I was skeptical about the various aspects of early specialization in sports games, mainly because of the definition of Minisport. I was convinced, however, that in children from eight to ten yearsold , the physical education should be considered an asset to the service of the integral development of the children It is really important that the education at the movement help them to a global growth.
Thus it was born the first draft of “Motor Sillabarius”, which represented  the starting point of the SELL system (Signal, Reading, Execution, Lateralization). At the Motor Syllabarius was followed by the publication of “The alphabet of movement,” which picked up the results obtained in research on  ”analogic- expressive phase” of the movement education. Published in four volumes, the pedagogical section was written by experts in primary education and psychologists.

The SELL is an educational system that has the purpose of teaching, structuring and implementation of neural circuits that affect, starting from the motor area, the cognitive dimensio. It develops in children, not only the opportunity to interact with others (socialization), but also the chance to do better things with others (cooperation). It can be defined as:

  • Intuitive activitiy , induced by  the Observer, through four mediators: activities (direct experience), iconic (drawings), analogical (dramatization) and symbolic (colors and numbers and more, to represent the variables and their relationships);
  • A path through which the Observer builds learning environments in which the children are brought to question rather than waiting canned responses.
  • A uniform language, the same for all, which does not require specific words, easily accessible as it adapted to the children’s cognitive and motor potential.

SELL (Signal, Reading, Execution, Lateralization) is structured in four parts:

The Expressive Analogical System  is a theoretical-practical path for the activation of the circuits of motor learning and cognitive development from children of 4 years old. It’s composed of various educational track  by using the environmental opportunities or the body combined with the wall and the ground, or building games with figures and symbols with a stick combining them with their own body and that of the teammates; or analogies with the animal world, combined with natural colors and their body; or games with simple teaching material (balloons, cards and so on).

The optical and acoustic Symbolic Analogical System for the improvement of basic motor patterns from 8 to 12 yearsold : run, jump, throw, catch. The actions are related to the lateralization and performance oculus-manual and oculus-breech, equilibrium, systems of  acceleration and deceleration of the gravity center as well as the distinct body segments. All this is achieved through symbols, simple elements and specific groups are created in a special way by the system SELL.

The lateralization System, with and without the group. This system was created to facilitate the harmonious development of the growing child’s motor and performance relating to “degrees of freedom”, with particular attention to the problems of the non-dominant body side.
The support system in the development of analogical Expressive, analogical optical and acoustic Symbolic of paper materials and computer equipment to facilitate the learning in the classroom and at home.

The materials consist of:

  • The light and the puppet play.
  • The directional eyes, hypothetical or actually represented on the shirt or on the tip of the shoes.
  • The mental visualization: the mind’s eye.
  • The activity oculus – manual / breech developed with the use of conventional elements (balls, rubber bands and so on) or non-conventional (newspapers, empty bottles and other).

The game of lights and puppets, directional eyes  and mental visualization must be known and internalized by children before beginning the teaching units. Traffic lights and the “game of the puppet.”

During our on field lessons, we have verified that the imitation of children is often inaccurate. With researchers of SELL System  we have tried to solve this problem, looking for solutions suited to the children characteristics.
After several attempts, we arrived at the “Game of the traffic lights.” The choice of this symbol was adopted after being tested that all knew it. We have identified the symbol of traffic lights along with the image of ‘”Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo da Vinci, that we modify using the three light colors, with the aim of relating the different parts of the human body with these colors.
The symbols used, in addition to increasing the attentional focus, has a considerable influence in the development of imagination and, consequently, in the creativity of forms. It allows children to improve the knowledge of the structure of their body, and the teacher, together with the children, to develop new kind of play, improving the stabilization of teaching content.

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Sport parent education

Published on October 9, 2014 in Calcio, Giovani, Tennis and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The National Alliance for Youth Sports proposes a standard for parent education by providing a video-based educational program which offers a simple, effective way to make youth sports parents aware of their roles and responsibilities as well as ways they can make their child’s experience more enjoyable and positive.

 

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Sport: reward or punishment?

Published on September 29, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The school is started and many parents worried about school performances often cut sport. Football is one of them. Workouts jumping and sport abandoned if the scool results are bad. Physical activity is considered a premium and therefore is used as punishment.

The latin sentence “Mens sana in corpore sano” contains a deep truth that becomes even more realistic if associated with childhood and adolescence. Accustom your child to an adequate management of the school and the sport times is the winning educational strategy that focuses on the sense of responsibility, stimulating the organizational skills of the young. The desire to be on time for the training stimulates to organize, to pull out the management skills. It’s important for parents to learn how to use the wishes of children and young people as a stimulus and not as a source of punishment, this in order to achieve stable results not associated with the  punitive moment.
The World Health Organization too in the “Global Recommendations on Physical Activity” defines for each age group the quantity of physical activity recommended. Between 5 and 17 years is recommended that: “at least 60 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous activity, including at least 3 times a week strength exercises that may consist of movement games or sports activities.”
This interest in physical activity during childhood and adolescence confirms the importance of sport for the physical and psychological growth of the new generations. The first step is to stop to consider sport as a whim of the children, to be used as a reward or punishment, but a key aspect to be integrated in the educational development of the young.

(by Daniela Sepio)

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Sport learns from sport

Published on August 25, 2014 in Calcio, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

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)

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Why I can’t play football?

Published on August 11, 2014 in Calcio, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

As a sport psychologist I often met parents of young players to give them the tools so that they can effectively support their children in sport. Just one of these meetings, and I unexpectedly received a letter from a mom. I public it gladly because it may be nurture the thought of those who live the youth football.
“The first time the doctor told me it will be a male.I immediately thought: play as all children in football and will be a super player. Think about how many goals will! Unfortunately fate did not want this. My son never play football and he will never walk. I did not deny that the discovery of illness of my son fell upon the world, but then move on.
You’ll wonder what all this has to do with today!
I am writing to let you know that maybe it does not matter if your child does not have the number 10, unless he play in every game. All this will surely give you hassle because you will say:

  • I paid and then I right that my son gaming
  • Always play the same
  • My son is no less good than others.

Have you ever placed a question? My son what think about all this? And if I do not intrude on his sport? Maybe he is so happy to be with friends and have fun.
I speak out of everything, because I’ll never have these problems. But just because they are outside of these issues, I can assure you that no matter to show the whole world that your son is the number one. It’s important to see that they are happy and serene, and if he missed a penalty, if they’re on the bench, if he does not play 100% don’t defend them. It’s up to you to make them feel the number one, in any situation. My number one will never be able to kick a ball.
Let them free to play then that will be the number one.
Think back to when my son comes home from school crying and says,
“Mom, I also want to play football. Why I can’t?”

 (by Daniela Sepio)

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Building the resilience

Published on July 21, 2014 in Giovani, Mental coaching and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Ask how” questions rather than “why”. If your child throws their toy train when they are frustrated and it breaks, rather than ask why, ask how he could have responded differently or how can he can help to fix the train. Your child now becomes part of the solution and not the problem.

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