Tag Archive for 'Calcio'

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Wanted talents? No, it’s the wrong country

Published on October 2, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

While the world’s major companies leading among them for years a war to have inside the best talents and into Google are dozens thepages by selecting “talent war”,  we live in a nation where those two words evoke little interest.  It’s what showed from a study conducted by Bruno Pellegrino, University of California, and Luigi Zingales, University of Chicago, according to which the Italian entrepreneurs, thankfully not all, prefer to have “yes manager” as collaborators, ready at any moment to please them in their choices at the expense of independent and competent men and women. It confirms the reluctance of the Italian business to the performance culture, combining the ability to take risks and innovate with the need to keep a profit budget and in its place spreads the anti-ethic familism, which selects individuals for co-optation. In this way  it’s left the road allowing the pursuit of success as the highest expression of quality business and it will start that one where favoritisms and patronages become the dominant factors of success. The Italian world of professional football once again is the mirror of this country and of this type of entrepreneurship: many low level foreigner players and a few young Italian talents. In fact, in most of the teams there are few Italian players and only this year have been introduced 84 new players, which further restrict the access to our young talents. The damage that it has been created is very serious. Hindered by the fact the young Italian to play, it spreads the idea that it’s useless to have youth activities, the best players will not find clubs willing to have them in the team, therefore they are obliged to go abroad as is the case of Immobile, Cerci and Verratti. Finally, the clubs spend money unnecessarily for foreign players who are not of value and the teams lose more value because they cannot count on players who want to win and tenacious. There are not explanations allowing to understand this phenome  so destructive for the clubs. Certainly the professionalism of the football managers  is defeated by this approach and the fact that this practice is so widespread evidently not worried indeed it emerges strengthened. Of course there are Italian companies and teams that are based on the culture of performance. Let’s follow them because they are an important piece of the solution of our problems.

(read it on http://www.huffingtonpost.it/../../alberto-cei/)

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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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The perversion of Italian football

Published on September 23, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

In any company that wants to be competitive the selection of personnel is one of the essential elements that the management should design and implement in an accurate and competent way. The selection of the right people to put in the right places is one of the keys to the success of any company. Phil Jackson, coach of 9 NBA championships, has always sustained that the difference between a good team and a great team is the toughness and will to win of each player. This is true for any team in business as in sports. In this approach there is an exception, however, carried out by most of the Italian professional soccer teams. In fact, in these years the players that are chosen by the clubs are often players who are not able to represent in a field added value. They are also foreigners (only 84 new in this new season) reducing the access to young Italian players in the teams. The damage created is very serious. Hindering by the fact the young Italians to play, the young activities become useless because the best will not find teams willing to integrate themselves in the team. Furthermore, clubs spend money unnecessarily for foreign players who are not of value, the team loses further value because cannot rely on players who want to win. There are no logical explanations allowing us to understand this phenomenon so negative for the clubs. I do not know if this will serve to cover financial assets that enable tax evasion. Certainly the professionalism of the managers of football is defeated by this approach and the fact that this practice is so widespread evidently not worried indeed it emerges strengthened.

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Teenager on field: a challenge for the coach

Published on September 22, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Giovani, Stress and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

When coaches train adolescent athletes t they need to use their interpersonal skills efficiently. The communication style more frequently adopted is to “be a friend.” In fact, even when the boys and girls grow up, the true challenge for the coaches is to maintain their role. The coach-friend does not help,the coaches need to apply some rules, useful also for parents, which allow them to have an open communication with the teenagers:

  • Stimulate active participation to facilitate the processes of attention and memory: give examples
  • Understanding the needs of the listeners. The motivation to listen is essential: which messages are more interesting for them
  • Search for the adolescent feedback. There can be no communication without information exchange: the feedback is, therefore, an essential step in this process
  • Create togetherness
  • Follow their own pace. They are used to deal with messages having these characteristics: speed, motion, color, sound, interactivity. Coach messages need to have some of these features otherwise attention and the motivation to listen will decrease
  • Use their jargon
  • Use different channels to communicate (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
  • To be concrete without to overload  of information

At the same time there are attitudes that, in contrast, are able to stop any possibility of communication with the adolescents:

  • The excess of information
  • Giving feedback and negative feedback without pointing the way for change
  • Have an attitude of superiority: “I’m older and I know how things are going”
  • Maintain a physical and psychological distance
  • Have a manipulating and controlling leadership style

Communicating with young people is really a challenge. Often we remain displaced in front of their questions or their silences. They have the ability to move a lot of deep feelings that we must recognized and processed in order to continue to improve in our own role as a coach.

(by Daniela Sepio)

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In the pitch together: coach and psychologist

Published on September 18, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Some football schools have already opened their sporting year while others will open this week. I hope that more and more clubs have welcomed the sport psychologist in their staff, appreciating the added value provided by a skilled professional.

Listening to some of my colleagues I find that often the coaches are the main obstacle to work in a club.  They areworried about losing their central role, but often it happens that even if there is the psychologist, the coaches do not know what to ask and how to be helped.
I have always believed in the integration of various professionals in every sporting and in particular football schools. Here are interwoven so many different aspects, involving the technical, physical and psychological  growth of the young and for this reason, the integration of different professional skills becomes essential.

I asked a football expert with whom I worked for many years, to make a list of things you asked me and those who, with his experience of integrated work with the psychologist may suggest to ask . I publish it to share with psychologists and coaches the point of view of a coach who has learned to use the opportunity given by “teamwork”.
What ask the coach to the sport psychologist

  • How to facilitate understanding
  • How to get more attention
  • How to manage misbehavior
  • How to manage group conflicts
  • How to motivate
  • How to provide adequate models
  • How to deal with inappropriate behaviors / inadequate; comparisons with other teams
  •  How to reinforce / reward adequately
  • What teaching method to use and how to put it into practice
  • How to correct misbehavior without to punish

 

(by Daniela Sepio)

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“The Sun Inside” … football

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

In 2012 was released in theaters, “The sun inside” a movie by Paolo Bianchini from a few known, a good movie, one of those films that do not go to see because bombarded by advertising, but you go to see because someone told you about so well you can not do without it, one of those movies not fueled by large retailers, who lives in the mouth. Especially  “the sun inside” is a must-see film for those who want a different kind of football history, a story of baby footballers too often forgotten. The film between the various issues addressed also speaks of trafficking of young African footballers.
The director Paolo Bianchini thus speaks in an interview (Azzolini for fantagazzetta.com): “for Eto’o, there are twenty thousand African children taken from villages and brought to Europe, the alleged international prosecutors charged a small fee for families, and bring with them the boys, thirteen, not more. If you auditioned these guys are bad, most of them do not know anything. They are simply abandoned, perhaps to a gas pump, as it happens to the protagonist of the film. ”

It ‘a plague which mainly France, but from which Italy is absolutely free, Bianchini says, “because it is true that the law is clear (before the age of an African boy can be transferred in a sports club of the European only accompanied by his family, at the expense of society, ed.), but FIFA can not monitor all the individual displacements, which are thousands. Also because often these auditions take place for smaller companies, or amateur. If they go bad, these so-called agents, which are actually smugglers of football, you do not create problems to leave these guys in the middle of a road. ”
The sun inside is a story about football, friendship and solidarity. The story of Thabo, an immigrant originally from a small African village and Rocco, fourteen of Bari. Their story intersects and is the setting for a true story, that of two Guinean boys, Yaguine and Fodè, they write a letter addressed to “large “in the European Parliament. The letter speaks of the troubled African continent, children’s rights are denied, the desire for redemption and civil progress expressed by the younger generation. It is 1999, the two go to the airport and are caught by hidden compartment in the undercarriage of a plane: destination, Brussels, with the intention to deliver their letter directly into the hands of the representatives of Europe. When the plane lands in Brussels, a technician discovers embraced the bodies frozen to death Yaguine and Fodè, next to the letter addressed “To their Excellencies.”
It is a film that anyone who is in football should watch, a movie that makes you think, that does enjoy another side of football and especially a film that should be seen by many “pseudo-attorneys” that more and more often and more quickly turn around to small players.

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In the field with youngest soccer players

Published on September 3, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

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)

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Italy without sense of belonging: 3 sports, 3 stories

Published on September 1, 2014 in Calcio, Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Today I read three news coming from different sports, they seem to have a common denominator, reflecting the shortage in our country of the sense of belonging.

  1.  The first concerns Alessio Cerci, young football player of Torino going to play with Atletico Madrid, champion of Spain. So another young Italian footballer leaves our country (as Verratti, Immobile, Balotelli and others) without that some clubs has done everything is possible to keep him. Certainly he will be very satisfied, like the others, for the chance to play in one of the European strongest team and for the salary but I remain convinced that a country that wants to be successful should retain talent rather than let them go. We can say that our clubs habe not done the war to have the best.
  2. The second concerns the Italian volleyball team that lost in the opening match of the world championship 3-1 against Iran. Italy has appeared unmotivated and not very aggressive, this led to a percentage of embarrassing mistakes. Iran has shown the opposite attitude and deserved the victory. You can win or lose a game, but after months of work you cannot begin an important match with the attitude of one who is destined to suffer. Italians thought of winning easily? I do not think, they had already lost against Iran. In the field they have not had a leader capable of keeping the team united and aggressive, making them feel the importance of  the that match. Attitudes should be obvious by now; the players should know very well how to deal with these negative moments and stimulating each other a sense of belonging.
  3. The third concerns Daniele Meucci, winner of the marathon to the last European Championship. To continue to study, gave 60 engineering exams in five years, and runs 180km a week. At university, he never said it was in the national team, because they probably would not understand, and he runs out in the morning at 6 am and then again in the evening up to 20, with the caretaker of the camp that complains to him because he would like to close the track before the scheduled time. Another example of how Italy does not help the sport, there is no sense of community with athletes and it’s not stimulated even in this case, the sense of belonging. And rightly Meucci says, “I’ll do the engineer: athletics goes, life remains.”

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The mental skills of the soccer teams

Published on August 30, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Today begins the Italian football championship. The  Napoli exclusion from Champions League immediately put in evidence the importance of the psychological capacities in determining the supremacy on the field as well as the final result. Among the main features to look for in the game to know if a team is a match positively oriented are:

  • Tactical Intelligence: do the right thing at the right time
  • Combat: do not allow to the opponents to be comfortable when they play with us
  • Toughnes: try harder and persist longer under adversity
  • Responsibility: accepting the role and instructions provided by the coach
  • Sense of belonging: feeling an active player of the team, collaborate and support the teammates at all times
We’ll see during the season which teams will show more of these psychological skills.

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Napoli has melted in Spain

Published on August 28, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

At the first big match of the new season Napoli has been eliminated from the Champions League. This was due, according to the newspapers in a “careless defensive line,” “a harmless launch from the sidelines, Albiol has not understood with Rafael, the two have made ​​surprise by Aduriz who burned them on time and he easily slipped the door was unguarded “,” the defense gives the score.” Regardless of the technical value of individual players and the team as a whole, these comments highlight the lack of psychological value of Napoli. Benitez has not build a  fighting and determined team. The attentional errors did by Napoli have been made regardless of the technical value of the single player and I am convinced that aggression is an indispensable and trainable team quality if you want to compete at a high level in Europe. Little attention is given to the search for players who possess this mental dimension in favor of the search for even the most technically gifted players in the field but that will melt like snow  at the sun. This parameter is too often forgotten and so, while in Europe the teams run and fight, we continue to complain.

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