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50° Anniversary International Journal of Sport Psychology

On the occasion of the

50th anniversary of the International Journal of Sport Psychology – 1970-2020

this first special issue is dedicated to the past development of sport psychology.

Guest Editors: Sidonio Serpa, Fabio Lucidi, Alberto Cei

For the second time in its history, the IJSP decided to mark its anniversary. Two special issues celebrate the 50 years of the journal, this being the first one, in a look at the History of sport psychology, while the second mostly looks into the future, identifying some new trends of research, as well as the reorientation of some classic topics according to the Society changes.

The purpose of the current issue is double. On one hand, to preserve the memory of the path taken by sport psychology so far, as well as paying tribute to those who contributed to its development. On the other hand, by reflecting on the History, to understand better the present situation and, thus, working more efficiently for the future applied and scientific developments.

Who is interested in purchasing can write through the address of this blog.

The long march of the affirmation of Sports psychology at the Olympics

On the occasion of the 50st Anniversary of the International Journal of Sport Psychology and

the publication of next special issue dedicated to the history of sport psychology from the 70′s up today by Sidonio Serpa, Fabio Lucidi and Alberto Cei.

We want to highlight how at the beginning of the 70s, the affirmation of this discipline in the world of absolute sport performance was very limited. To a large extent athletes did not follow psychological preparation programs and psychologists did not attend in the most important events such as the Olympics.

At the end of the Olympic Games in Munich -1972, Ferruccio Antonelli addressed many psychologists asking “to write some short observations under psychological point of view“. Nine sent a short commentary and were published in No. 2, 1972 of the Journal.

The historical value of this initiative by Antonelli and of remembering it today, consists in documenting how the affirmation of the sport psychology applied to high-level sport has been a long and slow process. And it took about 15 years to have at Los Angeles – 1984 Olympic Games a significant number of sports psychologists on the Olympic teams.

In general, the comments denounce the lack of attention to psychology by sports organizations and sports medicine.

J. Cratty (USA), p.99:

“During the Pre-Olympic Scientific Conference, I was questioning daily why there were no psychologists accompanying the American Team. A question which I couldn’t answer, and which proved personally unsettling, particularly, when viewed in the light of subsequent performance and incidences… it is hoped that in future games trained professionals to offer emotional support for athletes will be as common as are the presently available personnel for their physical health.”

J. Ferrer-Hombravella (Spain), p.100:

“Beaucoup d’observations a Munich nous prouvent que les bases de la psychologie du sport sont ignorées par beaucoup de personnes et beaucoup des médecins sportifs inclus.”

H. Rieder (German Fed. Rep.), p.103:

“Sport continues to regard psychology exclusively as a spectacular means of improvising performance without showing any interest in an unconditional and willing cooperation as far as the rather troublesome work of conducting tests and evaluating empirical data is concerned.”

M. Vane (Czechoslovakia), p. 105-106:

We need “Individualization in the care of the competitor (guidance) starting with his education and self-education and ending with intentional psycho-prophylactic, psychoigienic and psycho therapeutic means … it is necessary to point out the development of individualized techniques of cool-up and warm-up directed to an optimization of activation level of the athlete. Th advantage of a cooperation between coach, physician, psychologist and masseur is the evident.”

1970 i the foundation year of the first journal of sport psychology

This year is the 51st year since the International Journal of Sport Psychology (IJSP) was founded in 1970. We will publish two special issues, the first has a look back at the history of sport psychology and second look at the future perspective. Guest editors: Sidonio Serpa, Fabio Lucidi and Alberto Cei.

This journal was the very first dedicated specifically to sport psychology, and it was created almost 10 years before the Journal of Sport Psychology that was published for the first time only in 1979. I have heard many criticisms of the Journal, as it was called by Antonelli, being the editor together with John Salmela from 1988 to 1995. However, few people remember the many difficulties involved in its founding and development, how no publisher was willing to accept the burden of publishing a scientific journal for world-wide diffusion. Only when the Journal finally became well-known and become successful did some of the main publishing firms show interest in purchasing it. Initially the IJSP was supposed to be published in Norway, directed by Alfred Morgan Olsen – Norwegian School of Sport (1969-1992) and  ISSP vice-president – but problems arose with the publisher. In fact, Antonelli in the first issue wrote:

“The Managing Council appointed an Editorial Board (led by Olsen), and I, too, signed a contract with a Norwegian publisher. . .and I received a good number of subscriptions. Because of the problems that Dr Olsen refers to, I have found myself obliged to take on the position of Chief Editor and to find another publisher at all costs and without delay in order to start the journal. A journal that would inform all members … had become a necessity, a duty” (Antonelli, 1970, p. 3–4).

Antonelli found the person who would accept this challenge in his friend, the publisher Luigi Pozzi. Pozzi himself told me that when Antonelli proposed this enterprise just a few words were necessary to persuade him to accept. One can only agree with Salmela (1999), when he states that this was truly a heroic challenge, achieved only thanks to Antonelli’s solitary determination, without financial coverage:

“For $10 a year I am able to offer only two small, unassuming, issues, so there is another matter which I must reveal. When registration to the ISSP was free of charge, I received 1500 applications. When I asked for 10 dollars, not for the ISSP, that sustains no expenses and thus requires no money, but for the subscription, only 10% paid this fee. I have found a very understanding publisher, who has agreed to give up all his profit, and for this I publicly thank him from the bottom of my heart; but printing and mailing expenses are enormous. I will be able to print and send out the first issue with what I have received to date. And I will send it to all 1500 members. If necessary, I will then go ahead at my own expense … this is not an exhibition of crazy heroism … I am sure that when they receive this first issue, many members will pay the subscription fee for the second issue of 1970″ (Antonelli, 1970, p. 4–5).

 

Motor and psychosocial development in children with intellectual disabilities through soccer

Movimento

Rivista di Psicologia e Scienze del Movimento e dello Sport

n.2/3, 2016, 63 pagine

Roma: Edizioni Luigi Pozzi

 

Lo sviluppo motorio e psicosociale in bambini con disabilità intellettive attraverso il calcio

Motor and psychosocial development in children with intellectual disabilities through soccer

 

Alberto Cei*’, Paolo Franceschi^, Michele Rosci^, Daniela Sepio’ e Bruno Ruscello°

*Università San Raffaele, Roma e ASD Calcio Integrato

^AS Roma Calcio

‘ASD Calcio Integrato

°Università di Tor Vergata, Roma

 

Parole chiave: bambini, autismo, calcio, apprendimento, empowerment 

Key words: children, autism, soccer, learning, empowerment

 

 

Abstract 

Calcio Insieme (Soccer Together) is a project promoted by Roma Cares Foundation, non-profit organization linked to the broader context of Social Responsibility and Sustainability of AS ROMA and A.S.D. Accademia di Calcio Integrato, whose objective is the development of education and culture integrated to the values of sport through the soccer.

Soccer is the sport most loved and practiced by girls and boys around the world, but for young people with developmental difficulties are rare, if not absent, the opportunities allowing them to live this sport as an educational and playful experience. Therefore, this applied research project, spread over three years, is aimed at children (6-12 years) with intellectual disabilities and with particular reference to those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Soccer Together project wants to promote the physical activity and soccer teaching for these children, in order to improve the quality of their lives through a continuous sport practice over time. Furthermore, this project wants also to develop a methodology model of teaching, tailored for these children, through this applied research.

Soccer Together began in September 2015 with the collaboration of some schools of Roma. They promoted among families of children with intellectual disabilities the knowledge of this initiative. They organized information meetings lead by the staff of Soccer Together to start building a community whose school, family, sport organization and staff could feel part of a common project at its center there are the children with intellectual disabilities and especially those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since the beginning the project has had as main focus the empowerment of each child through the soccer, as recommended by the International Paralympic Committee.

To better understand the different steps of the experiment carried out by the technical-scientific staff of Soccer Together at the Giulio Onesti Center, in Roma, it’s important to acknowledge what are the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and what are the limits and the motor/psychological potential of children with ASD; the report describes in detail the main features and the research results.

This report begins with an overview of autism spectrum disorders and what are the limits and the motor potential of these children. It emerges that, up to now, the experiences carried out in this area included only individual sports and that no investigation has been conducted to test how the group sports and soccer specifically could be a means of improving the motor/sports skills and the psychological and interpersonal skills. In the section devoted to the method are described the diagnoses of 30 children (27 boys and 3 girls). They  have participated in the project by attending at the training program for an hour twice a week for 5 months. They were divided into two sub-groups (Green and Red) as a function of their motor skills and psycho-relational competences. All children were subjected to the initial and final motor assessment. Similarly it proceeded with the psychological and interpersonal evaluation carried out at the beginning and at the end of the program. This was done through interviews with parents and their school teachers and an assessment carried out on the field for the duration of the period of activities carried out by the football coaches and the sport psychologists. In addition, before the start of the program, the whole staff,  including sport psychologists, youth football instructors, one speech therapist, one sport physician and one coordinator of the relations with families and schools have participated in a specific training, theoretical and practical, learning to be sensitive and to work with young individuals with developmental disorders. The results showed that in relation to motor skills there are significant differences from the initial assessment in relation to 6 tests out of 10. The children improved in tests regarding: walking between the cones, running between the cones, roll on the mat, high jump (3 obstacles 20 / 30cm), grab (5 launches from 1 to 5 meters away from the instructor) and stay balanced on jellyfish.

In relation to run with the ball (to drive the ball into a space 15m long and 4m wide) were detected two results. The first is that, even at the end of the program, 39.3% of children did not show any improvement. The second is of opposite sign and shows that 28.6% is placed in an intermediate skill level. They drive the ball, move frequently left and right even if out of the lane. In addition, 10.7% shows a medium-high skill level, driving the ball without leaving the lane. These data show there is a significant difference from the point of view of the motor competences among the children, while for some the training it’s characterized more as motor activity oriented to the acquisition of basic motor patterns, for others it’s oriented to  teach the soccer fundamentals.

The questionnaire administered at the end of the program to the parents of the children examined the following skills: cooperation, participation in the games, understanding the others and be understood, communicate with each other, socialize, approach the new situations/people and reduction of behavioral problems. For each of these skills, the parents have expressed a final assessment, it showed that they believe their children are improved significantly. It’s also interesting to note that the same questionnaire was administered to school support teachers of children and the resulting data are similar to those experienced by parents. Assessments made on the field by sport psychologists and coaches have shown that most of young people have improved, even if  they achieved very different skill levels, depending on the difficulty level initially expressed. For the future, there are clearly detectable paths of physical activity and sports differentiating the two children groups (Red and Green).

In summary, these data confirm the findings of the research review conducted on people with autism spectrum disorder (Sowa e Meulenbroek, 2012). That is to say, that the motor/sport skills increase with specific program of motor/sports learning. Our study adds that the organization of training sessions in group interventions and individual interventions promote the development of social skills, as in part it has been showed by Walker, Barry and Bader (2010). This pilot study has also responded to the request to organize “a naturalistic intervention based on group sports like soccer” (Sowa and Meulenbroek, 2012; p.56) and, till now it was never been documented. In addition, as already showed (Luiselli 2014), the behavioral problems were reduced, decreasing the stereotyped movements and the self-stimulation behaviors.

Finally, it should be mentioned those results achieved which are not identifiable in scientific terms but that at the same time are important for a project with the aim to reduce the limits of the children with ASD and widen their skills at 360 degrees. The most significant are the following: the first football games played between them and the coaches and two games 4vs4 with players of Roma Academy; the identification process with AS Roma has increased the children socialization and stimulated their pride being a part of Roma team; live this experience with professionals totally dedicated to them and willing to respect the times of socialization and learning while not ceasing to guide them in the activities; for families it has been important to meet each other, sharing these experiences and feeling themselves as an active part of the project.

2° edition of my book “Allenarsi per vincere”

Has been published the 2° edition of my book “Allenarsi per vincere”

This is a book dedicated to the hard worker. It’s a book dedicated to those who want to run the risk of becoming very good, and will not settle for easy success. It’s for those who believe that the exceptional performances comes from the daily commitment  and not from heroic commitment of a day, it’s for anyone who does even when it rains, and the goal is still far away. It’s for those who are engaged in activities not immediately rewarding, because boring and repetitive, knowing they have to do it. It’s not for those who want to be always in the spotlight or be already good.

It’s a book also dedicated to those who, despite not having young or the time to become a top-level athlete, still want to cultivate their passion for sport and training themselves to improve the psychological skills to go from running a minute to one hour, following a program that allowing to know themselves deeper and to develop the mental skills that will enable to live their commitment positively.

This is the book for those who like to work hard in an intelligent and ethical way, for those committed while still knowing that there will be days when they believe they will never reach the goals, knowing that these feelings are part of the play.

 

The Italians inside the sport psychology organizations

Sometimes be Italian sport psychologists is also a source of pride. In these days it’s helding place in Bern the 14th European Congress of Sport Psychology and we can claim to be an important part of the organizations that represent it.

  • Claudio Robazza received the Ema Geron award for his excellent scientific career and he continues as Associate Editor of Psychology of Sport and Exercise
  • Maurizio Bertollo was elected to the new Board of the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC)
  • Cristiana Conti was elected to the ENYSSP Board, the European organization of youth sports psychologists

Fabio Lucidi also a Board member of the World Association of Sport Psychology (ISSP). As far as I’m concerned I left after eight years the position of FEPSAC treasurer  and continuing in my role as editorial manager of the International Journal of Sport Psychology.

With this team and the involvement of the Italian associations, the Academia and the Order of psychologists we can do other important steps forward.

The lords of frauds

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano.