Tag Archive for 'comunicazione'

How to improve the relationship with the athlete?

Often, coaches ask how they could improve their relationship with the athletes they coach.

My first response is always to advise them to listen to them and talk to them more. Some understand while saying they don’t have the time. I reiterate that it is better to stop the activity 10 minutes earlier to talk to them than to coach technique for 10 minutes longer.

Athletes like any other human need to share thoughts and emotions. It is not enough just to do, you also need to learn that you need to give words to what you have done in training and competition. It is not enough just to do, you also need to be able to explain it and let others know through a process of observing and evaluating yourself. Is this not part of training? Or should training mean just doing drills, like a robot doing without knowing the meaning of what it is doing and, therefore, cannot understand the meaning for itself.

Easier and less demanding for the coach is to administer exercises with the hope that what he teaches will come true, just as a doctor administers medicine to a patient.

The coach should get out of this ambiguity of wanting to lead with only a directive approach and lacking interest in building autonomy and developing the young decision-making skills.

You’re a believable coach if …

Coaches, in the relationship with athletes, base their credibility on psychological dimensions where interpersonal communication plays a vital role and concern:

Stable aspects of the character – it refers to dimensions such as honesty and to show direct and clear communication with athletes without manipulating them. They are people proud to be part of that team.

Competence – They are individual professionally competent, geared to continuous improvement and innovators. They accept their limits and mistakes. They know that admit them is an index of strength and not weakness.

Commitment – these coaches  are heavily engaged in carrying out their activities. They possess and convey a positive vision of their team, and are intensely committed to achieving their goals. Sport and training inspire them and in these areas put their enthusiasm. They have a lot of energy; they are convinced and tenacious.

Caring – They are genuinely interested in their athletes, as individuals and as a group. To learn about them spending time with them and showing interest in the present as well as the future.

Consistency – They are individuals who act mostly consistent realizing their training philosophy, while adapting their behavior to the demands of the environment and unexpected situations. To this end they control their emotions so as to convey confidence to athletes. Are consistent in enforcing the rules and behavioral standards to which the team must adapt. Therefore, acting in an organized manner and highly responsible work.

Confident builder – They stimulate the confidence of their athletes. Try to speak at their best but they are also patients in helping them to develop and improve.

Being good communicators – The believable coaches are good communicators. Open, honest and straightforward when speaking to the individuals and the team. Continuously remind the athletes what they must do to be winners. These coaches require maximum involvement and take into account the information received from the athletes. They really listen and it is precisely for this reason they are aware of problems and conflicts, actively seeking to solve before they can further worsen.

(by Alberto Cei, revised from Janssen and Dale, 2002)

Mourinho winning mind

Lead the men - “Football for me is a human science, above all else.”

The coach is a global leader - “A coach has to be everything: a tactical, motivator, leader, methodologist, psychologist.” “A teacher at the university told me ‘a coach who knows only football is not a top level. Every coach knows football, the difference lies in other areas. He was a teacher of philosophy. I got the message.”

Football is global - “I do not do physical work. I defend the globalization of work. I do not know where it starts the physical part and end the psychological and tactical side.”

Customize communication – Adapting communication to each individual it is the most difficult task of a coach and he has to know how to challenge the players’ emotions.

Know the men - “There are many ways to become a great manager … but above all I think the hardest thing is to lead men with different cultures, minds and quality.” At Inter conceded a holiday to Wesley Sneijder who was exhausted. “All the other coaches have spoken only of training,” said Sneijder. “He sent me to the beach. So I went to Ibiza for three days. When I came back, I was willing to kill and die for him.”

Men are chosen - He believes in a 24-team players because this shows that every one of them has been chosen and will play a significant role for the team even if they are not famous.

Stimulate the players to understand -He stresses the tactical work, the coach is not a ‘transmitter’ and the team is not a ‘receiver’. He uses the method of ‘guided discovery’; the players reveal how to play based on the information they receive, from practical situations that will lead them on a certain path. ”

Constant focus on the mind - He is focused on the emotional , cognitive and interpersonal players’ dimensions. In this way the players, instead to follow the instructions as the pupils at school, develop the play ideas led by this mental approach to the game.

Teamwork and collective awareness - “I work with the players on a daily basis and I know those who are committed to the maximum are able to do well, while those that are not working properly are not able to play well. You play as you work, and I can say it straight to each player.

Working with intensity - Short training sessions and the presence of the ball encourage players to work at their maximum level of motivation and energy. He constantly pay attention to the mistakes and provoking the players if they make mistakes repeatedly.

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

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)

Teenager on field: a challenge for the coach

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)

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)

Twitto o non twitto questo è il problema

Il caso dello sfogo di Cisse, calciatore della Lazio, su twitter mette in evidenza come la facilità di accesso alla diffusione al pubblico dei propri pensieri sia certamente un veicolo eccezionale di comunicazione ma nel contempo pone il problema di essere capaci di non farsi trascinare dalle emozioni nell’utilizzo di un linguaggio e di espressioni di cui in seguito ci si può pentire.

http://bocca.blogautore.repubblica.it/2011/12/02/possesso-palla/