Tag Archive for 'formazione'

Chiellini: the athletes should study

Published on October 26, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

“The study opens the mind, and in Los Angeles, I realized how educational a stay here can be, where study and sports play the same game” (Giorgio Chiellini). Perhaps these statements from a champion will help begin to change the mindset that an athlete cannot dedicate time to studying.

In our country, the situation is serious because there are families who are unaware of the harm it causes their children to attend educational institutions where they study very little and promotion is a certain outcome. It is also true that the public school system often does little to understand the needs of these young individuals involved in sports. The merging of these two mindsets, that of the school and families, leads to the economic success of private schools that offer paid, facilitated pathways.

School should also be about social education, learning to live alongside others leading different lives. Missing this opportunity results in social deprivation and a reduced ability to engage with others while maintaining one’s own perspective.

If young athletes do not attend what I would call qualified schools, who will teach them how to use social media and their smartphones? Perhaps their parents if they are fortunate. Coaches certainly do not have the time to deal with these situations, and even if they did, are they themselves victims of these technologies?

Once again, football has shown us what can happen when these pathways are disrupted. However, the issue is much broader and concerns the ability to recognize and share discomfort, having people around who understand and can guide toward paths of change.

Schools and families should, therefore, be at the center of youth education, but it seems to me that teachers and parents often are not in a position to fulfill this role. So, who can help them?

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Our coaches have training that is not completed.

Published on November 8, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

In my meetings with coaches what emerges clearly is their desire to acquire more psychological skills to relate to their athletes and at the same time the difficulty the knowledge they acquire in training courses. This is because they receive a lot of information, even of high quality, but the difficulty lies in not knowing how to put it into practice. It is a bit like knowing the grammar of a foreign language and then going to that country and starting to speak it. It is very difficult, and the risk is that people, in this coaching, do not make use of this information and rely largely on what they think is the best thing to do.

Unfortunately, there is no alternative to this risk except in the decision of the coach to embark on a personal path of self-development centered on the development of their leadership skills in the context where they operate.

It can be argued that the Federations and The School of Sport do not address this level of training, which in my opinion is essential for the professional development of those who would be truly motivated to go down this path. The risk as always is that these coaches rely on professionals with little experience or so-called motivators who promise a lot in a short time.

It is really a pity that sports organizations do not take care of these trainings that are instead widely used in the promotion of managers and potential young people in companies.

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The training in sport psychology

Published on January 28, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

In Italy in the last 5 years, the number of members of the Order of Psychologists has increased by thousands of professionals, in 2016 were 100,566 and in 2020 became 117,762. In 2011 there were far fewer, 81,757.

At this time, I am busy organizing a master’s program in sport psychology and I am realizing that it is not easy to reach a large number of enrollees. Some colleagues tell me that this is due to competition from other masters, some online, which better meet the needs of young psychologists and consequently have a more limited cost.

This explanation, however, I do not find convincing for the simple fact that in the last 10 years the number of psychologists enrolled in the Order has increased 36,005 units and only in the last 5 years by 17,196; with an increase of about 5,000 new psychologists enrolled in 2020 compared to the previous year. Therefore, there is a large number of psychologists who after finishing their studies should undertake postgraduate training in one in the different fields of psychology.

Sport psychology is often not chosen because it is not clear what career paths this field of work can offer. In our country people often live sport psychology as a choice between two options, to be lucky enough to work with a Champion or to work at the level of youth activities (such as soccer schools), which is considered a job that does not require specific skills.

It is clear that if this is the reading of the labor market, it is useless to engage in a demanding training. As a result, being ill-prepared to deal with complex professional situations for lack of adequate training, job opportunities will concern only simple situations and easily manageable with the skills possessed.

The Master organized by Psicosport aims to fill this gap by providing a qualified training, with university professors and consultants of high profile recognizable by their curriculum, a five-month internship at sports clubs supervised and a program of involvement of psychologists even after the end of the Master.

Those interested in learning more about the topic of new professional orientations in psychology can write to me and I will send them the article I published on this topic in the magazine of the Scuola dello Sport.

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Youth sport and the coach training

Published on March 26, 2018 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Il Seminario offrirà una panoramica delle più recenti ricerche nel campo dell’allenamento dei giovani atleti. In modo particolare verranno illustrati due modelli utilizzati per favorire un maggiore coinvolgimento ed assicurare il massimo impegno dei giovani nelle attività sportive: il Personal Assets Framework (PAF) e il Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP).
Proprio quest’ultimo Modello, che mira allo sviluppo dei tre obiettivi tipici dei programmi per le attività giovanili, ossia Prestazione, Partecipazione e Sviluppo Personale, sarà protagonista del prossimo numero della Rivista della Scuola dello Sport con un approfondito Articolo.
Durante la giornata, si analizzeranno le tre componenti fondamentali di questi Modelli: le caratteristiche delle attività da svolgere, le competenze gli allenatori ed il contesto operativo.

Riguardo la formazione degli allenatori, verrà indicata come utile una prospettiva che metta al centro le relazioni interpersonali come strumento necessario per sostenere una partecipazione a lungo termine da parte degli allievi.

Il Relatore principale del Seminario è il Prof. Jean Cotè della Queen’s University di Kingston (Canada), il quale, per mezzo dello “Sport Psychology PLAYS Research Group”, da lui fondato e finanziato tra gli altri anche dalla English Football Association, svolge costante attività di ricerca sui fattori psicosociali che influenzano la performance e la partecipazione nell’attività sportiva, con particolare attenzione al contesto giovanile.
Il Docente rappresenta sicuramente un punto di riferimento in campo Internazionale per tutti gli studiosi ed i tecnici che si occupano di allenamento giovanile e della formazione degli allenatori.

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Training Courses in Integrated Soccer

Published on April 3, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Teaching sport requires competence and professional responsibility. In particular, teaching team sport like soccer to children with intellectual and social disabilities requires a training that goes beyond that absolutely important obtained through university graduation. For these reasons the ASD Integrated Soccer Academy promotes two free training courses, financed by the Presidency of the Regional Council of Lazio, in collaboration with the Italian Paralympic Committee, the Italian Federation Paralympic Sports of the Relational Intellectual and AS Roma. These training courses aim to teach operators coming from different professional fields to work in integrated soccer programs for children (6-12 years) with intellectual and social disabilities. The training is based on the experience of the AS Roma and AS Integrated Soccer Academy  within the project “Soccer Together”: a model of integration through soccer, for children with intellectual disabilities. The course is divided into a general theoretical part and a practical part. The main teaching tool is the interaction of the participants through working groups and practical situations in class as on the pitch. The use of interactive class situations has the goal to develop a learning group participation. Training days are aimed, moreover, to provide the skills needed to support, help and guide children with disabilities, but also to properly handle any problems. The kick and the ball will be key tools to guide the child in learning sports, develop motor skill and the social and psychological aspects.  At the end of training the participants will have acquired the basic skills to train, manage and evaluate integrated soccer activities for children with intellectual and social disabilities. The course consists of 20 hours of lecture and 4 hours of practical training. The course is open to motor science graduates, psychologists and sport physicians.

For further information please contact:

ASD Accademia Calcio Integrato

e-mail: segreteria@accademiacalciointegrato.org

 

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Online course: Futsal psychological aspects

Published on March 20, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio and Mental coaching. 0 Comments Tags: , .

 Online course presentation

Futsal psychological aspects  

 Emiliano Bernardi

Futsal was born in Uruguay in the 30′s and has rapidly expanded across Latin America and Europe especially in Spain and Italy, where the movement in the last 30 years has grown considerably.

Many of the greatest brazilians football champions began their career as futsal players: Pele, Zico, Socrates, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho to name a few. Even the famous Cantera of Barcelona (the youth academy) habitually uses fields and rules of futsal to train its young athletes, with excellent results.

Futsal is ideal for a child: the reduced field, the short spaces, the speed, make it the fastest and most intense game, perfect for the technical and psychological growth.

The main psychological aspects involved in futsal:

In order to make a professional quality intervention is important to know what are the main psychological aspects that are inherently part of the sport: first of all it is important to emphasize that this is an “open skill” discipline with so many variables and choice, is a high intensity game in which the continuous shooting quickly reduce the mental and physical energies of the players, the reaction time and decision making must be very fast and also the physical contact can be due to impulsive and uncontrolled reactions. Another important aspect to be considered is that the mistake of a player can be letal for the result result.

In a sport where you play in small spaces and with four outfield players, if one of them makes a mistake can put opponents in good condition to shoot a goal.

In futsal it is required a continuous and high level of cohesion, given the limited number of players on excellent cooperation, especially in times of greater competitive stress, so the emotional control of the players must be total.

The psychologist who works in futsal:

The figure of the psychologist is growing very quickly in this sport and many of the top world’s top clubs have this figure in their organization. The steady growth of the youth sector and the widespread expansion of futsal academy in Italy are pushing more and more the demand for experts in sports psychology with experience in this discipline.

The consultant program could be about these topics:

  1.  The coach and his staff, through the use of psychological tools as individual and group interviews, tests and questionnaires as the CBAS (Coaching Behavior Assessment System, Smith, Small and Hunt, 1976) or 5C Program (Harwood and Pain, 2004) or the use of tools such as the Leadership Scale for Sport (Chelladurai, Saleh, 1980).
  2.  Mental training for athletes, through the activation and relaxation techniques such as Jacobson training, pre-performance routine, managing emotions with tools such as L ‘IZOF (Hanin, 1980), the ideomotor training, the imagery , the attention training with tests such as the TAIS (Nideffer, 1976).
  3.  The training and upgrading of managers in the areas of leadership and effective communication.
  4. The youth area in particular the relationship with the parents of young athletes and the role of coach as educator.
  5.  Social projects and integration for people with disabilities both physical and psychological, in risk areas and collaborative projects with schools.

Who does not know this sport may think it’s just like football in  eleven but with a smaller number of players, actually many great coaches use training methods based on Futsal field size when they want to develop athletes in their specific technical skills or training the intensity of play and cohesion of their group.

Just the size of the field, the actual playing time, the number of players on the field makes the sport more similar to other disciplines such as handball or basketball and the kind of daily workout develops technical skills such as to make one of the most exciting sports and pleasant which also attend only as public.

Further information:

http://formazionecontinuainpsicologia.it/corso/gli-aspetti-psicologici-del-calcio-5/

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Italian Football Association open its doors to the sport psychologists

Published on December 22, 2015 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale, Giovani and Young and Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Waiting that the role of sport psychologist is required again among the requested criteria to become in Italy Elite Football School, the youth and school department of the Italian Football Association has nevertheless made a significant step forward in the recognition of this professional. It has decided and informed the football schools that the choice of the psychologist to use in the clubs will take place only among those who attended a master’s degree in sport psychology. Therefore, from next year it will not be enough to be graduated in psychology  but it will need to have a title proving to have this specific training in sport psychology. The recognition of the specificity of this professional field is important because as with the doctor there are specific skills that the psychologists ignore and instead are needed to work with the young children and adolescents and there are clinical or psychotherapeutic skills to be used by the psychologists must be adequate to the sport context in which they will work.

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Coach psychological training

Published on January 9, 2014 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Mental coaching, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

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.

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Training in sport psychology

Published on November 28, 2013 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

I often get emails from young Italian psychologists who want to work in sports, asking what might be the best training  for them. The master in Rome where I was involved in its management is not currently active and I do not know if there will be further editions. There are other master in which I teach but I do not frankly say how good they are because I do not know what is the proposal of training and the time spent by those who directed him in leading this type of training . Even though I do not want to frustrate the expectations of these young gentlemen in not giving them an answer . So here are some pointers .

The sport psychology is a very diverse discipline that may involve interventions in sport performance but also interventions in sport for all and the promotion of the movement as a form of welfare , also applies to all age groups from elementary school children up to senior citizens. In general, the degree in psychology does not know what the psychology of sport , whether it was an athlete at an amateur level or high-level can refer to his direct experience or knows what what the media transmit , but do not have a knowledge of matter.

First activity to be carried out for those interested is to read up not reading popular books but textbooks sports psychology , it is in Italian but absolutely must read in English to know what his colleagues are studying in other countries. Human Kinetics is the leading publishing house to which to refer .

Second activity is to be carried out to study motor learning that is the basis of all forms of learning that it is to learn the basic movements ( walking, running, jumping, throwing ) or specific sports movements . This type of knowledge is not part of the curriculum of psychologists, while it is important to be able to understand how cognitive- emotional aspects involved in the various stages of learning.

The acquisition of this knowledge does not transform into sports psychologists but allows us to understand what this discipline and this matter really interests us or if we were dazzled by the imagination of famous athletes follow and do to some extent their lives.

In essence, read and then read again in order to build a solid theoretical foundation . At this point it is useful observation of coaches to work, if you have this opportunity ; make to understand how they behave and interact with each other and students.

Finally , go to the website of Division 47 of the American Psychological Association will find the groups to which you can subscribe and begin to exchange information and maybe ask where to go for work placements or study in Europe or North America.

These are some tips that I hope will be useful to you .

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Main issue of coaches with their athletes are always the same

Published on November 5, 2013 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

The problems faced by coaches around the world are the same. Another aspect, compared to twenty years ago, the coaches are more competent from psychological point of view; it’s therefore a major challenge for psychologists to be able to represent an added value for them. It is  now the more urgent that psychologists who wish to orient themselves professionally in sports are really qualified. On the other hand no one is going to a cardiologist when he needs an orthopedic surgeon, or a rocket scientist when he needs a civil engineer. The same must be true of the different specialties of psychology, otherwise if all just because are graduates may intervene in any situation without knowing the traits, needs and so on, maybe then it’s good to choose a motivator with a degree in political science to work with a team.

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