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Concepts to teach young athletes

4 key points to teach young athletes:

  1. “Winning is not the only thing that matters”
    The idea here is that sports offer much more than just winning. Athletes who participate solely to win risk overlooking other important aspects, such as personal improvement, inner growth, discipline, the ability to overcome challenges, and teamwork. If the focus is only on victory, the pressure can become overwhelming, leading some athletes to give up when they don’t achieve immediate results. Sports should be seen as an opportunity to learn, have fun, and grow, not just a race to win trophies.
  2. “Failing is not the same as losing”
    Failure is often seen as a setback, but it’s actually a natural part of an athlete’s journey. Losing a game or match does not mean failing as a person or athlete. True failure occurs when you stop trying or give up on your goals. Defeats teach valuable lessons: they help you analyze what can be improved and build resilience. It’s important for athletes not to identify themselves with the results of competitions but to see failure as an opportunity for learning and growth.
  3. “Being successful is not synonymous with winning”
    This idea makes a clear distinction between “success” and “victory.” Victory is only about the outcome of a competition, but it doesn’t consider the entire process an athlete undergoes to reach that point. True success lies in the journey: the daily work, the commitment to training, the ability to constantly improve, and overcoming challenges. Even if the final result is a loss, if the athlete has given their best and made progress, they’ve still succeeded. This approach promotes a more holistic view of sports, where the journey is more important than the destination.
  4. “Success is tied to commitment”
    This idea emphasizes that success, in its truest sense, comes mainly from consistent effort. It’s not just about winning, but about testing yourself every day, improving, and giving your best in every situation. Even if the athlete doesn’t achieve the desired result, they haven’t failed as long as they’ve given their all. This mindset leads to greater personal satisfaction and resilience because it’s based on what you can control (effort) rather than external factors (like the outcome of a competition).

In summary, these ideas promote an approach to sports that focuses more on personal growth, effort, and the learning process rather than simply on winning.

Engaging in self-development

You cannot become a responsible, autonomous adult or a winning athlete if you always have to obey someone, even if it is your boss or your best coach.

Those who live this way become dependent on the choices of others, who tell them how to do it. It is a cage one has put oneself in, and although comfortable because one can always blame others for one’s mistakes, it limits personal development.

One must strive, study, work or compete, for oneself/and not to fulfill the ambitions of others. One must learn to apologize only when one does not give 100% effort and not for the mistakes one makes.

We need to learn that anxiety is a demonstration of the importance we give to what we are going to do, so we use this energy to do our best and not to scare ourselves. Let’s use the breath to reduce tension and recover, let’s shift the energy into always encouraging ourselves, let’s put an idea in our heads and go for it.

We will not always get the best result, as so many factors can interfere along this path but we will always have acted to our best, which is all that matters.

Any athlete would like to win every race, but it is not possible. We have to be patient with ourselves and give ourselves time to learn from mistakes and defeats, because they show us the way to improve.

The commitment

Commitment: Individual willingness to make sacrifices in other areas of one’s life in order to succeed in sports.

  • Assess your level of involvement in achieving your sports goals.
  • Think about what you have done in the past year to improve in sports and how committed you have been to achieving these goals. The changes to consider may involve technical, physical, and psychological aspects. Make a ranking from the most significant to the least significant, identifying the results achieved for each.
  • If you feel little/moderately involved in what you do, ask yourself why you are in this situation: identify what you have done yourself to put yourself in this situation and what you want to do differently to increase your motivation.
  • Think about how you reacted to criticism from your coach or to a mistake. Has your commitment remained constant or even greater, or have you become depressed or more aggressive?
  • Think about the moments when you faced difficulties, what did you tell yourself and what did you do to keep your motivation high? Remember these attitudes because they are extremely important assets for you to use in difficult situations to sustain your commitment and desire for success.

Today thought is commitment

Commitment is today an important thought to place at the centre of our daily lives.

Commitment is for the athletes and their staff who train in a period that was usually full of competitions, while today this happens only for some sports. Commitment is also feeling that your body does not respond to our stimulations as it did, because we have not trained or only partially trained.

Commitment is to keep our motivation and enthusiasm high even if we do not know what will happen in the coming months. Never as now it’s necessary to accept the present we live in, live it intensely without the certainties of the past and the precise planning of the future.

Commitment is also required in living everyday life in a responsible way, our habits or carelessness can change not only our lives but also those of other people. We prevent with our actions the spread of the virus, so we must be careful and think that the enemy even if it is not visible is still present.

Never give up in face of the evidence

The world is full of examples that should serve to convince us that in any situation it is possible to find a solution to solve a problem or get out of a difficulty. How is it then that many people do not look for these solutions? They think instead that there are no solutions and that the examples given do not concern them but are more related to luck and chance or to the particular qualities of a person who, because of his individual characteristics, has found a solution that only he was able to implement. This is the interpretation often used to describe how a champion of sport came out of a situation judged impossible by others. The exceptional character of his/her condition, the talent, serves as justification for all those who think that, not being champions, they could never get out of that problem.

In my opinion, the problem refers to the way of thinking used by an individual. When something goes wrong, for example a bad grade at school, a badly lost race or an argument at work, what is my reaction? Do I think it is someone’s fault? Do I think I wasn’t able to do the job? Was I unlucky?

It’s important to know your own way of assessing performance.

We know that pessimists and when we are depressed, we tend to think in this way, which has the effect of devaluing personal skills and reduces the possibility of committing to finding solutions. Optimism characterised by a superficial approach to difficulties is also harmful and of little help. Thinking about succeeding is not in itself a help to the solution.

Instead, the optimism that goes hand in hand with commitment and an awareness of the difficulty of what you are about to face must be constantly trained and pursued. Only by combining these three aspects, maximum commitment, awareness of the difficulty and optimism, will it be possible to find the appropriate solution to our problem.

The training keys: commitment and persistence

In training intensity and persistence are the two aspects that most frequently determine the athletes’ mistakes. Many are satisfied to train good enough, without being aware that it is precisely this way of thinking is slowing down their improvement.

The performance quality cannot be manifested with a good enough commitment, this seems to me an aspect that young athletes often do not consider as decisive for their improvement. At the same time, coaches can also fall into this trap, when they do not consider commitment at the first place in their teaching strategies, because too focused on correcting the sport technique.

Robert Singer wrote that at the end every performance is determined by three factors, of which the last two are much less considered than the first:

  1. personal potential
  2. sincere commitment to practise, condition and improve oneself
  3. ability to do well under competitive stress

The latter two are in fact often explained in terms of natural skills or instinct and in this way they are less trained than the other skills. On the contrary, the experience of top athletes, by their own affirmation, has taught us that it takes years of intense and continuous dedication to achieve remarkable results.
The mantra of these top athletes is “try and try again”.

This does not happen because today’s young people are lazy! It happens because we think it’s just a matter of technical training and physical preparation and time. While the lack of improvement is interpreted in terms of a block that will go away at the first success, of parents putting pressure or lack of confidence.

It is infrequent to think that young athletes may be wrong because they do the exercises in training with the same mentality with which they do (or used to do) their homework. For them it is enough to do the exercise and they do not bother to prepare themselves to do it not only well but in the best way they are able. They just do it. For them this means being concentrated. By this I mean that they are not aware of how they have to prepare to do the best they can and they do not know what mental and motor skills they have to put in place to meet the demands of the task.

In general terms, they train without a personal purpose, rather with the only aim of meeting the needs of their coach. Without a personal goal, they will not be able to fully develop their skills as an athlete, but above all they will experience the misunderstanding that they are trying their hardest while it is not true.

Zero talent, the best results if

Risultati immagini per habit and success performance

Provide feedback about commitment is a key point to learn

During the training to provide continuous feedback about commitment is a key point to enhance learning. Athletes should be aware about the commitment level they must show during exercises of every training session. The reasons why one should not engage just enough are as follows:

  • promotes technical errors
  • leads to a reduced focus on the task
  • reduces intrinsic motivation
  • obliges the coach to provide the same technical instructions, because the athletes often repeat the same mistakes and improve slowly
  • builds the habit to consider improving as something very hard to get
It is the responsibility of the coach:
  1. stimulate the commitment continuously
  2. accept that athletes just because they undertake with great intensity can commit more technical errors
  3. recognize first the commitment and secondly the technical aspects
  4. stimulate in athletes that the improvement comes by personal commitment
  5. teach be aware that the individual technical and motors limits can be discovered only by training with intensity and motivation
  6. teach to be satisfied of the personal commitment, although it not always determines the quality of performance
  7. teach be aware that the quality of performance is related to the commitment and it takes more than talent to be good athletes
  8. teach, in team sports, the intensity is a collective resource that no one should ignore and everyone should encourage the mates
  9. point out even before technical errors any lack of commitment
  10. explain what are the behaviors that show athletes who train with intensity and that we want to watch in our group

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)

Use the best mental habits of others to change ourselves

The thoughts of others are an opportunity to reflect on our situation, about how we are working to achieve our goals. One mistake we make easily is to believe that for the reason we are doing well,we must necessarily continue in the same way almost automatically, without sweat and committing less. In those moments we become relaxed, not focused, arrogant, thinking that the result should get of course.
To react to this wrong thinking, I report the Claudio Ranieri’s thought, his team, Leicester,  probably will win the English league and that despite having a lead of +8 points a few games left, he says:
“We have done a lot, but in reality nothing yet. Now we need to clean up the thoughts, do not read, do not listen, stay focused. Fighting for every ball and every moment, as so far. To think only about the next game.”