Two days ago, along with Emiliano Bernardi we held our first webinar, in Italian, dedicated to the coaching mental aspects. It was a different experience from the one-hour lecture to an audience physically present in a hall. Meanwhile, there is a real countdown to 10 minutes punctuated by slides that tell what to do and how much time is left at the beginning … and then it begins. The webinar management needs two persons because the speaker can not maintain contact with the participants, as is required and in this case was made by Emiliano. It ‘a new and effective way to talk about a subject, permitting to save time and money and allowing people from different Regions to attend the event but in the comfort of their home. The webinar also forces the speaker to maintain a fast pace in exposure and eliminate breaks and downtime, so you can convey more information than you would normally deliver when the action takes place in a hall. In the case of sports psychology the webinar could be used to create a community of people interested in this knowledge and professional area. The commentswe have received were positive and this webinar will be followed by others on the issues more relavant for the athletes, coaches and sports professionals.
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Often an obstacle to change is represented by the conviction to have no sufficient time available to change. The athletes often answer in this way but also their coaches, who usually do not spend time for psychological preparation, because they think to have already too many things to do. Once time to answer these objections I did long explanations about the importance of psychology and the efficient use of the mind. Then I found out that this answers had the only effect to reinforce the beliefs of my interlocutors, who continued to believe that they do not have time. At this point, I changed my approach. I started to respond by asking them if they had 15 minutes a day to devote to something else that was not the physical and technical training. Of course they all said yes, and on the basis of this positive response was easier for me to explain how to organize a mental workout in that short period of time.
Sport is not an environment in which miracles can happen. I was at the Shooting World Championship with the national team of Malta and it’s exactly what happened. The shooters have provided performance at their maximum level, but there were no miracles. In the olympic trap, the shooters have achieved the best performance of the last 10 years with 118 and 117 out of 125. While the junior Maltese athlete got the 13th place out of 65 participants. In the specialty junior double trap, Nathan Xuereb has finished in 1st place in the qualification with 139 out of 150 and in the final came 4th. These results permit to explain that the journey to excellence is long and you get with improvements that are first established in training. The real chance to reach results of the absolute level is build by high scores did in training and participating in the most of international competitions. In these situations, the technique and mental preparation of athletes is tested, allowing them to become aware of their strengths and knowing how to engage in the most important competitive moments. For these reasons there are no miracles, but a lot of work in which technique and mind are trained together with the support of the coach and the sport psychologist.
At the end of the month of May it has been run the Passatore 100km, from Florence to Faenza, with a climb of +1000 meters. I participated in this race in 2011. I came from years when I had run several times ultra- marathons and skyrace and at that point I began to think of this experience. I did it for the challenge with myself, and to see what they tell you your brain and your body while you’re involved in making an effort so long. The training is different from that of a marathon, because my run has become slower and because in many sessions have been engaged for four/five hours having only meant to run and let the time goes (this for me that I had the goal to be a finisher). These are tests that train to be patient, calm and develop thoughts that are not challenging, not wasting unnecessary energy. I learned that the warm-up time (the first 35/40 minutes) is not only necessary for the body but also the mind, to gradually move away from its usual state in which dominate the daily thoughts, to concentrate on a mental statemuch more restricted. In other words, once you established that the body begins to respond to the impulse of that type of run and it’s finding the stride you want to keep, my mind turned away from this focus on the body and on itself, leaving to slide thoughts and moods as they appeared but without giving them importance. It’s interesting to feel how the body finds the right stride without an apparent intervention of the mind. The motor memory is well stabilized and this ease access to the stride and especially the ease to keep it for a long period allowed me to better manage fatigue and save energy. In this sense, run alone was particularly useful because it is difficult to find companions who follow this pace without tending to accelerate over the miles. I was happy with how I lived the experience of training; was a major achievement to be able to live with satisfaction the passing of the days, without thinking about what would happen in the race.
The race – At the start, all participants appear relaxed, chat waiting for the go, probably because for most of us there is not the problem of time to accomplish. After the start immediately begins the ascent up to Fiesole continuing for 48km with about 10km down in the middle. The race is addressed by the runners in different ways, there are those who always runs , who alternates between running and fast walking. In addition, there are many cycling accompanying the runners. It’s a show different from the usual road racing, as you are 35km from the start the cars following the runners, which by that time will follow the race until the end. It’s a psychological and practical help, you can change the sport suit, eat and receive psychological support. It’s a kind of caravan like for the bike races. The company of friends on this long journey is essential , they run with you even long periods, and this allows you to maintain your pace, to exchange a few words, to run when it is night and the road is very dark with another light next to you. During the race, if the body is fit enough,the mind is always crucial, not so much to think about anything in particular but to avoid negative thoughts that arise from the sensations you feel and understand the pace you have to keep in the different parts of the race. The last 25km I focused only on the light reflected on the asphalt of my bulb without worrying about anything and in this state of mind I finish it. It was a great experience of 13h5m .
Have a thinking at a time focused on what we’re going to do in a moment is an effective way to be focused on the present. The commitment of every athlete must be targeted to coach this mental ability. While playing a game or compete in any sport, there is nothing but the succession of many present. It is therefore necessary to have at all times just the thought useful to do the best, athletes have to show the ability to choose one thought over another. Otherwise negative stress dominates, which leads to errors or a bad performance. We hear too often that in sport the mind is the main problem and that it would be better not to have it. Obviously, this sentence is only a testimony of coach or athlete incapacity, because without the mind, it could not be develop the thoughts needed to do the best. So we have not only to teach the sport technique, but we have to coach to think.
Missy Frankiln, swimmer 19 years old, 4 golds to al world championship and 6 at London has won the Laureus World Sports , a foundation that cares to integrate through sport by those who live socially disadvantaged. Her psychological profile is clear from the interview to Emanuela Audisio published by LaRepubblica.
- Before the start – “I get excited , I say finally. I live for that moment, otherwise you train to do?”
- Competitiveness – “I like the fight, fight until the last drop of energy. I am born for sport, maybe I would have chosen the basketball.”
- Sports Extra Life – “I enrolled at Berkeley in psychology … I want to make a freshman, missed the program of the washing machine, eating junk at the bar, having a roommate. Like all normal girls: I get married, children and a family.”
- Fun – ” If you talk about sacrifices, I shot. I have fun and I chose swimming, in fact I drove my mother, who does not know how to float and she is afraid of water.”
- Mental preparation – ” I do not need a psychologist. Since four years I’ve found God and at the end is that win or lose, I feel loved. And I say to myself: God will be proud of me. For this reasn I keep this in mind even those that seem small moments and in the future will become great.”
Alex Zanardi is a great champion in sport and in life and yesterday I heard him speaking in front of an audience of young people. I was touched by two ideas, simple but very evocative.
The first – “We need to synchronize the brain on the desires of the heart” , good idea to explain that we must cultivate our passions rather than suffer the impositions of the environment in which we live. But also puts in evidence that our mind has to play the role of programmer needed to move from simple daydreaming to put ourself in a position to achieve our desire. In this way wishes and reality intertwine, avoiding being crushed by everyday things because they lived as a practical expression of our passion.
The second – An amateur cyclist who meet on the road during a training tells him that he certainly would doped if someone had told him that doing so he would have won the Tour de France and asking for his consent Zanardi replied instead: ” Are you crazy?” He then goes on to say that sport is an opportunity and, for this reason, if we are in a position to win or at least do the best “when does it happen again to you in life to try it alone? And what do you do? With doping you lose this opportunity.”
These are thoughts good for our heart and mind.
Some specific issues about the mental training of the athletes:
Some believe to have a routine useful to start the competitions, but very often it’s only behavioral to warm-up the body and for the mind at max they listen music.
Usually the athletes don’t know that relaxation is useful not only for controlling the anxiety but also to recover from fatigue, to spleep relaxed, to reduce the tension of every day, to be calm most of the time and in a hurry, to control the jet lag.
Have I the feeling or mood to start well my next session? Or do I start just to start? These two questions are not so common in the athletes’ mind.
Jimmy Pedro (former world judo champion): “Before you step onto the mat you have to be able to relax even before you compete. Many people get very anxious and nervous and jittery so already their heart is beating very fast. The anxiety causes you to be tired. Maybe five minutes before you actually fight you need to sit down, relax, control your breathing before you get onto the mat.”
Individual optimal mental states before the match:
- Positive expectations.
- Feel you can overwhelm your opponent.
- Confidence to do your best.
- Feel that you are ready to fight.
- Think that your opponent will never be at ease with you
- Think that you can throw the opponent.
- Increase your confidence visualizing your strong judo actions.
- Stay focus to start at maximum intensity.
- Have the belief to be totally involved in the match.
Eastern martial arts are a great teaching how to join in every movement mind and body. This concept in Kendo is expressed in a concept called with the word Shikai that highlights four mental obstacles that must be avoided. The first is the surprise – if I am surprised by my opponent means that I’m not ready to respond -. A second obstacle is the doubt – when I’m worried on what to do at a given moment, the action slows down or does not show enough conviction -. The third obstacle is the fear – the enemy becomes a giant and I feel not confident and overwhelmed by his strength -. The fourth is the confusion – I’m not focused on the here and now but I’m distracted by my thoughts or what’s going on, I lose the fluidity of my movements - .
These mental states hold back the fighting or the performance and they are won through a psychological condition called Heigoshin , which means being present to ourselves as usual , keeping the mind quiet . This type of training is well detectable in scenes from the movie The Last Samurai .
