The motivators and mental coaches without a degree in psychology are spreading in the sport as well as in business. They are people who are involved in these worlds by leveraging on the need for success. Winning is, today, the only thing that counts and too many athletes are duped by people who like change strategies based on the insults or make them walk on hot coals, as if it was an event needed to believe in himself. Unfortunately, some of these motivators are successful, because sport organizations (Olympic Committee, clubs and sport associations) do not do anything to help the athletes and coaches to choose. In fact, sometimes these organizations are glad to this autonomy of the athletes, because in this way they save money and they have not to face the problem of choosing a professional who should also to pay.
The starting point of this reflection came from an interview with the motivator of football player Bonucci (reported by a connoisseur of the sport and of the human soul which is Gianni Mura with the article “The garlic motivates Bonucci but the breath does not make the monk “in which he talked how he worked with him. Everything would be funny if it were not a joke but a counseling job. Of course, every individual can choose who he wants as a personal mentor or mental coach, but as psychologists we have the duty to assert that the individual improving goes through competent and qualified professionals and not by people who are appointed by themselves as motivators, mental coach or whatever just based on personal considerations. The profession of psychologist, as that of the doctor, lawyer or others is subject to strict rules and no one can exercise it without proper qualification. Not surprisingly those who have decided to do without these requirements have had to invent new words to be defined, and so the term “motivator “and” mental coach ” were born. Anyone can be defined in this way, even the barman near our house and he will not be prosecuted by law.
It’s necessary that the Psychologist Roster as well as the Olympic Committee and sports federations are at the forefront of spreading a professionally correct approach to mental coaching, otherwise the sports culture will be affected and only who will be more aggressive on the market will win.
