Tag Archive for 'pallavolo'

Losing because the team was not relaxed

Published on September 19, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

A few days during the finals of the European volleyball championships, Italian coach Ferdinando De Giorgi during a timeout uttered a word that has been rarely heard in sports in recent years. The term is relaxed, he wanted the players to be calmer, less rushed and inaccurate.

Personally, I am very attached to this which is not just a word but expresses a concept and I would say a way of life. I learned relaxation techniques when I was 21 years old and have never abandoned this approach that accompanies me in my daily life. I have studied for years the importance of the balance between incitement and calm in work and leisure, in training and competition.

Our society has evolved toward an aggressive performance pattern, one must always push, play on the attack, dare, happily experience stresses. This is the phase of incitement and responds to the philosophy that stress is a privilege but are we sure that the other pole of the issue, calmness, is also given the same attention? From my experience I have come to the conclusion that calmness is most often interpreted only as a condition to be pursued because one cannot only and always squeeze like a lemon otherwise the body will break down. So calmness is seen not as the other pole of the human condition but as an expression of a limit to which one must submit.

For these reasons, a coach who during a European final that his team is losing says: relax, belongs to another planet. One in which relaxed and calm are positive and indispensable skills and not limits to which one must be subjected.

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Davide Mazzanti’s ideas and mistakes

Published on September 4, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The theme of excluding the best player by explicit choice of the national team’s coach is a recurring topic in various teams, often with similar explanations.

The latest case refers to the women’s volleyball national team, where the coach preferred a young 20-year-old player with limited international experience over the champion Paola Egonu. The explanation given in interviews by Davide Mazzanti is clear: “Inside, everything is clearer, I don’t make my choices for convenience but based on my principles.”

It would have been interesting if he had explained what is clearer inside the team compared to someone who can only gather information by watching the games. I would say that the second part of the sentence is a typical expression of someone who feels attacked and rigidly defends their ideas. So, following his ideas means excluding the player considered to be the best in the world, while making her a starter would be seen as a convenience-based choice.

We can also say that from his words, there are apparent issues of leadership and interpersonal dynamics within the team, including the coach, driven by the presence of this player, which outweigh the benefits derived from her sporting value. According to the coach, a young player like Andropova, grateful for the unexpected role offered to her, fosters better team cohesion.

This style of leadership should not be surprising; team sports are filled with stories like this. Spalletti with Totti, Sacchi with Baggio, Valcareggi with the relay between Mazzola and Rivera. So, it’s not my intention to debate whether these choices are right or wrong, nor to express value judgments. In this high-level sport, there is one ultimate parameter we all are judged by: victory. The women’s national team has lost, so some choices were wrong and need to be pragmatically corrected. The role of the player Egonu should be interpreted according to this logic, aware that there have also been other limitations that emerged in the last two games.

Personally, I believe that in the national team, the players who have proven to be the strongest and are accustomed to winning in their clubs should be given the opportunity to play because this type of experience is extremely relevant for handling the crucial moments of the games and paying attention to the details that prevent errors in high-stress phases of competition. Building cohesion on the field and alignment with the coach’s ideas follows from this foundation.

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The mental training for volleyball: it was 1984

Published on December 10, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: .

“Women athletes must have a calm head. That is your goal.” Bu Quinxia of China, coach of the junior national volleyball team, made no other recommendations to the team of psychologists who have been following championship and international events for some time. Volleyball is a “situational” sport, requiring very rapid adaptations as the game changes. A sport that creates constant tension. “Playing volleyball,” says Pittera, national team coordinator, “is like playing a game of chess at 120 kilometers per hour. In soccer it is easier to breathe. This partly explains the massive intervention of psychologists. “However, we must clarify our role,” says Alberto Cei, “we did not work on the pathology of the ‘athlete. No one was sick…. In the formation of a team group, emotional control, concentration are fundamental and must be followed. Results? “Very good at the competitive level, but of course the credit is not ours. Italy finished second at the junior Europeans behind the USSR, but only by set difference. The two “under 17s” won important international tournaments. However, we are interested in delving into another issue: the introduction of relaxation techniques immediately before the match has had excellent effects. It’s a long job; these athletes need to be followed all the way to the national team. They grow up playing volleyball.” An almost Russian method… “Maybe so, if our work means following the ‘evolution of a boy step by step. There are, for example, as is clear, fundamental differences between men and women. Boys already start out more motivated to sporting success. Girls are more focused instead on interpersonal relationships. They talk to each other more, they defend themselves from an environment that is still too masculine: they certainly have a harder time feeling good.” What about the coaches? “The coaches,” says Davide Ceridono, “have received us well. The figure of the sole coach responsible for leading has now disappeared. Even among themselves they tend to complement each other. Not to mention that communication often does not go through words. Bu Quinxia will know in all thirty words of ‘Italian.” In general, is it possible to talk about discomfort for certain athletes? “These are athletes who have many gratifications. Apart from the financial ones, they are often little provincial heroes, traveling the world in their twenties.” How could your intervention be summarized? “There are four goals: 1) emotional control, 2) concentration; 3) energy recovery; 4) group intervention. Need to emphasize the ‘importance of cohesion: the team is made up of six who play and four who are on the bench. Motivating even those who stay out is not easy. Especially if you play thirty international matches in four months. After all, even Liedholm once said that Superchi had great merit in Roma’s Scudetto. Yet Superchi had never entered.” Ceridono and Cei also carried out, together with Prof. Scilligo, Chiara Bergerone and Franca Formica, research on the “relationships between intrapsychic and interpersonal processes and sports performance.” The behaviors of 255 athletes, belonging to 30 A/1 and A/2 teams, were studied. The results are interesting. “High-ranked players-for example-demonstrated a remarkable ability to protect themselves, look after their own interests, gather information and realistically examine themselves. A lower degree of neglect and self-rejection was identified in them. The same outlook on life comes out in their relationships with the team. Towards them it is liberal, welcoming, caring and directive.” In contrast, low and mid-ranking players most often perceive the team as punitive, hostile or absent.” One question: what if it is the results that influence such behaviors? “That is partly the case: however, the reaction in front of defeat changes. You are never first by accident.”

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The fragile mood of the Italian volleyball team

Published on October 14, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“It hurts,” says women’s Italian national volleyball team coach Davide Mazzanti at the end of the match lost to Brazil in the semifinals of the world championships. “We realized from the start that it was going to be a tiring match for us; even in the difficulties however we had a chance to turn the match around, but there is no doubt that that final third set at the psychological level cut us off a bit. In the fourth set in fact we did not come back on the court with the right lucidity, with the set we also lost the awareness that we could stay ahead of them. Tonight’s was a match in which we should have chosen our shots well and instead we always waited too long. It will be difficult on Saturday because it is not the final we would have liked to play; now we have some time to look at each other and go on the court to do ours.”

This assessment allows us to understand what should be meant by psychological pressure when playing absolute level games. Even just a mistake like Egonu’s in the final of the third set that would have allowed Italy to go 2-1 can have a deadly negative effect cut the legs off as Mazzanti said. These facts tell us how high the level of psychological stress teams experience and how the mental balance can be broken by individual episodes.

This is the beauty of absolute level sports not only the quality of the game but how much this is determined by the psychological condition which in turn can change as a result of individual episodes. Everything can change in an instant and it is extremely difficult to know how to react and not suffer these moments. The solution goes beyond training, mental preparation and having already played matches at this level. We need players who can convey confidence and encouragement continuously and with intensity, because if it is true that individual episodes change the mood of the team, then it can also be in a positive sense and, therefore, someone has to take this responsibility.

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Coach the mindset to have success in sports team

Published on October 11, 2017 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Da tempo le nazionali degli sport di squadra non vincono più e presidenti di federazione e club si accusano vicendevolmente di fare poco per affrontare seriamente questo problema. Al di là di questa lotta sterile che evidenzia paradossalmente la difficoltà a ‘fare squadra’ per un interesse superiore alle singole esigenze, ciò che manca è il sapere come si sviluppa a lungo termine l’atleta. Sappiamo per certo che ci vogliono anni d’investimento, probabilmente almeno 10.000 ore di allenamento dall’inizio della pratica dello sport scelto sino a diventare giocatori esperti e maturi per affrontare eventi di livello internazionale. Abbiamo tanti presunti campioncini che non diventeranno mai giocatori di prima fascia per un eccesso di valutazione positiva quando sono adolescenti mentre i genitori si gratificano pensando di avere scoperto in casa un Totti, solo perché il loro figlio è più bravo dei suoi compagni o nella pallavolo e basket solo perché a 13/14 anni è più alto degli altri e allora ha vita facile a fare i punti. I genitori si entusiasmano, i club li sfruttano e l’anno successivo un altro diventa più bravo di loro e così avanti, il risultato è che si rovina l’autostima dei ragazzi che non sanno a cosa credere: ‘sono bravo oppure no?’.

In Italia la ricerca psicologica in questo ambito non è sviluppata perché difficilmente le squadre mettono a disposizione i loro giocatori per indagare sullo sviluppo psicologico di questi giovani. Non è lo stesso in paesi come il Regno Unito dove molte Football Academy hanno adottato un sistema denominato 5C’s che è un modello per sviluppare le abilità psicologiche (concentrazione, impegno, comunicazione, controllo e fiducia) durante le sessioni di allenamento. Lo stesso vale ad esempio in US per la Little League di Baseball, dove da 40 anno si utilizza sul campo un sistema per monitorare il comportamento dell’allenatore, il Coaching Behavioral Assessment System, che ne permette l’esame e fornisce al tecnico informazioni utili per migliorare professionalmente, tratte direttamente dal suo modo di lavorare con i giovani. Esistono, inoltre, sistemi per il miglioramento della concentrazione nelle abilità di precisione, trasversali a tutti gli sport di squadra come sono i calci di rigore, la battuta nella pallavolo, il tiro libero nel basket e i calci nel rugby, che potrebbero insegnare ai giocatori come affrontare queste situazioni, che dipendono in larga parte solo dalla convinzione che hanno in quel momento di fare nel modo migliore la cosa giusta.  L’utilizzo di questi approcci integrati nell’allenamento determinerebbe un migliore sviluppo dei giovani negli sport, potenziando in loro le competenze psicologiche di base, che saranno certamente utili anche nella vita di tutti i giorni ma che sarebbero di grande sostegno alle loro prestazioni che non sono mai solo tecniche. Rappresentano invece l’espressione massima del giocatore nella sua globalità fisica, tecnico-tattica e psicologica. Senza questo tipo di sviluppo personale e di gruppo sarà sempre difficile, al di là di qualsiasi forma organizzativa venga adottata dagli organismi sportivi, allenare futuri giocatori di successo.

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Your son has the characteristics to be professionally involved in sport?

Published on December 3, 2015 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I read today in Repubblica, Italian newspaper, an interview with Valentina Diouf, young players of the Italian volleyball team, at the question of how important is the family for an athlete she responds:

“It ‘s fundamental. You have to figure out if a young has the characteristics of a career in sports, or else ruin him/her.”
I totally agree with this response and I believe that the family can not escape to cope with this educational function. Unfortunately, many parents live, instead, in the hope that their son/daughter  becomes a champion and this happens not only in those sports where success is associated with the economic wealth that could be achieved but in any sport that is clay pigeon shooting or volleyball. These guys live in family situations where the parents realize their dreams of success through their children. Today compared to the past is possible to have a sport career for a young teenager but this must be integrated with the other fundamental commitment, the school. Tennis is a sport where is more outrageous this approach to success, that 90% of players will not reach. Rarely families realize that their children will never become players of high level, because it’s easier for everyone to hope in the next tournament or change coach. And ‘common for these children / and we had a schooling facilitated, so the idea of ​​continuing studies is a very difficult choice because they have acquired the skills to know how to study, and this is often accompanied by lack of other interests besides tennis. Often the only option for them is to become teachers and future teachers of tennis. Work beautiful and interesting but how to do it, if you do not have the necessary scientific culture and sport. How to teach something that has failed as players without a personal journey of personal development?
Of course none of these aspects is dealing with it, because the circles of court and to the Federation only affect those who play while others are a burden to hide and avoid. In this sense the parents are not alone in this their commitment to education and there will be no systematic form of support and perhaps even education directed at them.

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Review book: The movement for the children

Published on October 20, 2014 in Generale, Giovani, Libri and Mental coaching. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Attività Motoria-Cognitiva nella Scuola Primaria

Carmelo Pittera

2014, p. 127

Euro Centro Studi “Gabbiano d’Argento”

I knew Carmelo Pittera more than 30 years ago, I was very young and he had already reached the 2° place in the Volley World Champioship as a coach of the Italian team. In the following years we became experts in the children movement working on his insight. Carmelo has continued to work in this direction and he is published a new program for children called SELL. In these years he started to apply this model in the North of Italy (Gorizia), in Slovenia and in Argentina.  I believe that it’s a new approach well based from the theoratical side, it’s innovative and every teacher in school can easily use. I will come back on this project in the next future but for the moment I want to introduce to you, helping you share my same enthusiasm.

What it follow is the presentation by Carmelo Pittera.

My interest toward Minivolley begins at the end of the ’70, when I met the person that we can define as the inventor of Minivolley, Professor Horst Baacke, who introduced in Eastern Germany an early form of volleyball for groups of children aged ten to twelve years.

From a cultural and educational perspective, I was skeptical about the various aspects of early specialization in sports games, mainly because of the definition of Minisport. I was convinced, however, that in children from eight to ten yearsold , the physical education should be considered an asset to the service of the integral development of the children It is really important that the education at the movement help them to a global growth.
Thus it was born the first draft of “Motor Sillabarius”, which represented  the starting point of the SELL system (Signal, Reading, Execution, Lateralization). At the Motor Syllabarius was followed by the publication of “The alphabet of movement,” which picked up the results obtained in research on  ”analogic- expressive phase” of the movement education. Published in four volumes, the pedagogical section was written by experts in primary education and psychologists.

The SELL is an educational system that has the purpose of teaching, structuring and implementation of neural circuits that affect, starting from the motor area, the cognitive dimensio. It develops in children, not only the opportunity to interact with others (socialization), but also the chance to do better things with others (cooperation). It can be defined as:

  • Intuitive activitiy , induced by  the Observer, through four mediators: activities (direct experience), iconic (drawings), analogical (dramatization) and symbolic (colors and numbers and more, to represent the variables and their relationships);
  • A path through which the Observer builds learning environments in which the children are brought to question rather than waiting canned responses.
  • A uniform language, the same for all, which does not require specific words, easily accessible as it adapted to the children’s cognitive and motor potential.

SELL (Signal, Reading, Execution, Lateralization) is structured in four parts:

The Expressive Analogical System  is a theoretical-practical path for the activation of the circuits of motor learning and cognitive development from children of 4 years old. It’s composed of various educational track  by using the environmental opportunities or the body combined with the wall and the ground, or building games with figures and symbols with a stick combining them with their own body and that of the teammates; or analogies with the animal world, combined with natural colors and their body; or games with simple teaching material (balloons, cards and so on).

The optical and acoustic Symbolic Analogical System for the improvement of basic motor patterns from 8 to 12 yearsold : run, jump, throw, catch. The actions are related to the lateralization and performance oculus-manual and oculus-breech, equilibrium, systems of  acceleration and deceleration of the gravity center as well as the distinct body segments. All this is achieved through symbols, simple elements and specific groups are created in a special way by the system SELL.

The lateralization System, with and without the group. This system was created to facilitate the harmonious development of the growing child’s motor and performance relating to “degrees of freedom”, with particular attention to the problems of the non-dominant body side.
The support system in the development of analogical Expressive, analogical optical and acoustic Symbolic of paper materials and computer equipment to facilitate the learning in the classroom and at home.

The materials consist of:

  • The light and the puppet play.
  • The directional eyes, hypothetical or actually represented on the shirt or on the tip of the shoes.
  • The mental visualization: the mind’s eye.
  • The activity oculus – manual / breech developed with the use of conventional elements (balls, rubber bands and so on) or non-conventional (newspapers, empty bottles and other).

The game of lights and puppets, directional eyes  and mental visualization must be known and internalized by children before beginning the teaching units. Traffic lights and the “game of the puppet.”

During our on field lessons, we have verified that the imitation of children is often inaccurate. With researchers of SELL System  we have tried to solve this problem, looking for solutions suited to the children characteristics.
After several attempts, we arrived at the “Game of the traffic lights.” The choice of this symbol was adopted after being tested that all knew it. We have identified the symbol of traffic lights along with the image of ‘”Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo da Vinci, that we modify using the three light colors, with the aim of relating the different parts of the human body with these colors.
The symbols used, in addition to increasing the attentional focus, has a considerable influence in the development of imagination and, consequently, in the creativity of forms. It allows children to improve the knowledge of the structure of their body, and the teacher, together with the children, to develop new kind of play, improving the stabilization of teaching content.

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The face of those who want to win

Published on September 3, 2014 in Giovani and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is the face of those who want to get out of a bad moment and win the game. (Italy volleyball team was losing 2-0 against France, then it managed to overturn the result, winning 3-2, thanks to the inclusion of players who wanted to win, like the setter Baranowicz).

Volley, Mondiali: l'Italia ritrova l'orgoglio, battuta in rimonta la Francia

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Italy without sense of belonging: 3 sports, 3 stories

Published on September 1, 2014 in Calcio, Generale and Giovani. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Today I read three news coming from different sports, they seem to have a common denominator, reflecting the shortage in our country of the sense of belonging.

  1.  The first concerns Alessio Cerci, young football player of Torino going to play with Atletico Madrid, champion of Spain. So another young Italian footballer leaves our country (as Verratti, Immobile, Balotelli and others) without that some clubs has done everything is possible to keep him. Certainly he will be very satisfied, like the others, for the chance to play in one of the European strongest team and for the salary but I remain convinced that a country that wants to be successful should retain talent rather than let them go. We can say that our clubs habe not done the war to have the best.
  2. The second concerns the Italian volleyball team that lost in the opening match of the world championship 3-1 against Iran. Italy has appeared unmotivated and not very aggressive, this led to a percentage of embarrassing mistakes. Iran has shown the opposite attitude and deserved the victory. You can win or lose a game, but after months of work you cannot begin an important match with the attitude of one who is destined to suffer. Italians thought of winning easily? I do not think, they had already lost against Iran. In the field they have not had a leader capable of keeping the team united and aggressive, making them feel the importance of  the that match. Attitudes should be obvious by now; the players should know very well how to deal with these negative moments and stimulating each other a sense of belonging.
  3. The third concerns Daniele Meucci, winner of the marathon to the last European Championship. To continue to study, gave 60 engineering exams in five years, and runs 180km a week. At university, he never said it was in the national team, because they probably would not understand, and he runs out in the morning at 6 am and then again in the evening up to 20, with the caretaker of the camp that complains to him because he would like to close the track before the scheduled time. Another example of how Italy does not help the sport, there is no sense of community with athletes and it’s not stimulated even in this case, the sense of belonging. And rightly Meucci says, “I’ll do the engineer: athletics goes, life remains.”

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The referee mistakes

Published on August 28, 2013 in Calcio, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Start a new season in football as for the other team sports, and referees play a vital role for the proper running of the championships. To the umpires does not like to be told that they can make mistakes for excessive personal arrogance or  subordination to the teams and players. I’m not talking about technical incompetence, because in this case the mistake is not so much the referee showing this difficulty, but rather of those who have designated him for that game. On the contrary, even the most experienced international referee can make mistakes due to an excess of will to impose himself or viceversa due to an excessive caution in respect of the home team or  the most famous players. Errors of presumption or subjection toward the opponents are also showed by the high-level teams, because they are part of those behaviors in which anyone can fall when the competitive tension is very intense. The referees and their managers should not therefore deny this kind of errors, because they can occur even in the most competent people. The referees should be trained to recognize when these attitudes begin to appear in their behaviors on the field, so as to correct them immediately. A rule that I would like to transmit to the referees is to never deny themselves a difficult time but instead to recognize it as soon as possible and change their behaviors in a positive way.

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