There is talk, in these days, of the performance anxiety that would have hindered Napoli at least in the last two games, important to remain among the favorites for the final title. Attributing the negative results of a team to this psychological dimension has been very successful among the media. It means feeling insecure in the decisive moments of the championship, with the effect of providing unsatisfactory performances. It is a reasoning that labels a team and expresses a collective psychological condition that is invalidating. Were I a coach, I would reject this explanation by asking myself, “How should players interact on the field in order to show unity and confidence in their team skills?” I would also ask myself, “How can I stimulate performance that is superior to what each could provide individually?” Napoleon used to say that he also won his battles with the dreams of his soldiers, this phrase is an effective metaphor for what should be meant by team effectiveness. In this way, we are no longer talking about anxiety but about collective effectiveness and how to train it. The theme consists of understanding what behavioral approach is necessary to achieve victory, providing each player with precise and different tasks, so that when someone makes a mistake the others know what to do. Each player needs to know and be a part of the story that the team is building as the minutes go by, and this task orientation needs to be trained specifically throughout the weeks. However, it is not just a technical/tactical issue, it requires each player to perceive himself as an active part of a program that goes beyond his person and is about the success of the team. By developing this collective mentality, it will be possible to come out effectively from situations of greater competitive pressure, without falling into the victimhood inherent in the explanation that attributes failures to anxiety, a manifestation of a character limit that requires a long time to change, while the league, moving on weekly appointments, requires a great willingness to change. Therefore, the question is not so much whether players are anxious, but how willing they are to quickly change ineffective behavior.
Tag Archive for 'prestazione'
Nello sport si parla molto di come sviluppare le competenze psicologiche degli atleti. In questi ultimi 30 anni sono stati formulati programmi che prevedono l’apprendimento delle abilità mentali di base a partire dalla fine dell’infanzia, per poi giungere negli anni dell’adolescenza a piani di allenamento specifici per ogni disciplina sportiva e, infine, a programmi altamente personalizzati per gli atleti di livello assoluto. Un programma così diversificato non è stato invece proposto per chi ricopre la responsabilità di guidare i giovani attraverso queste fasi della loro vita sportiva: gli allenatori.
Le ricerche evidenziano che gli atleti vincenti richiedono allenatori che siano eccellenti, non solo per i programmi di allenamento che propongono ma come leader che li guidano con competenze tecnica e psicologica. Lo stesso sostengono allenatori come José Mourinho quando afferma che chi conosce solo di sport non sarà mai un allenatore di successo, o Jurgen Klopp quando dice che: “Bisogna servirsi della tattica con il cuore. La partita va vissuta intensamente altrimenti è noia”. O Pierluigi Pescosolido, Fiamme oro e allenatore di molti campioni del tiro a volo, con cui da molti anni ci confrontiamo per migliorare continuamente l’allenamento di questi atleti di livello assoluto parlando della gestione della loro vita, della concentrazione nei momenti decisivi, delle competizioni ma anche di come insegnare queste competenze ai giovani junior che si affacciano per la prima volta al mondo competitivo.
Emerge così con forza la rilevanza della dimensione psicologica del lavoro dell’allenatore a livello giovanile e assoluto. Sono queste le ragioni che mi hanno convinto ad accettare l’invito di Psicosport, l’organizzazione che da 28 anni realizza il più longevo e di successo Master in Psicologia dello Sport, a promuovere insieme a un gruppo di esperti un Master TOP per allenatori in Tecniche di Ottimizzazione della Performance Sportiva. L’obiettivo è duplice:
- Migliorarne le competenze psicologiche in qualità di specialisti della Prestazione.
- Ottimizzare le loro abilità nel supportare gli atleti a costruire un profilo vincente in ogni impegno della vita sportiva.
- Auto-sviluppo - Sviluppare le risorse dell’allenatore e la sua comprensione psicologica degli sport.
- Eccellenza - Identificare le aree di miglioramento dell’allenatore e sviluppare un piano di azione personale.
- Leadership - Conoscere e applicare gli stili di leadership più efficaci.
You can perform any activity
to promote well-being and develop skills
to train and to compete
but
every motor, sport and mental action is regulated by our breath.
and if I breathe badly, I won’t get the results I train for.
The 10 rules for successful training
- Self-awareness - The purpose of training is the improvement and optimization of all the athletes’ skills and the development of awareness of what they can do, what they still need to improve and what they need to learn.
- Want to learn - The athlete lives in a continuous process of improving the performances and they must be fully aware of it.
- Recognizing opportunities - Training consists of a set of situations to be addressed and resolved with the full commitment.
- Commitment with consistency and accuracy – Motivation is based on these two aspects that are the basis of any activity in which the athletes are engaged.
- Wanting to take risks - Training is not an exact science and even the best trainings are based on the athletes willingness to take the risk of making mistakes.
- Tolerate difficulties - The athletes must be aware that every time they reaches a level of performance higher than the previous one, he detaches the ticket to face new difficulties.
- Accepting defeats - In sport, mistakes happen frequently and they must be accepted as unavoidable facts; for top athletes, they may be infrequent but are often decisive in preventing a winning performance.
- Give importance to time – To become expert it takes a long time and the athletes must be fully aware of this condition.
- Collaborate with coaches and staff - Recognizing the coach and staff leadership is a decisive factor for the athletes’ success.
- Analyzing one’s own performance - The athletes must know how to evaluate they performances with specific and precise criteria, without evaluating them only in terms of results.
How many times we have heard we must be optimistic, that we have to believe we can win, or that “with everything we’ve done we deserve to achieve a great result.”
There is apparently nothing of wrong to have this thinking, “That’s the way to push ourselves” many people say.
They also add: “What should I tell: to lose? Nobody start a competition with the goal to lose, therefore, you must start the race with the will to win it, because if you don’t even think it, how will you get it?”
In short, “think positive and you will see that it will happen what do you want.”
Well, all these good thoughts are useless and they can become harmful, because at the first difficulties and errors during the race, the athlete will not be ready to react immediately because he expects to win, that is to say that she is focused on the result and not on what to do to get it. “I was ready … and then things didn’t go as I had expected.”
These are often the words of those who start with a too trusting attitude and then at the end of the performance they attributes the result to something out of themselves, without taking responsibility for what it has happened.
These thoughts, which represent the athletes’ expectations about the race, can really be considered as the performance killers. They are amazed by their own mistakes and the difficulties they face in the race and they have not prepared a plan to react effectively to these situations.
It is not enough said that sports, but not only them, should arouse high levels of physical and mental activation and be perceived as pleasant.
We know that many people are stimulate even through the feelings of anger and anxiety, I would say, however, that are not wellness-oriented and positive to teach the young athletes. Even the sports professionals (athletes of international level) have to learn to manage difficult times and competitive pressure with the same approach, taking pleasure and not suffering from their activities. What does it mean to be an athlete of the highest level and live performances with fear/anger and a feeling of unpleasantness.
If your athletes commit any of these mistakes, it means that you have not taught them to give value at their commitment in training:
- When you ask them to take a deep breath, they snort or sigh
- Without no reason they modify times and ways of the warm-up
- They say: “But I thought I was ready while …”
- They get angry or easily disappointed even in training
- In training they have result outcomes and less frequently process outcomes.
- They are focused on the results of their performance and not on how to perform effectively
- They are only partially aware that it is how you prepare yourself that determines the quality of the performance
- They think: “I have the technique therefor I know how to compete
- They are deluding themselves to do well only because they have done it before and they are not aware that every time it is different and the commitment must be consistent
- Usually from their favorite champs they take only the most superficial and most glamorous behaviors
TAIS is a system for assessing attentional and interpersonal style and these data show that élites’ emotional overload is an important component reducing their performance, including world record holders, who instead suffer less the environmental distractions and cognitive mental overload. This also explains why top athletes use psychological preparation programs to reduce competitive stress.
We handle an innovative aspect of psychology. It regards the psychology of performance.
The challenges:
• Know the best professional experiences to use as a yardstick of our professional action
• Understand what it means continuous improvement in this field
• Get in line or higher than the sector average
We have to evaluate ourselves in relation to:
• Short- and medium-term professional goals
• Psychological implications of this work for the psychologist
• Performance Profile required for these targets
• Who / what can promote my profession
• Risks and possible individual, professional and environmental difficulties
• Quality of the work program
• Quality of service provided
• Customer satisfaction
In any sport to be focused on the present is one of the key success factors and its main enemy are the emotions arising in the athletes’ mind to distract them from the performance.
Any young athlete who learned the necessary skills to be competitive at his/her sport level should devote much of the training to improve this competence to compete with a winning attitude.
Otherwise, the technique will not help anything, rather it will be a source of further frustration for the young athletes not able to use it in the race, because they are dominated by an emotional condition that hinders them.
If you want to be competitive you have to train vigorously your self-control, it’s the only way you can prove the fundamental value of the technical skills.
