psicologi dello sport « Alberto Cei

One way to understand the role that sports and physical activity play in our society involves the breadth that scientific research has achieved. To focus solely on the field of sports and exercise psychology, there are dozens of scientific and practical application books published every year, and it’s likely that, conservatively, over 5,000 scientific articles are published annually.

I’ve been fortunate to be a part of this development. When I started, there were only two sports psychology journals worldwide and few manuals available, including the Italian one by Ferruccio Antonelli and Alessandro Salvini, and the English book ‘Psychological Foundations of Sport’ edited by John Silva and Robert Weinberg. There were no coaching manuals yet, unlike what the School of Sport later did, while in Canada, texts on sports psychology for coaches existed as early as the mid-’70s. It wasn’t easy to stay updated during those years. Antonelli assisted me in this regard, as I could read the books he received and translated the abstracts of the two journals into Italian. Additionally, I began fostering relationships with the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) on behalf of the International Journal of Sport Psychology. Consequently, in 1987, I attended my first meeting in Varna with the managing council of ISSP, where I met Vanek, Singer, Salmela, Roberts, and Unestahl.

Nowadays, sports psychology plays a significant role in the fields of psychology and motor sciences, and from an applied standpoint, its function is acknowledged in enhancing the performance of athletes and groups and in fostering psychological well-being. No one responds anymore with ‘I’m not crazy’ when asked if they’re consulting a sports psychologist, a response that characterized my generation and to which we had to learn to reply by explaining the utility of this work.

Presently, scientific data tremendously support us compared to 40 years ago, and as experts, we must know how to utilize them because it’s no longer acceptable to claim ignorance of where to find information. The internet serves as an incredibly useful, cost-free vehicle that anyone willing can use.

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To work in sport performance is necessary to have a specific preparation. For the psychologist is necessary to have a university degree in sport psychology, as well as a physician becomes sport medical physician through post-graduate studies. This idea is quite simple, and in most other countries there are institutionalized paths to build these competences. Therefore the specialist in sports psychology is the professional who is responsible, for the training received, to do the work of mental coach. Why today it’s so widespread the use of the terms “mental coach.” The reason is that it’s used by anyone who wants to work in the psychology fieeld without having the degree, therefore it has been found this expression, clear and understandable that allows to stay on the sport market (and beyond) without carrying illegally the psychologist profession. Therefore anyone can be called mental coach without finding any opposition from institutions or organizations. Specifically these people propose miracles in short term to an environment that largely ignores the job of the sports psychologist . Often managers, coaches and athletes fall into this trap because they do not want to select truly competent consultant but they just want to dump their problems on someone else .

I’m really shocked by the interview that the psychologist Laura Messina wanted to give to those who asked what was the difference between a psychologist and mental coach. These are answers that continue to spread misconceptions, superficial and harmful to the world of sports

“But what is the difference between the psychologist and the mental coach?

The psychologist has specific training focused on the behavior of individuals, their mental processes and the inner part of the conscious and unconscious. The mental coach does not work in a clinical setting, it has no competence to manage the psychological distress. He is focused on improving the performance, helping the individuals to express themselves at their best.

Besides a different training (the psychologist must have a degree, and the mental coach just a training course) is different the work context (the psychologist works on pathology and clinical recovery; the mental coach works in the field of motivation, concentration, performance) and the scope of intervention (the mental coach operates on a demand for improvement; the psychologist uses psychodiagnostic tools and operates on a demand for change).

Underlined the differences I would say that it would be desirable that the two professionals could integrate synergistically and be complementary to an excellent result. “

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