Tag Archive for 'rilassamento'

Relaxation, a disappearing word

I’d like to reflect on the word “relaxation,” a term often used today to emphasize its absence rather than a condition one enjoys seeking out. I should mention that I’ve practiced autogenic training and other relaxation exercises since my university days, back when I was writing my thesis on cognitive processes during hypnosis. It was then that a friend and I came across Schultz’s work, and since that time, I’ve continued down this path without interruption. I’m not sure how widespread it is today, but among all the people I know—students, athletes, coaches, friends, and so on—no one ever seems to bring up these topics. Many engage in sports and physical activities, listen to music, or do other things to recover, for enjoyment, or to relax. These are positive activities for a person but distinct from the concept of relaxation, which implies the activation of the body’s recovery processes.

Relaxing is the exact opposite of daily life for most people; it requires a short amount of time for practice, around 10 minutes, but it needs to be done daily. This often scares people, who don’t think they can find that time. Another hurdle to overcome is that many respond by saying, “I have so many commitments that I just can’t do it,” without realizing that this is precisely the reason they should. In the smartphone era, others think they’re relaxing by playing games; in this case, the mind is distracted from daily life by doing something enjoyable, but this isn’t truly relaxing—it’s simply closing a door on the worries and concerns of everyday life.

On the other hand, everyone spends their time as they see fit, and there would be no point in relaxing if one doesn’t believe it could be helpful

Relaxation, yoga, meditation, mindfulness

Relaxation, yoga, meditation, mindfulness

do you want but do something

Risultati immagini per yoga day 2017

The goal of the mental coaching in August

For most sports August is a month of the start of the preparation for the new season or the holiday period because it’s just finished. For all of these athletes should be a period of recovery from the fatigue of the past season or return to a acceptable shape level. From the point of view of mental coaching, the athletes should be directed to carry out activities that enable them to improve the management of stress in competitions. In this sense, it’s useful the daily practice of relaxation exercises (for all) and concentration exercises  (only for those who have already started the raining) in order to be ready for the new and challenging season.

El Shaarawy crisis

It’s still continuing the Stephan El Shaarawy’s crisis, Milan football player, after a good first half of the season, he played a rather subdued the second part and this crisis seems to continue in the national team. Crisis are quite common in young players and, maybe future champions, as it is not easy to maintain high performance levels when everyone expects it to be so.

Many athletes feel these emotions and should have to follow a program of psychological coaching to train mentally to handle them effectively. I hope that Prandelli, the Italian team coach, is not one of those coaches that says “do not worry, as soon as you score a goal all these thinks get out.”

The main training mode are the following:

  • Relaxation associated with mental rehearsal of the performance – it’s about knowing how to relax reducing usefulness tensions and charging with those who promote the performance.
  • Identification of the optimal emotional state – Allows the player to train himself to stay in the optimal psychological condition, experienced in the past on the occasion of his best performances.
  • Simulation – Replicate the match conditions in training helps to improve  the performance and prepare for the unexpected situations that may occur. Consists, for example, in producing in training stimuli that may distract the athlete from the execution of his performance.
  • Acceptance of competitive stress – It’s essential to accept that the emotional condition felt before the game is an important individual reaction; it emphasizes the value that is attributed to that match. In fact, without the stress perception the matches would only other workouts. Instead, they are carried out to prove  to ourselves our competitive value through comparison with others.

Sapersi rilassare

In questi giorni le dichiarazioni di alcuni calciatori relative al loro livello di nausea del pallone e la dichiarazione di Damiano Tommasi, presidente dell’Associazione Italiana Calciatori, sulla necessità di attuare un programma antistress nel Club Italia, nonchè il desiderio dei calciatori tedeschi di avere uno psicologo in squadra, mettono in rilievo l’esistenza di un disagio psicologico. Al di là delle cause di questo malessere, appare evidente la necessità dei calciatori di imparare a recuperare energia mentale e desiderio di giocare attraverso una riduzione di questo professionale. Una prima risposta è quella d’imparare a rilassarsi per ridurre le tensioni sostituendole con una condizione psicofisica di distensione. Lo scopo è di uscire fuori da una condizione di lamentela passiva e di entrare in un’altra che è attiva e che rappresenta da sempre una delle più efficaci azioni antistress. Nei miei di allenamento mentale per gli atleti vi è sempre una parte dedicata al rilassamento, che non serve per giocare meglio, ma per uscire da quel tunnel in cui vi è un unico e costante pensiero: la gara, come fare per essere il migliore in campo. Questi pensieri accompagnati dalle relative emozioni (ansia, depressione, inpulsività, rabbia) nel tempo portano alla nausea nei riguardi dell’allenamento e delle partite. Non è l’unica ragione ma è notevolmente importante e molti campioni del calcio a un certo punto della loro carriera non hanno più fame di vittorie. I soldi, poi, hanno cambiato il loro modo di interpretare la realtà e in un calcio in cui domina sempre di più il valore dell’intrattenimento rispetto a quello dell’agonismo si dimentica la voglia di lottare. Per cui si riparta dall’insegnare a gestire e ridurre lo stress, attraverso strategie come quelle descritte nel mio libro “Affrontare lo stress”.