Tag Archive for 'scherma'

The problems of young athletes

These days I have written relatively less than usual because I have been asking myself questions that I have had difficulty answering.

They are these, and they affect boys and girls indistinctly:

  • In tennis, many people like to shoot strong, which might even be fine if the ball most of the time fell on the court, in reality the opposite happens. Why is it so difficult to get this idea out of their heads?
  • Toni Nadal said that an important difference between Rafa and today’s young people is that Rafa when he improved maintained that level without going back, while today this does not happen: you improve, you play a few matches well and then you go back. I experience the same situation myself. How come?
  • Why is it that many athletes having reached an important world ranking become afraid of the effort they have to make to improve it and almost prefer to go backwards in ranking?
  • What drives an athlete in opposition sports (tennis, table tennis, fencing), in which one has to go through multiple rounds of competition to at least make it to the semifinals or finals to settle for an inferior result and stop playing their best?
  • Why do some athletes explain a defeat by saying that the opponent was stronger? As if being strong was an absolute category that leaves no chance?
  • And never mind those who attribute their failures to technical problems; if that were true why do they play or compete instead of quitting and waiting to improve technique?

How difficult is it to become a top junior athlete?

How difficult is it to become a junior athlete at the international level?

In opposition sports where you fight directly against another opponent it is very difficult, because beyond the sporting skills and the physical skills, the mental element is what determines success.

By this I do not mean that there is a mental prevalence over the other two components, but that without mental guidance and with a reduced degree of agonism it will not be possible for the athlete to express his sporting and motor skills.

In opposition sports speed and precision are two inseparable aspects of performance. It is clear that those who train to combine these two characteristics together run a greater risk of making mistakes, but another option is not possible. If you slow down too much you become predictable and the lack of precision means that you’ll throw shots randomly.

Training on these two aspects, also involves working mentally to maintain a high level of confidence even if at first you will make more mistakes. Maintaining a high level of confidence, however, will allow you to persevere with this type of training and, recover quickly from mistakes and compete with greater conviction.

In the Italian sport the women are winning

Italian sport is increasingly dominated by women, tennis, fencing, swimming, athletics are an example. It ‘s a phenomenon that reflects what happens in society, in fact even at school the girls perform better than boys and at work is increasingly difficult to limit their success. It’s time that happened, finally 50% of the world is no longer excluded.

Olympics images

I agree with Massimo Gramellini, La Stampa, that these are the images of yesterday. Travis Stevens, American judoka, has lost the semi-final, could retire but has put a bandage covering the wound and continue the match. Allaeldin Abouelkassem is the first African, Egypt, to have won a medal, silver in foil; well the world is also expanding in fencing