I am now convinced that the sport psychologist is necessary in any sport club starting from the age of children. It is not a coincidence that in a sport like football, practiced in Italy by the majority of children, the football federation has decided to enter this professional in the football school. It’s useful to coaches who need to educate not only the body but also the mind. It’s ‘also useful for the best talents, they must learn to manage themselves through the daily frustrations. It’s also necessary for world-class athletes, who need to manage their competitive stress effectively. It’s useful to those who want to win an Olympic medal for making their best performance a specific day, at a specific moment, not minute before or a minute later.
Tag Archive for 'sport psychologist'
Speaking to young sport psychologists often I say that beyond the content they want to develop, the objective of the consultant process in sports is that our business must be perceived by coaches and athletes as useful. Years ago Autogenic Training was very popular and was often taught to athletes, who learned to relax but often not perceived usefulness in relation to their performances. Sometimes athletes who met told me: “A colleague learned me to relax, but then I stopped because I did not understand what it needed.” Athletes are people oriented to practice, evaluating the effectiveness of training depending on the results that can be achieved. The psychologists are too often geared to demonstrate theircompetences and sometimes they are rigid in the application of the techniques. So, for example,it is expected to reduce the competitive stress through relaxation or to improve the concentration only through mental rehearsal. They should instead develop a program of mental training based on the needs of the athlete and in relation to sport practiced. In addition, the athletes are pragmatic people, who appreciate those who provide them tasks to practice, being able to test their utility during training. Task of the psychologists must be to propose activities that they consider to be perceived as useful, for the reason they are intended to improve at least one aspect of the sport performances. Anything that does not produce this effect will be stored by the athlete as an interesting experience but useless. Then:
- Listen to the athlete and / or coach
- Understand their needs
- Understanding these requirements to which behaviors are
- Assume in what way and with what techniques these behaviors can be learned / improved
- Determine which are the parameters for which you can say that this has been achieved
- Share this journey with the athlete training
- Put in place and whether and how to correct
- Evaluate their own work (during and after)
The profession of sport psychologist in Italy is not as widespread as one would expect for many reasons linked to our cultural backwardness both in sport than in the academic world. Among these reasons, there is one that concerns the lack of knowledge by managers and coaches of where and to whom to direct their offers of counseling psychology of sport for their clubs. Often the choice of the sport psychologist occurs through the direct or indirect personal knowledge. Everyone knows doctors, but no one would think to go to an orthopedic surgeon when needed instead of a cardiologist or viceversa. In many people’s minds is dominantt he idea that to work in sports is enough to be psychologists and not sport psychologists. The reaction of the psychologist who are offered this opportunity is immediately positive but shortly after he began his frantic search for a colleague who is sport psychologist to talk to and ask for advice on what to do. Result: the psychologist will present to the club a program that includes the implementation of skills that he does not have and will bring discredit on the sport psychologist profession. Personally, I often talk to coaches who told me: “Before you there was a colleague who has spent time doing observations and we never knew what was served,” “Just that we no longer need fill tests, which are useless, “” He always questions but never gave an answer. ” These are the most common comments I’ve heard and certainly start working in a context where the psychologist has this perception on the part of coaches is not easy.
Therefore I tell to managers and coaches to use Internet to find professionals who can also direct them to colleague in their geographical area, contact the Schools of Sport of the Italian Olympic Committee for indications, contact the Italian Society of Sport Psychology, contact the university teachers of sport psychology. If you believe that the sport psychologist is professionally useful to improve aspects of a sports organization, you cannot choose the first one on the street, because it is unlikely to be the right one. We live in a period of high specialization in all professional fields, including psychology. Do it!! Because only in this way we will acquire as sports clubs a competitive advantage in our sporting environment in terms of services and programs offered to coaches, technical team, athletes and their families.
