Tag Archive for 'sport'

Ethics in sports: what conditions are conducive to fraud

Published on August 24, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: frode, sport.

The phenomenon of cheating has been particularly investigated in the business world. The reasons that lead to financial fraud have been investigated, Three broad and different categories have been identified: conditions, organization structure, and choice, and they can also be applied to this particular type of fraud that is doping.

The first condition, concerns motivations and pressures to use the fraud. Pressure on the company to achieve its intended goals plays an important role in taking this route. In this situation, executives deliberately commit illegal actions to deceive investors and creditors in relation to poor or unfavorable financial performance. In the world of sports, the need to achieve results at any cost and the pressures exerted on athletes to do so represent situations similar to those highlighted in the world of finance, not the least of which relate to the possibility of seeing one’s compensation rise by virtue of sporting success.

The second relates to the organizational structure that can foster the development of an environment in which fraud has a good chance of success. In this regard, in the cases that were uncovered, it was found that these were environments characterized by irresponsible and ineffective leadership. This was possible because the highest corporate level was directly involved. The corporate governance attributes that characterize these illegal situations are aggression, arrogance, cohesion, loyalty, blind trust, ineffective controls, and gamesmanship. The first two concern attitudes and motivations of managers who want to be the leaders in that type of business or even exceed the earnings expectations formulated by analysts. Cohesion, loyalty, and gamesmanship increase the likelihood of not looking at the books, of not sensing the warning signs. These combined with blind self-confidence and ineffective controls can undermine the work of internal controllers themselves and block their role in preventing and detecting fraud. In sports this has been found in those cases that have been referred to as “state doping,” but this has also involved the omertà and connivance that have been highlighted within specific sports circles.

The third category concerns the manager’s decision-making process and intentionality in implementing the fraud. The choice is between properly and ethically pursuing business objectives and instead using illegal strategies to blow the company’s stability and growth out of proportion. Management can be urged to exercise illegal actions in the presence of certain favorable conditions concerning:

Personal financial advantage – management’s gain is linked to company performance through profit sharing, stock compensation or other forms of benefits.
Willingness to take risks – desire to make decisions that may also involve criminal or civil risks.
The opportunity to defraud – corporate organization is such that it seems possible to activate financial fraud procedures.
Pressure from third parties – pressure is exerted internally and externally to the organization in order to maximize shareholder value.
Ineffective controls-the chances of getting caught are very low

Purely in sports, the intentionality of the athlete to want to use illicit substances to improve his or her athletic performance plays an essential role. Money, fame and success are at the root of this kind of fraud, and if you add to that the ineffectiveness of controls and pressure from third parties … it is really hard to resist.

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My work of sport psychologist

Published on August 4, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress and Tennis. 0 Comments Tags: psicologo, sport.

My work knows no vacations, there is no time of the year when sports and competitions stop. In the next few weeks there are the European table tennis championships, at the same time, the Italian sailing championships, while the girls’ tennis continue their tournaments and will now travel to North America. This is to talk about some of the sports I am involved in. It is a job that requires a strong dedication and interest in the lives of these athletes. It is work that is mostly done remotely. It is an almost daily commitment during competitions. These are collaborations that can last for years but also for a few months, especially when the families or the athletes/athletes bear the financial burden.

It’s a job, unfortunately, today based very much on the athletes’ stories, because it’s very rare to attend competitions. Before covid when I worked a lot with shooting with Italian athletes and foreign nationals the work is almost always in attendance, I would go to the most important competitions and you would live the experience with the team, being able to intervene at the precise moment when the need arose and to implement the mental routines pray.

Still, it remains a very interesting and helpful job. In particular, in recent years I have seen the great educational value that the sports psychologist can play with adolescent boys and girls 14 years old and up. They know nothing about how to approach competitions, the value of mistakes, how to learn, and more generally the rules of sports. No one teaches them these things while there is only an emphasis on physical fitness and technique, aspects that are obviously necessary but not sufficient to know how to compete and grow as a person.

If these aspects are missing, competitive sports at this age can be a source of insecurity. Sport is a school of life only if it teaches how to cope with difficulties and overcome obstacles, in this way developing the young person’s personality. Otherwise it will only be a form of technical expression without a soul.

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The pandemic negative effects on physical activity on youth

Published on July 26, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: attività fisica, Covid-19, pandemia, sedentarietà, sport.

Global Changes in Child and Adolescent Physical Activity During the COVID-19 Pandemic. A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Ross D. Neville, Kimberley D. Lakes,Will G. Hopkins, Giampiero Tarantino, Catherine E. Draper, Rosemary Beck, Sheri Madigan.

JAMA Pediatr. Published online July 11, 2022.

This meta-analysis provides timely estimates of changes in child and adolescent physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. By pooling estimates across 22 studies from a range of global settings that included 14 216 participants, we demonstrated that the duration of engagement in total daily physical activity decreased by 20%, irrespective of prepandemic baseline levels. Through moderation analysis, we showed that this reduction was larger for physical activity at higher intensities. Specifically, the average reduction in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day during COVID-19 (17 minutes) represents a reduction of almost one-third of the daily dose of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity recommended for young children (~3-5 years) and school-going children and adolescents (~5-18 years) to promote good physical health and psychosocial functioning.

We found that longer durations between pre- and post-assessment were associated with larger reductions in physical activity. It is possible that the cumulative toll of the pandemic has compounded over time to negatively affect children and adolescents,⁶³ including their levels of physical activity. This aligns with a recent meta-analysis on youth mental health,¹⁸ which found that the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms increased across time during the pandemic. The temporal aspect of our findings is also broadly in line with research on the psychology of habit,⁶⁴^,65 which suggests that habits are contingent on the types of stability cues that have been significantly disrupted during the pandemic. Most of the known multicomponent, family, social, and community support mechanisms of child and adolescent physical activity⁶⁶ were unavailable during COVID-19. This undoubtedly created a “perfect storm” for habit discontinuity⁶⁵ in the context of child and adolescent physical activity.⁶⁷ Research has also shown that young children with consistent access and permission to use outdoor spaces during COVID-19 had better physical activity outcomes.⁵⁰ These children exhibited smaller reductions in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and were approximately 2 times more likely to meet physical activity guidelines during COVID-19. Taken together, changes in restrictions and the unpredictability of access to typical physical activity outlets for children and adolescents have likely contributed to changes in their physical activity levels and to greater engagement in displacement activities (eg, screen time¹²) that risk promoting an increasingly sedentary “new normal.”⁶⁸

We found that reductions in physical activity during the pandemic were larger for samples at higher latitudes, corresponding to regions of the globe where restrictions coincided with a seasonal transition into the summer months. This finding is consistent with prepandemic data showing that unstructured summer days during school holidays can have negative associations with both academic and physical health behaviors,⁶⁹^-71 often referred to as the “summer slide.”⁷² A recent estimate of such a summertime reduction of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of 11.4 minutes⁶⁹ is substantially lower (~ 50%) than the pooled estimate from our meta-analysis, however. This suggests a substantial intensification during the pandemic of the usual summer slide into physical inactivity,⁷⁰ which warrants particular attention from policy makers seeking to help children “sit less and play more,”⁷³ as targeted initiatives will be needed as children emerge into the summer months.

There is an urgent need for public health initiatives to revive young people’s interest in, and support their demand for, physical activity during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of practice implications, research on physical activity promotion and maintenance during childhood consistently shows that multicomponent, multimodal, and multioutcome interventions work best.⁷^,66 Therefore, public health campaigns can have greater effect if they are child-centered, target a variety of physical activity modalities, and incorporate the family unit and wider community as co-constructors of lasting physical activity behavior change.

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The sport psychologist career

Published on June 11, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: carriera, psicologo, sport.

I want to be repetitive by saying that, in Italy, probably one of the primary causes of the reduced recognition and affirmation of the professional role of the sport psychologist is the psychologists themselves.
This weekend the master’s program we organized in Milan ends, and the participants presented the project work of their internship period. Well in some sports clubs a psychologist was already present or had worked in the recent past. In one swimming club the colleague had left a totally negative perception of himself, in another as many as two psychologists had taken turns and never completed the work because after a few months they had left, in another case the psychologist only did online interventions, in another he was a relative of the president and was never on the field, and in yet another he only took care of the competitive team but did nothing with the younger ones.

Now in all these situations the Master’s psychologists intervened, and thanks instead to their effective counseling approach they managed to convey another perception of our profession and were ultimately appreciated for the work they did. Of course they had the supervision of Daniela Sepio and myself and were provided with appropriate tools but the success factor was their professional willingness to get in touch with the sports environment to understand its needs and formulate possible responses.

On the other hand, I regret that many colleagues lack this sensitivity and the enthusiasm necessary to understand that without proper training they will never be able to pursue this profession. I also regret that those who organize master’s degrees in psychology do not understand that only through internships, as is the case in every profession, can one really test oneself and how much one is learning.

I also wonder if this might not be due to the fact that many master’s degree directors, themselves, have had only a reduced experience in the counseling world and often limited to one age group or only one sport.
Those who would like to know more can contact me.

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How it’s changed the sport in the last 40 years

Published on January 31, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: 40 anni, sport.

Sport has changed dramatically in the last 40 years and I believe that its different organization has greatly influenced the motivation and personality development of young people.

Once upon a time it was the young people who organized themselves and this approach stimulated them to take on responsibilities regarding the choice of the game, its rules, refereeing and choice of teammates. Today, most of these issues do not affect them because they play only in organized structures led by adults. Obviously, sport will not go back to an organization run by young people, but what skills this way of playing sport developed and how the same kind of skills can be developed today.

Today: Kids only play and participate in sports when adults formally organize them. The rest of the time they play video versions of sports on Playstations. You rarely see children organizing informal, real-world games on their own.

40 years ago: Children of all ages went to play in the backyard, at the oratory, or on a vacant lot near their homes.

Today: Children play on perfectly manicured and lined fields.
40 years ago: Children played against other neighborhood children of all ages and had to improve to compete with the older kids. They often played alone or with each other, throwing a ball against a brick wall to get better.

Today: Children attend dedicated sports facilities where an instructor teaches them only one sport. They attend different summer camps.
40 years ago: Children chose their teams by picking the best first and then the others.

Today: The team is made up of the coach.
40 years ago: Kids made up their own rules to fit the place they played.

40 years ago: You had to develop leadership skills to influence who was on your team, receive passes and be recognized as one to have on the team. Today: Adults make the decisions in youth sports: they choose the teams and how to play.

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Master in Sport Psychology

Published on January 11, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: master, psicologi, psicologia, sport.

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Mental health: something is moving in the sport world

Published on October 1, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: atleti, genitori, salute mentale, sport.

Let’s read this text and try to understand that mental health even in sports is a topic to be addressed without hiding behind medals won and a machista culture or more simply behind the indifference of the “I don’t care” philosophy.

CHICAGO, Sept. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – Hilinski’s Hope Foundation (H3H), founded by Mark and Kym Hilinski to honor the legacy of their son Tyler, today announced that 50+ schools around the country will be participating in the second annual College Football Mental Health Week. The week will focus on a series of mental health initiatives, beginning October 2, which will honor Tyler, those lost, and those suffering, and will culminate on October 9.

To date schools from around the country are participating including:

Hilinski’s Hope 2021 Schools

• Baylor University	• Northwestern University	• University of Colorado-Boulder
• Brigham-Young University	• North Carolina State	• University of Dayton
• Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	• North Dakota State University	• University of Georgia
• Clemson University	• North Greenville University	• University of Massachusetts
• Drake University	• Northern Arizona University	• University of Miami
• Duquesne University	• Oklahoma State University	• University of Missouri
• Eastern Washington University	• Oregon State University	• University of Mississippi
• Florida State University	• Pomona College	• University of San Diego
• Georgetown University	• Sacramento State	• University of South Carolina
• Georgia Southern University	• Southern Methodist University	• University of South Florida
• Idaho State University	• Stanford University	• University of Southern California
• Kansas State University	• Stetson University	• University of Tennessee Knoxville
• Lamar University	• Stevenson University	• University of Utah
• Lehigh University	• Texas A&M	• University of Washington
• Liberty University	• Texas Tech University	• Washington State University
• Louisiana State University	• Tufts University	• West Virginia University
• Louisiana Tech University	• University of Alabama	• Whitworth University
• Mercyhurst University	• University of Arkansas
• Middlebury College	• University of Arizona
• Mississippi State University	• UC Berkeley
	• University of Buffalo

“We are so honored that more than 50 schools nationwide will be participating in this year’s mental health awareness week,” said Mark Hilinski. “This year, more than ever, student-athlete mental health has been in the spotlight and while conversation around mental illness can be tough and even at times uncomfortable, it is absolutely critical for the overall health and well-being of our student-athletes. Throughout the last year, we’ve continued to see support from schools, fans, students and parents as they join us in the fight against mental illness and that is a major piece of the puzzle that will help destigmatize mental illness and increase mental health resources. We miss Tyler every single day, but we are grateful to know that what we are doing is making a difference and that he would be proud of us.”

“The College Football Playoff Foundation is happy to support Hilinski’s Hope during College Football Mental Health Week to eliminate stigma and increase mental health resources across the county,” said Britton Banowsky, Executive Director of College Football Playoff Foundation. “We see teachers and coaches often taking on responsibilities related to the basic needs of their students and student-athletes, and this includes mental health. We hope these mental health resources can make a difference in providing what they need to better support their students.”

Participating schools have committed to at least one of the following during the week: showcasing a lime green ribbon on all players helmets with a “3″ in the middle to honor Tyler Hilinski and remember those lost and those suffering in silence; encouraging students, parents, alumni, and fans to participate in showing solidarity, eliminating stigma around mental health by holding three fingers in the sky during the first play of the third quarter; participating in an internal assessment to evaluate how universities are following best practices in terms of mental health programs and include talks and trainings on campus for players, coaches, and staff.

Additionally, on Wednesday, Oct. 6 Hilinski’s Hope will host a mental health training open to student-athletes nationwide. Registration link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7124947916045695501.

To learn more and/or get involved with Hilinski’s Hope Foundation please visit https://www.hilinskishope.org/cfb-mental-health-week.

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New ebook: the pandemic in sport

Published on February 3, 2021 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Libri, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: Covid-19, ebook, pandemia, sport.

The year 2020 is gone and it will be remembered as the worst year of the last 75 years, for having involved the entire world in a crisis, initially a health crisis, which became a planetary pandemic that has disrupted the lives of every person, causing millions of victims, destroying a significant part of the world economy and radically changing the way we work and interact with others. I am a psychologist and I deal with sport and the well-being of those who practice it, whether they are champions and professionals or individuals who carry out this activity as a lifestyle. The pandemic has forced us to stay home, physical distancing and eliminate sports activity as we knew it. Managing movement and sporting activity has become a source of additional stress that has produced negative psychological effects on people who even engage in recreational activity, among athletes who play sports professionally, and people with disabilities who benefit so obviously from engaging in sports on an ongoing basis.

Starting from these considerations, I began to talk about this situation on my blog, in order to better understand the effects of the pandemic on people and to provide guidance on how to practice sports, respecting the rules to cope with and reduce the possibility of contagion. The book represents a journey that started at the beginning of March, which has led me to talk about this issue until now that we are approaching the beginning of the new year. It talks about the mindset of those who don’t follow the rules, how one can deal with the anxiety brought about by this radical change in daily life, how one can train while staying at home and the reasons why it is good to be active and not suffer this situation. In addition, guidance is given to coaches on how not to give up their leadership role and to athletes on how to train in the absence of competition. Finally, I present practical tips and ways to think about and experience this unique and totally unexpected time.

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Results at any price?

Published on November 21, 2020 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: Michael Phelps, psicopatologia, sport.

Try not to be among those who neglect the lives of athletes and do not care about their well-being.

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History of the beginnings of psychological counseling in sport

Published on November 4, 2020 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: consulenza, psicologica, sport, storia.

The first psychological counseling programs in the field of sport can already be traced back to the 1920s thanks to the pioneering work of Coleman Griffith in the United States and Avksentii Puni in the Soviet Union, but it takes until the 1970s for the sports sciences to be recognized as a field of knowledge that can provide useful information to improve training and sports performance and considered, at the same time, as an interesting field of research for the academic world (Weinberg and Gould, 2019; Ryba, Stambulova, and Wrisberg, 2005).

In top-level sport, the first codified experiences of psychological preparation date back to 1962 when the Japanese Olympic Committee in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics established a section dedicated to the mental training of athletes (Tomita, 1975). The first massive presence of psychologists at the Olympic Games was however only since the Los Angeles Olympics, where as many as 20 sports psychologists will participate for the Canada team. It is since 1988, Seoul Olympics, that most industrialized countries but also developing nations (Nigeria, Cuba, Colombia, and Algeria) began to make systematic use of psychological counseling services (Salmela, 1992).

Initially, since the 1960s, mental training has been a system based on the use of competitive anxiety management techniques and the use of mental rehearsal to improve sports performance. In North America on 1971 the first programs were carried out by Richard Suinn with the Alpine ski team, developing his own psychological preparation program based on the integration of relaxation techniques and mental imagination.

In Europe, the initial research on psychological training was conducted, as in North America, on the role of mental repetition by German scholars, giving it the name of ideomotor training, however, and highlighting that in the psychological regulation of sports action this type of activity has three functions (Frester, 1985). The first is a function programming the motor action that appears through the repetitions performed; the second is represented by the training function, since it promotes the process of improvement and stabilization of performance; the third is the regulatory function that promotes the process of control and correction of motor action. It is recognized, as proposed by Suinn, that the ideomotor reproduction is better if the willingness to mental representation is increased previously with relaxation methods.

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