Aristotle said that “We are what we do consistently. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” By transferring this statement in the football world means, for example, that Roma is building in these first eight matches a positive habit that it’s the basis of excellence. Juventus, on the contrary, having taken 10 goals and lost the fighting spirit that distinguished it from other teams has to change at all costs, because what it does is creating a habit to react insufficiently. Basically habits guide our practices and Antonio Conte’s job must be to eradicate them, because the team is learning not to react collectively and there is nothing more negative.
Tag Archive for 'squadra'
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See the interview with Antonio Conte is embarrassing, because he cannot find reasons to explain the absence of Juventus today after the 70th of the second time against Fiorentina. Trivial errors: first goal on a penalty kick; second, Buffon error; third, Fiorentina player let alone as if it was a recreational match, and the last, the counterattack. Fifteen minutes in which Juventus was physically present on the field and not mentally. Not only the team did not struggle, it did not really play. It’s hard to see how the team that in the last two years has made of the total commitment its winning key now it’s missing it, not just today, because in this championship it has taken already 10 goals . Players tired and mentally satisfied? It is notpossible to play for three consecutive years always at the best and this is the way in which it occurs? Impatience with a leader who always remember to the players the value of the hard work? The team higher class level of this year were led to believe that you can win by engaging less? Only Conte and the team may know. Waiting for Real Madrid.
The change of Roma attitude during the matches and its consequences: best play, individual fighting spirit, strong cohesion and sense of belonging is a positive not only for Roma, first in the championship, but for Italian football. The first step towards this change came from the different organization of the management, clearer, with no overlap in key leadership roles, which led to the choice of the players to be sold and which ones to enter, paying attention to the budgetary needs and to take not only good players but also with the personality needed to play at a high level. The second step is represented by the choice of a coach not glamorous or philosopher but concrete. From the psychological point of view he is like the classic father’s harsh but fair; so players have felt respected and from this new environment and the interweaving of these relations was born the actual team condition. This result shows that in order to win a team must have an effective corporate organization and a coach (the team leader) that enhances the players, not excluding them for a personal prejudice and enforcing rules simple and well defined. Only then starts the technical and tactical coaching.
It was held at the Sports School of Italian Olympic Committee a workshop about the role of different professionals, who work in the national team before and during major sport events. In relation to the role of the sport psychologist I have highlighted what are the main activities to be carried out:
- The essential psychological preparation has been carried out previously
- Do not introduce new strategies and procedures, but to help athletes to follow their habits
- The psychologist should not be obsessed with “doing”
- Provide 24 hours of service and availability to advise in any environment
- The sport psychologist must be prepared to the uniqueness of the Olympic Games
- Follow the program prepared earlier
- Being responsive and effective
- Promote the use of routine and daily plans
- Help athletes stay focused on the competition without being distracted from the atmosphere of the Olympic village
- Helping athletes and coaches not to put too much emphasis on race
- Helping the team to create a positive atmosphere and facilitating effective solutions
- Being psychologically prepared to support the coaches
- Develop strategies for the management of interpersonal relationships
- Check and manage the interpersonal communication between staff members: free time management, relations with the head of team delegation and federal managers, media management
Some ideas from Jonny Wilkinson new book (Rugby quantique, with Etienne Klein e Jean Iliopoulos) useful for our reflexions.
“During the coaching you should do your very best. Means that it is not enough to pass the ball between the posts, but exactly in the middle.”
“Even before I kick, I feel the point at which I will be in contact with the ball. In my mind I see the exact trajectory of the ball.”
“The reason why I train mentally, is that in this way I can have a workout absolutely perfect.”
“I am never satisfied with what I do on the field. For this reason I continue to work after training with sessions of two or three hours. My goal is to create a confidence climate around me, to build strong and useful habits supporting me. ”
“Rugby is the real team play, yes. As I said, we are always connected. It’s impossible to have the opportunity to score a punishment without the men in the fray.”
“Some time ago I read that the best way to achieve our goals is to help others achieve theirs. I am deeply convinced.”
Giacomo Sintini is a Italian volleyball player, setter of the Italian champion team. But last year the situation was very different. Jack is not the same as before, has continuous pain in the ribs and the scapula. Take a few tests to understand that the situation is serious. “The severe pain that I felt, explains Jack, were due to the continuous micro-fractures in the ribs. But the trauma of the sport have nothing to do. Within a bone there was a tumor lesion continues to grow more and more able to reduce the ribs and cause me great pain. It was a stage IV lymphoma development. “A diagnosis ruthless able to knock anyone, even a tough guy like James Sintini. “It’s all over. You cannot think like that when they tell you that you have a cancer. The hematologists had confirmed that the situation was bad enough. Me and my family remained petrified, completely in despair”says Sintini. Today defeated this disease, thanks to the care received, but he himself said that it was a real team effort did with the doctors and his family, which has prevented even in the most painful not to lose hope power to heal. (www.fondazioneveronesi.it/la-tua-salute/giro-d-italia/guarire-grazie-alla-ricerca-il-cancro-si-pu-sconfiggere-parola-di-giacomo-sintini/4504)
In the same survey conducted a few years ago by the U.S. Olympic Committee conducted interviews with the athletes of US Olympic team in the period 1984-1998, they were asked what were for them most important coach’s skills.
These athletes ranked at the the top, the ability to teach skills and the ability to motivate and encourage. Following the more typically skills related to the training knowledge and strategic knowledge of sport. Therefore, given that the coaches must be able to plan and conduct their work technically, however, are their interpersonal and psychological skills to make effective their work. These data should make used by those who organize training courses for coaches, in which most of the hours are devoted exclusively to the technical component of this work and little time is dedicated to the development of those skills that instead the top athletes perceive decisive for their success.
Recent alternating results of many football teams (Roma, Inter, Napoli and Milan) come also from their mental weaknesses. Combativeness and play continuity it seems to me two problems suffered by these football teams. Continuity of the game is knowing what to do and do it, also during the negative moments of the game or whenthe team is under pressure by the opponents. In these situations the players have to think: “This is my job and I have to go do it.” In these difficult moments, each player must return to the basic elements of his performance, he must be engaged in to keep things simple with the knowledge that in this way the opponents will feel his determination and they may feel under pressure to not be able to make the play they want. Play with continuity is closely associated with the fighting spirit, that is the attitude that every player has to show when he is in the field. Combativeness and continuity of play must therefore always be present regardless of the team technical and tactical level, because they determine the attitude with which each team has to face the game. Renounce to have this play style or show it intermittently is, in my opinion, one of the major mental errors that every coach should be taught to avoid.
These days I attended futsal matches and I realized that it is an evolution of the traditional football from which it differs very significantly. Of course it is played with a ball, there is a goalkeeper and win the team that makes more goals but in other respects is another sport. Here in what in my opinion is different:
- during a time players can alternate every 3/4 minutes
- in the last two minutes the team can make more goals and overturn the result
- the error of a player can be fatal and determine one goal
- it is a game of high intensity, with continuous shots that reduce mental and physical energies of the players
- reaction times and decision must be very fast
- each player must always be ready to defend and attack
- the expulsion of a player determines a significant advantage to the opposing team
- it is required a constant and high level of coordination and cooperation
- the team have to play with high-intensity until the last second
- it requires a continuous emotional control over the harmful moods
Le squadre parlano di progetto e gli allenatori vengono mandati via anche dopo pochi mesi. Questa è l’esperienza attuale del nostro calcio e questi due fatti di realtà ovviamente si contraddicono a vicenda. Un progetto richiede stabilità nell’impiego delle risorse (finanziarie, organizzative e umane) e ha senso solo se queste si coniugano insieme con un’altra variabile rappresentata dal tempo. Spesso gli allenatori vengono mandati via per le bizze dei presidenti e a questo non c’è rimedio. Altra volte perché s’incolpano della mancanza di risultati, come nel caso di Luis Enrique, che a mio avviso non ha compreso del tutto l’ambiente nel quale ha lavorato. Sbaglierò ma mi sembra si sia intristito strada facendo e questo non ha fatto bene a lui e alla squadra. Il Napoli ha chiuso un ciclo basato “sulla novità e entusiasmo” ora deve decidere (il suo presidente) se diventare una grande squadra o restare una buona squadra. L’allenatore sarà sempre lo stesso? In altre parole: è l’allenatore adatto per un livello superiore? Un’altra questione che influenza la durata riguarda lo stress percepito dall’allenatore: Guardiola se ne è andato per riposarsi. E poi ancora, mi sembra sia stato Trapattoni a dire che un allenatore non può restare più di cinque anni sulla stessa panchina, perché s’insinua una sorta di abitudine che deteriora la voglia di migliorarsi. Ovviamente vi è l’eccezione di Ferguson. In sostanza vi sono molti fattori che determinano la durata sulla stessa panchina e qualcuno dovrebbe studiare questi aspetti. Direi che gli allenatori hanno bisogno sempre di nuovi stimoli e così le squadre, quindi alcuni anni (5?) sono già un gran successo poi bisogna cambiare. Questo vale anche negli altri sport di squadra: Messina, Rudic e Velasco per ricordare solo tre nomi non allenano più in Italia da tempo.
