Tag Archive for 'successo'

The keys of the success

Sport consists of statistics which can explain the fitness and technical expertise of an athlete, rather than the quality of the game and performance. As sport psychologist I want to give some numbers to highlight what needs to be done to aspire to build a winning mentality :

  • 3 - the keys to success : commitment and dedication, family and friends, excellent coaches and staff.
  • 4 - the basic psychological skills: learning from experience, relaxation, positive self-talk and mental repetition.
  • 6 - the stages of the athlete’s career: fun, moving, learn to train, train to train, learn to compete, learn how to win, retirement and career transition.
  • 7 - advanced psychological skills: goal setting, stress management, concentration, race management, performance evaluation, management of extra-sport life, coach -athlete relationship.
  • 700 - the hours of training of a junior athlete.
  • 1,200 - the hours of annual training of top athlete.
  • 10,000 - the hours needed to become expert as athlete.
  • many thousands - the mistakes to accept.

Winning is not everything

Beginning in the 2000s, the purpose of the work of Smith and Smoll, who introduced a system for evaluating coach behavior twenty years earlier, has turned to the study of systems for training youth coaches to be more aware of their own behaviors and to improve them.

Their approach is based on four principles that all coaches should adhere to:

  • Winning is not everything, nor it is the only thing - Young athletes will drop out of the sport if they believe that winning is the only goal to be fulfilled. There are other equally important goals that sports allow them to achieve that must be understood by athletes.
  • Failing is not synonymous with losing - It is important that athletes do not associate that failing and losing mean the same thing.
  • Being successful is not a synonym for winning - Success or failure is not dependent on the outcome of a race. Winning and losing are about the outcome of a competition but do not refer to success and failure.
  • Athletes must learn that success is linked to commitment - They must be taught that they will never be a loser if they try their hardest.

Starting from these principles, they have identified and implemented a training system that has produced extremely effective results.

Tom Brady’s 10 winning rules

  1. Confidence - He is not only confident, but he tries to make his team have the same feeling. According to the player, “In some degrees, I think you can fake until you make it, and I think you can show enthusiasm and confidence even when it’s just beginning. As a leader, you have to bring it to the team.”
  2. Work under pressure - In the past he often lost his temper when he was under pressure. Of course, there is a lot of adrenaline when you are playing, but Brady was often seeing screaming at his coach’s face or at anyone who he believed was on his way. Now he knows how to do under pressure and he became much more mature.
  3. Understand his adversary - Tom Brady doesn’t just spend a lot of time improving his moves and motivating the team. The best way to beat your opponents is by knowing how they think and predicting their next step. Tom Brady knows it, and before a match, he thoroughly analyses the other team and studies their strategies and moves. This dedication gives him and his team advantage on the competition.
  4. Be competitive - Tom Brady is known for being “the most competitive person you will ever meet.” Of course, there are some downsides of it: we have seen his anger when he loses. Teammates revealed that he gave the team a pep-talk to make sure they would win a charity game against an amateur team.
  5. Deals with constructive criticism - Tom Brady is one of the best quarterback of all time. But Bill Belichick, his former coach, didn’t hold back when he needs to call Brady’s attention to his behavior on a match or when he doesn’t deliver what was expected. Brady recognizes the need for that criticism.
  6. Great communication - Tom Brady is a master of communication. Josh McDaniels, the Patriots offensive coordinator, praised Brady for his ability to communicate with players of all ages.
  7. Works hard and love it - ”I just love working hard. I love being part of a team. I love working toward a common goal,” the athlete revealed during an interview. His dedication also motivates the team to be committed and work just as hard as he does.
  8. Have a supportive family – Tom Brady is married to Gisele Bündchen. He has three children, two of them with the Brazilian model, and all the family is very proud of his success and very supportive. Gisele celebrated when Tom Brady won his sixth Super Bowl. She shared a family picture, praising the player for his “tireless commitment, discipline and hard work.”
  9.  Take responsibilities - As a great leader, Tom Brady takes responsibility for his actions and also for his team. When the Patriots were not on their best shape, we often saw the quarterback saying it was his fault. In 2018, after the Patriots lost a game, he affirmed that “it was definitely my fault.”
  10. Take a rest - “Proper sleep has helped me get to where I am today as an athlete, and it is something that I continue to rely on every day,” Brady said. During the offseason, he goes easier on himself and we often see Tom Brady and his family enjoying life on Costa Rica, where they have a house.

Perseverance means success

One of the secrets of successful performance is in continuity or perseverance (as mentioned in the last blog). This is especially evident in situational sports such as team sports but also in individual sports like tennis, table tennis, fencing. In fact, the need to be persevering is present in every human activity and many popular sayings such as: “Don’t do tomorrow what you can do today” are an exhortation to act in this way in daily life.

It is my perception that often successful athletes, compared to their opponents, show greater perseverance/continuity in the game. I am not referring to technical-tactical aspects but to the attitude shown in the field, mostly constant without sudden mood swings. In my opinion, they prevail by virtue of this attitude that enhances their performance. On the contrary, all too often the opponents show excessive emotional reactions in moments of difficulty and visible from the behavioral point of view that damage them.

How to improve? As I see it, athletes should first of all be aware of the value of perseverance on the field while they often give exclusively technical-tactical explanations for their unsatisfactory performance.

“Remember that it doesn’t matter how much you train, but how much your mind is present when you train” (Kobe Bryant). One could start with this statement to assess what these black-out moments are and when they occur in training and in games. Then you should come to prevent them using breathing and concentration techniques adapted to the situations of the sport.

 

Jurgen Klopp’s 10 rules for success

Jurgen Klopp’s 10 rules of success.

  1. Improve your environment - We only have one life and we must do everything we can to make it the best possible. Make people enjoy meeting you for what you are doing to improve their environment.
  2. Build memorable experiences - Play unforgettable games, be curious and eager to play the next game to see what will happen, and that’s what football should be. If you take this attitude, you will be 100% successful.
  3. Live in the moment - if you live in the future, forget that you can change it significantly. If you live in the past, however, it can be good to relive your best moments. But we are in the middle of our lives and if we want to do something for our family and for others we have to be 100% in the present.
  4. Building a family - we are not alone in the world, we must be a group. To succeed, we have to be together with the team and the fans.
  5. Be confident - you have to learn how to deal with hard times and defeats. The most important thing about football is that you are responsible for everyone, so you have to be confident to arrive at the moment when you are ready. It’s always difficult from day one and you take it one step at a time.
  6. Keep trying - when you win it’s great and when you lose it doesn’t mean you’re incapable, you have to be convinced that what matters is to keep trying even if you don’t know how long it will take you to succeed.
  7. Learn from your experience - you don’t have to live in the past but life is so fast that you have to learn to use your own experience or that of other people to avoid the same mistakes.
  8. Be disciplined - Never abandon your goals, always stay focused. Certainly teaching this to young footballers is difficult. It’s much more than believing in it, because you can believe in something but also easily lose that belief, that’s why it’s more important to feel strong in difficult times.
  9. Being passionate - You have to use tactics with your heart. You have to live the game intensely, otherwise it’s boring.
  10. Express energy - Most of the time I’m not an emotional person, but during the game something strange happens and if I saw myself from the outside I’d say: “Are you crazy?”

Antonio Conte: + grit – play schema

When Antonio Conte, Inter coach,  states that “Only in Italy we are fixed on the play schema. Football evolves, it depends on how you attack, on what kind of pressure you apply”; he talks of the need to have determination.

The successful person, whatever is his/her field of action, shows a fierce determination in two ways:

  • extraordinary flexibility and ability to work
  • deep awareness of what he/she really wants

On the contrary, today we tend to emphasize more the value of talent, thus reducing the relevance of every other aspect.

Talent + Effort = Skill
Talent is how quickly you learn when you work hard.

Skill + Effort = Success
Success is what happens when the skills are used with effort.

So, to be successful you need skills and commitment at the highest level and the play schema must support this approach.

10 success rules by Bob Rotella

The things a golf player must do in a competitive round:

  1. Play to play great. Don’t play not to play poorly.
  2. Love the challenge of the day, whatever it may be.
  3. Get out of results and get into process.
  4. Know that nothing will bother or upset you in the golf course, and you will be in great state mind for every shot.
  5. Playing with a feeling that the outcome doesn’t matter is always preferable to caring too much.
  6. Believe fully in yourself so you can play freely.
  7. See where you want the ball to go before every shot.
  8. Be decisive, committed and clear.
  9. Be your own best friend.
  10. Love your wedge and your putter.
Immagine correlata

10 success rules of Tiger Woods

10 questions to become a great coach

10 rules to become a successful coach by John Salmela (1945-2014).

  1. Strive to acquire and implement new tactics and strategies
  2. Maturing as a coach takes time. Be patient and honest with yourself
  3. Just because something worked three years ago does not mean it will work today. Constantly evaluate and adjust your approaches and strategies
  4. Hard work is important and must become an accepted way of life
  5. If you want to excel, be prepared to devote more hours than you originally thought necessary
  6. Find a coaching style that suits your personally and brings the best out in you
  7. Respect is not given, but shared. If you respect your athletes, they will respect you in return
  8. Create en environment that is educational, fun and challenging your athletes
  9. Learn to communicate your thought and beliefs to your athletes
  10. Understand that as a coach, the final decision rests in your hands

Serena Williams’s 10 rules for success