Tag Archive for 'team'

Mood is relevant to perform at the best

Competitive performance is greatly influenced by the emotional variables perceived by athletes involved in team or individual sports. Mood is that fluctuating emotional condition that is associated with any human action. Every athlete experiences moods dominated by vigor, anger, depression, fatigue, confusion and tension that may occur during a competition. Some of these emotions are helpful while others hinder performance.

A recent study investigated how these mood states manifest n young adolescent athletes participating in team and individual sports, below I summarize the findings and recommendations for coaches.

Ladiun, S.D., Abu Talip, N.K., Nikol, L., Kram, S., Mon, D.D. Comparison of Mood State between Team Sports and Individual Sports among Young Athletes. Jurnal Psikologi Malaysia. 2021; 35(2):23-33.

Anger is one of the most frequent states in competitive sports. In this study, no significant difference was found between anger in team sports and individual sports. Anger causes discomfort, bitterness and bad mood in athletes. The results in both individual and team sports caused by spectators and loud cheering from rival team supporters are the same between the two sports.

Despite the non-significant difference in anger between the two types of sports, team sports showed an average of 0.02% higher than individual sports. It can be concluded that the individual sports used in the present study (archery and bowling) probably require more concentration and accuracy with a lower level of anger for optimal performance, while sports (rugby, karate and taekwondo) that require more physical strength may have advantages if athletes have higher anger scores before competition.

Some studies have found that athletes in sports with more physical contact tend to be more aggressive. Aggression can lead to anger, which can improve an athlete’s physical strength. Anger can lead to increased vigor and thus increased motivation. For example, in rugby, anger can lead to aggression. therefore, it increases physical strength and can also increase performance. For example, anger in winning karateka is used to increase self-confidence.

When athletes experience confusion, they also feel uncertain. There is a significant difference in confusion between team sports and individual sports. This may be due to athletes’ lack of recognition of their opponents. Athletes in individual sports tend to feel more nervous and uncertain in performing because they do not know the performance of their opponents. Therefore, this makes it more difficult for individual athletes to plan a strategy for competition. On the other hand, members of a team sport more easily recognize the most appropriate and best tactical and technical strategies for dealing with rivals in competition. This may explain the feeling of confusion that individual athletes experience compared to team sports.

When athletes experience fatigue, they feel exhausted, worn out, sleepy and tired. The results showed a significant difference between the two types of sports. Individual sports showed a higher perception of fatigue than team sports. Individual athletes significantly feel fatigue because they train alone with coaches and wrestle individually with other athletes.

Fatigue is related to feelings of panic, anxiety, worry and nervousness. The results showed that there is no significant difference in tension between team sports and individual sports. This shows that all athletes, regardless of the type of sport, experience the same amount of tension. In addition to this, it also showed that coaches and trainers put the same amount of concentration and attention on both team sports athletes and individual sports athletes, since the purpose of participating in a competition is to give the athlete’s personal best or to win. This produces great tension in athletes.

It has been found that the average of confusion, fatigue and depression is higher in individual sports. Meanwhile, team sports allow athletes to share, discuss problems and support each other within the team, resulting in less confusion, fatigue and depression. This contributes to increased confidence and team spirit.

Vigor and anger were higher in team sports because anger can increase vigor and thus produce better physical strength in team sports.

It is critical to assess athletes’ moods before competition. Coaches should focus on athletes’ psychology in addition to physical preparation because it is believed that psychology comprises 10% of training, whereas in competition, stated psychology can influence 90% of performance.

Recommendations

Future researchers should investigate this topic further by integrating the effect of mood states with results (victory or defeat). This will help to investigate or review the effect and relationship between mood states and performance outcome (winning/losing). This will be significantly useful for coaches, athletes and sports scientists to adjust and set the appropriate mood before and during competition.

The results of the study can be applied as pre-competition mood states. Therefore, these results enable coaches, sports psychologists and athletes to recognize athletes’ psychological states before the events and prepare the necessary psychological methods or solutions, including imagination, self-talk and peep-talk, in order to adjust the appropriate mood state to improve the athlete’s performance/physical strength in sports.

These results can help train athletes with a better ability to control emotions, especially before and during competition.

Are you a team builder?

Team Building: The ability to develop and maintain relationships with others, encouraging collaboration and mutual support among the different parts of a team.

Being a team builder represents an essential element in a leading manager of the third millennium. Until a few years ago, in sports as in business, the communication between coach/manager and athlete/collaborator was such that it was much more important for the latter to follow the instructions given to them, but in recent years the situation has changed a great deal in both areas. The increase in competitiveness, the need to succeed, the demand for greater commitment and the need to take full responsibility for one’s own performance, together with the consequent breaking down of the hierarchical pyramid, has required a far greater level of participation, problem-solving competence and group cohesion than was the case years ago. This has required the leaders themselves to be cohesion promoters and to engage the people on the team in a relationship of intense collaboration geared toward success and personal development.

  • Reflect on the way your team operates. Does the hierarchical structure predominantly determine the rules of behavior, or is exchange and cooperation the engine that makes your group pursue results?

The team builder must know how to help athletes identify and achieve their goals and be genuinely interested in their athletic and personal development. Although winning is important or rather as Boniperti, former president of Juventus, used to say: “Winning is not important, it’s the only thing that matters”, it is necessary to foster the development of the athlete.

The basic idea is that you need to help athletes and teammates to develop independent, creative thinking, which leads them to be individuals responsible for their choices. It is necessary to develop self-discipline and learn to manage one’s time and priorities. There will be ups and downs, obstacles along the way but in the end those who survive these particularly challenging demands or have even achieved their goals what more could they want in terms of rewarding experiences?

Carlo Ancelotti talks about football and team mind

Interesting interview at Carlo Ancelotti on ilnapolista, read it.

Here some ideas:

Pochi minuti di conversazione e siamo già a mai fuorigioco e a un elogio dell’Atletico Madrid. Allora, in riferimento al match di Champions con la Juventus, gli riferiamo dell’ardore di Fabio Capello nell’opporsi all’equivalenza Simeone-brutto calcio.

«L’Atletico Madrid non gioca male, ti fa giocar male. Non ti fa giocare come tu vorresti. Per tanti motivi. Innanzitutto perché sono molto ben organizzati. Ma anche per la loro struttura psicologica. Sono molto aggressivi in tutte le situazioni. Anche con l’arbitro. Nel tempo, sono  migliorati. Adesso giocano più a calcio, anche se giocano un calcio che possiamo definire diverso dalla normalità. Cercano molto la sostanza e poco l’estetica.

A lei piace?

«Sì – la risposta è secca -, è un calcio che mi piace».

A questo punto insistiamo: le piacerebbe che il suo Napoli giocasse come l’Atletico Madrid?

«Io credo che alla fine la qualità del gioco paga sempre, però la qualità del gioco deve essere supportata da tanti altri valori altrettanto importanti che sono la determinazione, la cattiveria in certe circostanze, la personalità, la responsabilità che uno si deve prendere. Quella che voi a Napoli chiamate cazzimma. Mi piacerebbe un Napoli così».

Change the team mood to start again to win

Solskjær is the new manager of Manchester United who is getting a series of incredible positive results with a team in full crisis. He certainly could not change the play from one week to the next and his focus has been oriented on the only thing he could do: he set himself the goal of changing the mentality, working on the mood of the players.

He said  “my job has been to speak to the players, to get to know their feelings, their confidence levels, and how they feel about their situation. I give them some guidelines of course, but there has been lots of talk on freedom of expression…they are good players and it’s up to them to use their imagination, their creativity and just enjoy playing for this club, because that is the best time of your life…”

This mental approach allowed to play with great intensity  and confidence, but even more.

This experience tell us that if a team want to play showing mental readiness it’s necessary to permit the players to express themselves freely, knowing that whatever happens in the pitch, the team will always express itself at its best.

What motivation is for Arrigo Sacchi

Listen from Arrigo Sacchi what does it mean for him motivation, training and have a dream.

Risultati immagini per arrigo sacchi motivazione

Sydney-Hobart: 29 retirees

Roma, too under pressure for the responsibility

All the Brazil will play with its team

Brazil at this moment is holding its breath, everyday life has stopped all people now are waiting and in few hours they will play as the team on the pitch the match with Germany.

A friend, sport psychologist, John Salmela from Belo Horizonte where he lived for many years wrote to me yesterday:

“It is total silence here in my world in Brazil. There was no game yesterday nor today. I seems like I am in Samuel Becketts´ play, Waiting for Godot! … But life will change tomorrow with the game between Brazil and Germany in Belo Horizonte! The city has been completely electrified, welcoming and generous, but since we are off on the coast, few foreigners know about Belo, although it has 5 million inhabitants. So, as I did in the three previous games and since we live about 3 km from the Mineirão stadium, I go out in my car and pick up 4-5 fans from different countries (Iran, Costa Rica, England), and drive the  500 m from the stadium. They cannot believe what I did, and will do so tomorrow with the Germans while trying not to bring up Hitler´s name. Enjoy the Cup if you can, but you can be certain that I will be either living or dying.”