Tag Archive for 'umore'

Mood is relevant to perform at the best

Published on May 17, 2023 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: mood, team, umore.

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.

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The fragile mood of the Italian volleyball team

Published on October 14, 2022 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: Brasile, Mazzanti, pallavolo, umore.

“It hurts,” says women’s Italian national volleyball team coach Davide Mazzanti at the end of the match lost to Brazil in the semifinals of the world championships. “We realized from the start that it was going to be a tiring match for us; even in the difficulties however we had a chance to turn the match around, but there is no doubt that that final third set at the psychological level cut us off a bit. In the fourth set in fact we did not come back on the court with the right lucidity, with the set we also lost the awareness that we could stay ahead of them. Tonight’s was a match in which we should have chosen our shots well and instead we always waited too long. It will be difficult on Saturday because it is not the final we would have liked to play; now we have some time to look at each other and go on the court to do ours.”

This assessment allows us to understand what should be meant by psychological pressure when playing absolute level games. Even just a mistake like Egonu’s in the final of the third set that would have allowed Italy to go 2-1 can have a deadly negative effect cut the legs off as Mazzanti said. These facts tell us how high the level of psychological stress teams experience and how the mental balance can be broken by individual episodes.

This is the beauty of absolute level sports not only the quality of the game but how much this is determined by the psychological condition which in turn can change as a result of individual episodes. Everything can change in an instant and it is extremely difficult to know how to react and not suffer these moments. The solution goes beyond training, mental preparation and having already played matches at this level. We need players who can convey confidence and encouragement continuously and with intensity, because if it is true that individual episodes change the mood of the team, then it can also be in a positive sense and, therefore, someone has to take this responsibility.

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The mood influences the performance of soccer teams

Published on November 30, 2020 in Allenatori, Calcio, Corsa, Generale, Giovani, Mental coaching, Olimpiadi, Stress, Tennis and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: squadre, umore.

Mood is certainly one of the psychological aspects that can block or make a performance flourish. In soccer the issue is more complex, it is not an individual sport where you only have to control only yourself. The negative mood can become a kind of virus that spreads creating insecurity in the game even in professional footballers. Ronaldo’s orphaned Juve seems to lose the way to victory and conviction, Napoli maybe pushed by Maradona’s memory manages to play and win an excellent match against Roma, Inter immediately recovers from the defeat in Champions and beats a team that is playing an excellent championship (Sassuolo), Lazio after a convincing match in Europe also loses in the league.

These ups and downs are attributable to various causes, one of which I am convinced is psychological and concerns the mood management of the team and individual players. Being in a good mood is a contagious emotion that can ward off fatigue and insecurity and improve collaboration and competitiveness.

How good are these teams in the mood with their sudden ups and downs? How much does the coach care about this psychological dimension? Obviously we do not know because in Italy the coaches do not consider the psychologist as part of their staff.

Where for example in the United Kingdom this dimension is considered these are the considerations on this issue.

Understand what is the positive mood of the team
Develop a set of strategies to encourage this type of mood
Appreciate that the coach and the staff are role models showing this kind of emotions
Balancing demands for optimal performance with the need for effective relationships
Recruit players with a positive character and stable mood as they are selected for their talent
Be aware of mood reducing factors
Act quickly to defeat the negative potential.

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Magic Johnson and team cohesion: An old story always true

Published on March 8, 2018 in Allenatori, Calcio, Generale, Giovani and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: Basket, coesione, Magic Earving Johnson, mood, pallacanestro, Pat Riley, squadra, umore.

In basketball the cohesion is a need to achieve the team primary goal: cope with the opponents with confidence and grit. The internal rivalries, if not limited to few episodes are wasted energies and keep the players engaged in activities with a disruptive impact on training and match. The team must always think in terms of US and the coach should encourage the participation of players, listen them, treat everyone with the same criteria and avoid favoritism, support altruistic behaviors and reduce the individualistic behaviors.

Magic Earvin Johnson’s story is an example of how even a champion have to move from too individualistic behaviors to greater cooperation with the mates. In fact, when Magic played in the Los Angeles Lakers also stood out for his dedication to teamwork: passed and defended rather than thinking about scoring points. It was Magic to explain to his coach Pat Riley as he had established this great attitude.

When he was a little boy, playing Youth League basketball in East Lansing, Michigan, his coach told him he was the best player of the team and he should have to shoot the ball all the time. He did it, scoring most of the points of the team, which won all the time. Despite these victories the other teammates looked miserable, were depressed and nobody thanked or appeared pleased about what he was doing. Magic also was not lucky and he did not want to be this kind of player. He decided to change, becoming more altruistic, defending and passing the ball to the mates. The team mood changed completely and the mates became much more motivated, increased their skills and continued to have success.

What about your team, the players put aside their ego and work to be cohesive independently of the match momentum?

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The questions left out of the mind

Published on March 17, 2014 in Mental coaching. 0 Comments Tags: mente, riscaldamento, routine, umore.

Some specific issues about the mental training of the athletes:

Some believe to have a routine useful to start the competitions, but very often it’s only behavioral to warm-up the body and for the mind at max they listen music.

Usually the athletes don’t know that relaxation is useful not only for controlling the anxiety but also to recover from fatigue, to spleep relaxed, to reduce the tension of every day, to be calm most of the time and in a hurry, to control the jet lag.

Have I the feeling or mood to start well my next session? Or do I start just to start? These two questions are not so common in the athletes’ mind.

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In shooting sports the athlete’s mood determines the performance

Published on March 10, 2014 in Giovani, Mental coaching, Stress and Tiro a volo. 0 Comments Tags: calma, fiducia, giovani, prestazione, tiro a volo, umore.

The last two Sundays I have been with shooters, 16/19 years old, and I realized again how important it’s for them even in training to be supported by a calm and peaceful mood. Trap shooting is a sport that requires before shooting a condition of total concentration followed soon after by a period of relaxation and waiting for about 40 seconds before the next shot. This psychological situation is repeated 25 times, which is the number of shots for each round. The confidence to perform effectively the shot and as a result to hit the target, is based on a mental state of calm that when it fails opens the door for a thousand doubts that hinder the performance. To these young athletes is then required to be 25 times in this state of mind, and especially after having made a mistake it’s not easy to push away the critical thoughts that appear and getting focused on the next shot. Perform this task, to quickly find serenity after an error is an exercise that educates their mind to react more positively otherwise there would be a very real possibility of committing right after another. Thing that can happen on the other hand, as it is impossible not to make mistakes. So this exercise, to relax and focus, must be performed each time, knowing that in any case some plate will not be equally hit, who is more constant in this exercise will improve more quickly than others. In this way the shooters train them to maintain a calm and peaceful mood with the awareness that it’s the basis of the confidence of knowing how to hit the next target.

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Delete dark mood

Published on December 20, 2013 in Generale, Mental coaching and Stress. 0 Comments Tags: correzione, stress, umore.

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The relevance of remembering our successes

Published on February 22, 2013 in Allenatori, Giovani, Mental coaching and Stress. 1 Comment Tags: sconfitte, sucessi, umore, Vigore.

Why to think about your successes and best races is important precisely in moments of difficulty, as after a defeat or a bad run? The explanation is shown in the graphic about the mood states, where it can see that the elite athletes compared to other people show a profile dominated by the state of mind called Vigor, that is a mental condition in which the individual feels strong, full of energy and purposeful, while the mood negative characteristics which are tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion are lower. Mentally relive the best moments of the sporting careers can re-experience this positive state of mind, increasing the confidence to be able to do well the next one.

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- 2 to the start of the Games

Published on July 25, 2012 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: Bolt, Londra 2012, Pellegrini, umore.

There are only 2 days at London 2012, the wait is ending. Many athletes will begin on July 27, for them these last days are critical moments when the tension grows up and they need to know how to handle. The best athletes have personal strategies, Federica Pellegrini has been recharged and rested at home and now is in the bubble created around her, which excludes anyone who is not a carrier of calm and confidence. Bolt gives interviews where he says that he is ready and he will control the stress with his exuberant behaviors until few moments before the start. Some Italian athletes have back to home and they will return to London just for the day of official training before the Olympic competition. So many ways to handle this phase with the goal to find the right mood to be the best in that day.

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Camminare

Published on August 5, 2011 in Generale. 0 Comments Tags: benessere, Camminare, umore.

Se il movimento è vita, camminare è la principale attività vitale che dobbiamo compiere. Quanto mai necessaria oggi che potremmo vivere seduti, passando dal letto, all’auto e all’ufficio e viceversa. Camminare è un’attività a costo zero e chiunque a qualsiasi età in qualsiasi luogo la può fare. L’estate è un buon momento per cominciare a camminare, anche per chi resta in città. Camminare, facendo qualche respiro profondo, aiuta a migliorare l’umore e a siluppare una percezione di se stessi migliore. Perchè non farlo?

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