By Dr. Luca Taverna - Mental Coach and training
All of you will have happened to notice, in first person or on an athlete of your reference, how there are days in which all the gestures (even those considered more difficult) are easily succeeded, with impressive effectiveness and days in which, instead, they are not successful. to do anything that seemed so simple.
Let's think for a moment.
Can my technical knowledge of gestures have changed overnight? Can I have deleted some pieces of movement? Can I find myself, from one day to the next, in such a different and penalizing state of physical form? The experience of sportsmen or in any case logic will lead you to answer all the previous questions with a big NO.
Body, mind and emotions are inextricably linked parts: this is why it is no longer enough to train only the body and technique to achieve true personal well-being and excellence.
The mind and emotions also want their share! These can act as a real catalyst and accelerator of results or be the most drastic of the brakes: the trick is "knowing how to use them to our advantage!".
Training intended as a process aimed at improving sports performance has, up to now, considered two main aspects, the technical-tactical one and, subsequently, that relating to the physical preparation of athletes. Training plans, annual programs and multiannuals, were developed by placing in a central position, as a primary objective, the technical and tactical preparation of the athletes, raising these two components to unique and indispensable factors for obtaining the best achievable performance.
In recent years, the sports movement has realized that the optimal performance of an athlete cannot be based only on the baggage of technical-tactical knowledge, but that optimal physical preparation represents the best prerequisite for optimizing performance.
To develop this trend, here is the arrival of the specialists in athletic training and their inclusion in the technical staff of most of the clubs. Since the 1980s, there has therefore been a specialization of functions and a necessary division of tasks between the " coach, who plans the technical-tactical work, and the athletic trainer who is concerned with developing the organic conditions for achieving maximum performance.
A "further in-depth analysis of sports performance highlights with disconcerting clarity that the performance model of team games but also of individual sports was not represented by a combination of factors but rather by a triad that can be graphically represented in this way:
The mental aspect of sports performance represents precisely the element that closes the triangle of factors that determine the success of a training program.
Let's start with what is the final goal of mental training: to train the abilities and potential of our mind in order to express the full potential of the individual athlete or the entire team at levels of excellence, enhancing and enhancing their strengths. and going to contrast, with the right attitude and the right mental preparation, the areas of weakness.
This being the case, it is therefore evident that an "adequate mental preparation reaches its maximum result when it joins and is grafted onto an" equally good and accurate technical-tactical and physical-athletic preparation.
The three components all play a fundamental role and, if the goal is that of maximum performance, none can ignore the others and one completes and enhances the other. Just as every single part making up the performance performs a "team effort" in order to achieve the final goal, so we believe that the role of the Mental Coach must be interpreted within the staff of a company: a professional who works with the team and with individual athletes, who moves in a synergistic, coordinated and aligned with what was decided and agreed with the technical part.
In any case, one thing should be emphasized, the key word in "sports mental training" is "training"!
There are no tricks, there are no magic or magic formulas, all the tools we use in the mental preparation of athletes work and work with concretely measurable results if used and trained with commitment and continuity! Just as a person who has never played sports, if followed by a good coach whose indications he follows, improves his technical skills; as well as a person who has never done physical activity, if followed by a good athletic trainer whose indications he follows, improves his strength and endurance skills; so any athlete who has never consciously trained his mind, if followed by a good Mental Coach whose instructions he follows, will improve his performance ... and this is always true, inevitable and natural! According to research conducted by the British Psychological Society (Concentration Skills Training in Sport - Greenlees and Moran), in fact, mental training (done professionally) can increase the results of sports performance by over 50%.
Ok great ... so? What is it about? What does a mental coach actually do with athletes?
First of all, when we are contacted (in the case of individual athletes) the first thing we do is set goals: "Where do you want to go? What do you want?" are the first questions that are asked. After understanding the objectives (which generally, speaking of athletes, are linked to the improvement of performance, the effective management of moods, the improvement of concentration and attention, the ability to give the best in decisive moments, ability to improve the quality and intensity of performance, both in training and in competition, to develop one's personal leadership, to maintain high levels of motivation, to manage stress, to perfect a technical gesture, to overcome some blocks that have been created for some particular reason, etc.), we analyze the strengths and what may prevent the athlete from expressing his maximum potential (it can be fears, insecurity, lack of conviction, loss of concentration, stress, etc. .).
At this point we build with him the most suitable mental training path based on the goals and times we have chosen ... yes, just like a good athletic trainer would do to help his sportsman to express the best of himself physically, or as well as would do a good coach to make him compete in the best way.
If we work with the team as a whole, we take care, for example, of enhancing individual individuals within a team context; developing the skills to work in a close-knit and cohesive manner; improving communication and collaboration between athletes, with a view to the achievement of common, agreed and shared objectives.
If instead we work directly with the coaches, and more and more often "enlightened" technicians ask us to support them individually to improve and enhance their skills, we can give them support, for example in the use of an even more effective communication; in improving their skills. motivation; in contributing to a growth of their team management skills; in profiling athletes.
