Pablo del Ro, psychologist: “Society creates monsters, it labels athletes as superheroes and they are not”

2023-10-11 16:50:03

Elite sport and mental health

Madrid

Updated Wednesday, October 11, 2023 – 16:50

One of the most proven Sports psychologists in Spain responds to the challenges of mental health in high competition

Alejandro Montalvo, world trial champion, with Pablo del RoEMPsuicide prevention All the reports from the Once Lives series

Some elite athletes, he says, have come to treat him over time as if he were their uncle. He psychologist Pablo del Ro He joined the Madrid High Performance Center in 1990 and has been present at several Olympic Games. Since May, the athletes he accompanies have won four golds and one bronze in world championships. And yet, in this interview he explains the risk of judging only by results.

Q – Is anyone mentally prepared for high-competition sport? A high-level athlete You have to teach them to live together and handle pressure, also uncertainty. I’m going to compete, I arrive in good shape, but I don’t know how the others will be. To manage success and not failure, but achievement and non-achievement. Because athletes are asked for results from a social and environmental point of view. And the result: you have to teach him to identify it as something that does not depend on him. The frustration? Also. You have to be better every day, but with the idea of ​​improving yourself. When should athletes start training mental health? Sports Psychology in the initiation phases is recommended, what happens is that there are usually no budgets or infrastructure In improvement phases, it is necessary because they will work harder and perhaps they will have to obtain results. In the elite it is essential. Psychological training should be mandatory because it is just another training. Athletes are people who have emotions, feelings, thoughts, neurons… Fatigue, tiredness, discomfort, effort, stress, anxiety, we also have to teach them to live with this. How do they affect stress and anxiety? anxiety? The athlete is no stranger to stress and anxiety. We do not have to see anxiety as something negative, it is necessary for the body to function, it is adaptive and it must be generated. Sometimes in training we generate stressful situations, so that when they appear in the competition they have resources and know how to resolve them. And fear, who is not afraid? You have to learn to live with that fear. Does high competition represent a risk factor for mental health? As long as the athlete does not have adequate preparation. In general terms, Spanish sport enjoys good mental health. What happens is that when a renowned athlete has a problem we make a lot of noise. But how many go to the clinic with a sprain, an overload? Thousands. In the same way we have to normalize this. Are mental disorders common in elite sports? In athletes who have incorporated psychological training with the preventive effects that it entails, pathological cases are non-existent, they can be counted on the fingers of the hand, less than 1%. Are highly competitive athletes used to asking for help? The evolution is tremendous. Now a psychologist is in training, he talks to the coach, to the athletes, they ask for it. This is quite normalized because symptoms and imbalances are very common in most sports. The most important message is that seeking or asking for help is not a weakness, it is a strength. What factors of high performance put the most pressure on the athlete’s mental health? At the high level, the results, because they entail scholarships, sponsors, awards, status . In younger people, the uncertainty, if I will be able to get there, if what I am doing is the most appropriate. It’s about anticipating the problem and helping them find solutions. Is there going to be fear, discomfort, tiredness? Clear. Do we train to avoid it or to face it, resolve it and assume it? Better the latter and learn to live with situations that are inherent to sports practice itself. How do basic personal factors affect? A tremendously important variable is perfectionism. Because the errors are assumed by them, on their own, when many have nothing to do with it, and the achievements are attributed to external issues. A very perfectionist person is more prone to stress, fear, and overwhelm. In short, not to enjoy. Is it possible to enjoy high competition? It is essential. The objective is not to win, I cannot set objectives that do not depend on them. Now, you have a better chance of winning if we start by enjoying and having fun, and by transferring what we are preparing to the competition. I’m talking about world champions, Olympic champions. The profile of the champion is one who enjoys and has fun with what he does. That is my philosophy of life. In what moments can the mental health of an elite athlete be most affected? Injuries are a terrible thing. When you can’t train, you either lose ownership, or you see that this leads you to not renew the sponsorship contract. Also getting burned, you don’t realize, you go little by little, it’s wear and tear like an erosion and you lose your identity, what am I doing here if I stopped having fun…Have you known cases of depression? Few, as I have worked with people who had incorporated psychological training, some may have occurred to me, but we have resolved it. What symptoms warn that an athlete is entering a mental downhill slope? If they are boys, they start by not shaving; If they are girls, you see a deterioration. Problems sleeping, resting. Their character changes, they are irascible, they get angry at anything, it is difficult for them to smile. You look at their faces and say ‘he’s not enjoying himself’. I don’t train them so they don’t win, I train them so they win, but through a balanced process, enjoying the process, day by day., to see the difficulties, change the label and see them as a challenge. It’s what the good guys do. Are cases of suicidal ideation frequent? In 40 years, I have had two cases. Many of the problems in the sports field have nothing to do with the practice of sports but, of course,they are people who have emotional relationships, family. The most gratifying thing is that, statistically, it is below average. And I hope that every day it will be less because they have more and more help. How do you prepare an athlete for non-achievement? Achievement and non-achievement go hand in hand. In the end, winning, only one wins. But we cannot evaluate it only in terms of results. If the objectives are performance, non-achievement is the non-transfer of training to competition. Because an athlete loses many more times than he wins, except the very talented ones.. The important detail is that winning does not depend on the athlete. And when you set a goal for a person that does not depend on them, you have a problem, because frustration comes, helplessness, the complete opposite of the conviction of your own effectiveness. And to know how to assimilate success? You always work from humility. . Maybe today they are world champions and tomorrow they lose in the first round. Sport is difficult, capricious and every day it puts you in your place. It is important that they know how to understand that it is something circumstantial, that it is due to their work but that success also involves maintaining a personality, certain criteria, giving an image. The athlete is always an image, both in defeat and triumph. Sometimes he is difficult, we think we have everything and we have nothing, here we are just passing throughIs withdrawal a risk factor? When you have not prepared. I tell them ‘you have a tattoo on your arm, it’s your expiration date, like Coca-Colas’. I work with minority sports, they are professionals but they don’t make a living from it. I have to prepare them from the first day. How? Studies, subjects…Even being a world champion, they can make studying compatible with training and performance. It is difficult because many times sports institutions look the other way, they are interested above all in the results.. I don’t know any athlete who has been kicked out of a High Performance Center for failing a course. Enroll, everyone enrolls, but how many study? Where society sees super athletes, sometimes mythologized, what do you see? Normal people with their difficulties and weaknesses, like any human being.. What society has done is create monsters, they are labeled superheroes and they are not. Society is very pugnacious, they elevate you, destroy you or forget you. It assigns them values ​​that are neither exclusive to the athlete nor do they correspond to them. Until recently, for a high-level athlete to show his weaknesses was frowned upon, misinterpreted, because it contradicted the idyllic profile that had been given to him. The athlete is a person before everything: he has a father, mother, brothers, loves, relationships… If society puts that label on him, the athlete, when he needs help, will not ask for it because it is a symptom of weakness.
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