The secrets to learning how to focus effectively on a goal, without distractions. The advice of Matteo Berrettini’s mental coach. The techniques used by athletes are valid in all areas of life
Stay focused throughout the race, clear your mind of unnecessary thoughts, calculate all possible variables in a few fractions of a second. Getting the best results at a competitive level, but also in everyday work and school, not just a matter of muscles and diet, themental aspect which, at very high levels, can really make a difference. To get to a gold medal at the Olympics or to win a Grand Slam in tennis, mental strength is an essential ingredient. This is why more and more athletes are turning to a mental coach to achieve a mental preparation which, combined with physical training, contributes to achieve the set goals.
What the mental coach does
Coaching is not about motivating people by constantly being by their side, otherwise the coach should always be there. Rather the coaching helps framing the right goalsa manage emotionsa recognize the danger of problematic situations such as anxiety or distractionand to field a series of techniques for return to focus on the eventevaluating situations objectively and detachedly he explains Alberto Biffi, coaching teacher at Bocconi University in Milan at Bocconi Sport: The coach is not a psychologist, he does not go to delve into childhood trauma or the intimate sphere. The sessions can be even only 4-6, the time to frame a single problem such as a competition or an exam at the University, and find the way to solve it, up to the autonomy and greater responsibility of the client.
Scientific researches
Scientific research, mostly carried out in the sports field, has demonstrated the effectiveness of coaching. A study published a year ago by various universities in the Netherlands on national team footballers and athletics champions showed that qfour sessions of mental coaching in just one week they were enough to stabilize the athletes’ brain waves at a level that indicated a greater mental relaxation and so greater ability to concentrate. Another research by the American company BetterUp published last July in the Journal of Medical Internet Research evaluated corporate coaching on nearly 400 people and found that stress management, resilience and personal satisfaction I am constantly improve in the first 4 months, while other parameters such as emotional regulation, self-awareness, identification of a purpose reached their maximum potential in 6 months.
History
Born in the sports field in the United States, coaching was then applied to other situations as well: the student who wants to graduate, the manager who has to work on a big project together with many people, the researcher who has to speak in public, the person who want to lose pounds or quit smoking. The credit for having drawn up the guidelines goes to John Withmorepsychologist and former British racing driver who passed away in 2017 who defined a 4-stage route said G.R.O.W. acronym for Goal (objectives to be achieved), Realt (knowing the situation in which you are), Options (the possibilities available to act), Will (will, or what you want to do to reach the set goal). The initial model was then declined and adapted with different schemes.
The techniques
An important part of the job is toindividuationthrough a series of questions, and then in the sharing of individual potential: for example courage, creativity, perseverance, love of excellence. Once the potentials are understood, they must be trained to make them even stronger, he says Stefano Massari, mental coach of the tennis player Matteo Berrettini. very important that the athlete arrives at the awareness of your own qualities – he adds – and that you also learn to manage them: some of them, in fact, if taken to extremes, can turn into defects. For example, if not managed courage can become recklessness, love of perfectionism excellence. In a competition, but also during a conference where speakers, anxiety and stress can play tricks. It is enough for some errors to arrive – recalls Alberto Biffi – and the mind is no longer there. You begin to be nervous, to project yourself into a negative future with the fear of what the public will think, or to remember a past failure until you get to panic. If by training to do it, yes they intercept negative thoughtspossible to get back on the road.
Customize
The mental coach action plans are customized in base alle characteristics of the individual. Identify clear goals and not generic, positive inner dialogue, imagine yourself during the performance, control of emotionality are some of the most used mental training techniques. Endurance athletes quickly become victims of their own destructive thoughts. A cyclist must formulate his goals very well and not lose sight of them because during hours and hours of cycling he will have to answer the inevitable question: “why are you doing this?” suggest Andreas Mamerow, mental coach of various German athletes. The inner dialogue of an athlete when he makes a mistake very often leads to negativity and is linked to the frustration of the moment. To say how poor you are means to open the tap of energies and waste a lot of it against yourself. Berrettini is developing a ever more positive dialogue with himself, encourages you to play with courage, to stay alive both when he is going well and when he is in difficulty, says his mental coach. In fact, in more complex games it is easy to observe Berrettini’s lip speaking to himself as he prepares to serve or receive the opponent’s serve. Let’s be clear, managing a difficult moment with a positive dialogue is not easy at all – says Massari – and obviously there are days when even the best athletes are so nervous that they find it hard to help each other. The important thing, for an athlete, a manager, a student, to listen to each other and understand their state of mind and then be able to express themselves as best as possible. If a person tends to get angry and badly treated after a mistake, it is useful to recognize this emotion, this thought, and replace it with useful thoughts. What about the distractions? When does the stadium whistle against? The mechanism is the same – concludes Massari -. Getting angry because the audience cheers against will not help you play better, on the contrary it will make you even more nervous. You have to train a shift the thought to something useful to regain energy: what can I do to reverse the situation? Where do I want to shoot? What strategy do I want to adopt? Going from a state of mind of tension to a positive one, perhaps one of encouragement, is not easy: a skill that needs to be trained, but it can prove to be successful.
May 2, 2022 (change May 2, 2022 | 09:27)
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