“Pilots defeat fear at five years”

Then they say that athletes should go to the University. That their training is very necessary for when, still relatively young, they must abandon their activity. Do not tell any of this to Mar Rovira (Barcelona, ​​1975)professional basketball player for 17 years, psychologist of enormous prestige, who has worked and works with all kinds of athletes, from teams to individuals, such as Jaume Masiasecond of Moto3 World Championship.

And I say that they shouldn’t tell you about the difficulties of sharing sports at the highest level with studies, because Mar started studying Psychology at Barcelonahe had to continue it in Salamancaended it in lugoHe did his doctorate in Santiago de Compostela and the thesis in Lion. Does all this journey have or does it have merit?

are already recognized

Mar acknowledges that working with teams has nothing to do with working with individual athletes, “although everyone, even the tennis player or the racing driver, has a team.” Mar recounts, with satisfaction and pride, that they, the sports psychologists, have stopped being ‘loqueros’. “Sport already perceives us differently. When I started, I spent part of my time doing didactic work, explaining that my presence there was to improve the performance of the team or the athlete, not because nobody had a problem. Now, everyone believes that we should be part of a multidisciplinary team.”

“I always say that we are like detectives, that we search, in the athlete’s environment, what pieces are influencing his performance, what things are harmful to him and what are not and, from there, I intervene and, sometimes, those actions They are not pleasant, no”, comments Mar, who adds: “I don’t give up when it comes to reorganizing the athlete’s environment, especially if I have clearly discovered what is blocking their progress”.

And they are not only detectives, they are also war medics. “War medics because, like on the battlefield, you never know what situation you are going to find. And, in that sense, it is not the same as being hired by the club, the coach or the athlete. Luckily for me motorcycling world championshipthe team has hired me Leopard Racingwhich is a family and one of the best ‘teams’ in this ‘paddock’, where you work wonderfully and, above all, where you know how to distinguish in a very, very, professional way when we are working and when we are laughing& rdquor; .

I repeat, Mar has worked with all kinds of athletes and in all kinds of settings. Of all the situations she has come out stronger. “I am a big fan of the drivers, a lot, because they are young, very funny and they really want to learn and improve. Sometimes they remind me, although it is not the same of course, the goalkeepers, who are, within a team of any discipline, very special people, a lot. I’m not saying they’re individualistic, weird, as many people may mistakenly think, no, I’m saying they’re different. And I love them.”

Mar explains that the first thing you have to do when you start working with a motorcycle rider is to adapt to them. “Either you adapt or you don’t earn it and, if you don’t earn it, you will never do your job well and the driver will never notice the improvement on the track, in the results. And why should you adapt? Because they spend the day adapting to the conditions of their work, tremendously special. It’s raining, it’s sunny, white, hard tyres, they race in a group, they get away, the bike is going well, the bike has problems… but they always give it their all. Everything that psychology books explain must be put aside, thrown away, when you work with them, who are like sponges and, above all, very, very, nice and fun& rdquor ;.

very daring children

I tell you that Roser Alentá, the mother of the Márquez, says that her children are not afraid “because they defeated him at the age of five & rdquor ;. “That’s right, it’s the best explanation I’ve ever heard. Everything about them, about all the motorcycle riders, who go 200, 300, 360 km/h, is a gradual process of continuous learning and, as they grow, as the years go by, as they train and compete , they assume the risk and discard the danger, the fear. They, throughout this growth and learning, have adapted to the normality of not being afraid. For them it is almost natural. During all those years of learning, almost without realizing it, they are acquiring capacities, skills, with which that risk, which never disappears, is greatly minimized.”

Of course, Mar, who has worked with two drivers who left the races as soon as they felt they were afraid, affirms that “they know, better than anyone, that as soon as they detect the risk, they should stop. And they leave it because they have no other choice. That feeling can no longer be erased from his mind.” Mar never, ever uses the word fear, risk, danger with Jaume. “They don’t exist and one of my functions is to offer Jaume tools so that he can run without fear.”

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According to Mar, the first thing to discover in the pilot is whether it assumes what she calls the triangle of death: Complaints, excuses, and the fault lies with others. “With the pilots who have that mentality, that way of thinking and running, which is very easy to acquire, it is not easy to work. Excuses in this sport are very easy, too common. You can blame the bike, the tyres, the weather, the rivals… but the first thing to assume to progress is to assume your responsibility for what has happened, for what you must control. My first job is to find out if my pilot is thinking about that triangle of death or not.”

Mar ends by saying that “driving is not just giving gas, accelerating, braking, folding more than anyone else in the curves, but making decisions in milliseconds, regulating your emotions, maintaining an appropriate internal dialogue with yourself, adapting to your environment that, on the track, it is very changeable & rdquor ;.