Sports coach: train the mind, not just the muscles

THEA phrase he stands on the homepage: “Come into play with your head“Six words, the perfect synthesis of a complex speech, which has to do with the psyche, the soul, the experience. He chose it for his site Nicoletta Romanazzi, perhaps the best known Mental Coachto make it clear that Sport is not just musclesphysical power, DNA, gym. If you want to win You must also train your head.

Among his clients are Marcell Jacobs, the sprinter with the many records, Gianluigi Donnarumma, the goalkeeper of our national football team, Martina Arduino, first dancer of the scaleRebecca Giuliani of the Rugby national team, and other podium names, as well as companies and managers.

For years, scientists and psychotherapists have remembered how much body and head have been connectedin clinical manifestations as in everyday life, and that the performance of one conditioning the other, and vice versa. Which makes the matter very complex, especially thinking about the type of life they face athletes and their colleagues men.

A behavioral cognitive coach, Paolo Conca: reminds him: «The common denominator of sportsmen are training, solitude, rigorous lifestyles, competition stress, fear of failures. The real challenges are the inner ones, from holding up white rice and chicken for months to go to bed early, or do not live as young people, do not see the boyfriend, eight hours in the pool, no stop exercises, travel. And loneliness: heavy, inclement, so much so that many of them have a close member of the family as a sports coach, of prosecutor, agent or simply supporting. They are girls and boys who have to hold huge weights, and defeats. Having a close family member is their Linus blanket ».

Finding family members of athletes and athletes is easy, because they also became “famous”. Federica and Elisa Dozio have a brother as a coach: the first won gold in the javelin, the other in the weight. Nadia Battocletti won silver in the 10 thousand meters in Paris 2024, coached by the father; The Williams sisters (Venus and Serena), tennis stars, had the coach father.

And the list could continue for them, as for the sporting men, just think of Carlos Sainz Jr. of Formula 1 who always has the cousin as a prosecutor’s cousinor Adrien Rabiot, midfielder of the French national team, whose mother is famous as a feared prosecutor. And then there is Gianmarco Tamberi, for a long time trained by his father Marco, Former jumper too. In July 2022, however, the Olympic champion announced the “dismissal” of the coach-pasta: “It is a decision that I have been considering for some time, because in these years of collaboration they have alternated with great results equally great differences”.

The double role of fathers and brothers

Having a close family member can be precious but also trigger complicated dynamicsLatent “editions”, sick relationships of force. Larissa Iapichino (long jump), daughter of Fiona May, a cumbersome mother as a winner, passed by several coaches and then landed on the technical advice of her father Gianni, also sporty: «We have very similar characters. We manage to be professional when needed, and to Return father and daughter when we close the door of home ».

Perhaps, however, the most sensational example of sports life in the spotlight, passing through a whale from the podium to the hospital, is Federica Brignonethat last April falling he suffered a broken fracture of the tibia, the perone and the breakdown of some ligaments. The ski champion is flanked by his brother Davide, coach, Mental Coach, councilor, safe affective landing. “I understood what it can give me the most and in what moments” he said. Now Federica who has months of physiotherapy, physical recovery, limitations, with the hope of being in shape for the 2026 Olympics, says: «What happened to me is not beautiful. I’m trying to think positively. We must accept what comes from life. Before 4-5 months it will be impossible to return to skis. It’s another challenge, he will probably teach me something new ».

Flavio Roda, president of Fisi (Italian winter sports federation), underlines: “Women have more determinationperhaps it is the historical moment of the women’s determination. Men are weaker, they struggle to have what they want ». Patrizia Panico, who won the title of top scorer of the Serie A 14 times as a striker, as a coach he measured himself with male (under 16) and female teams and knows what he is talking about: «It cannot be generalized, some athletes need to be motivated, others reassured, others guided. But it is true that Women and men are two completely different worlds. The more oriented to the challenge, fascinated by having a stronger opponent, while for women the approach is more fearful. Team play allows you to divide responsibilities, but everything revolves around trust ».

The external gaze of the coach

In football there are coaches who concentrate on themselves the role of sports coach, mental and also of “family”: José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti for example; O Julio Velasco, for women’s volleyball. If the relationship runs on two tracks, professional on the one hand, “emotional-family” on the other, The athlete, however, ends up being a tightrope walker. At certain levels, therefore, the coldness of an external eye can be the winning key.

Jannik Sinnerwho in every interview repeats how fundamental his family and friends are, he admitted the psychological effort, the weight of the three -month disqualification, the sense of solitude, the difficulty for keeping the bar of the straight emotional rudder. Riccardo Ceccarelli, Mental Coach, was helpful.

His book has recently come out In the sample mind (Joints) with a preface by the tennis player. Ceccarelli has developed the Mental Economy Training to understand how much our brain consumes and how to save mental energies. He explains: «Why is a rigorist wrong the shot on goal to the World Cup final? Or why is an athlete in training is extraordinary results and is in the race mediocre? Nobody has ever given the athlete of the objective information of mental consumption, they measure the beats, muscle strength. And the head? That too must be trained ».

Train the brain

Ceccarelli with his staff A band was invented to be affixed to the head with the sensors used for the electroencephalogram, thus managing to measure electrical waves and understand how much the brain consumes.

His clients attend what he calls “mental gym”, that is, where the sporting and sportsman leave their comfort zones and become aware of their reactions and energy waste: «Working on the brain helps to relax the muscles, to consume the right and to feel less the effort.

Federica Brignone or Mikaela Shiffrin, for example, learned to remain focused on the race, to leave the emotions out. Today Sport requires a big commitment, only talent is no longer enoughthere is the pressure of the sponsors, there is technology, there are many appointments. An athlete is subjected to economic pressure and interestsneeds to surround himself with a wall of trust, and not to be cheated. This explains the presence of family members or professional coaches “.

Paolo Conca, the trainer, goes straight to the point: «We see the sportsmen when they are competing, in the spotlight. We applaud great champions, but the life they do would see the nerves to many of us. They have solitary tensions, have the sword of Damocle of a burnout, of a depression. Federica Pellegrini admitted to having panic attacks. Because when you cannot keep that type of life under control, the psyche reports the malaise. To pleasure, we don’t only think about the muscles, then! ».

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