The current results in the World Cup, especially in xc, leads us to ask ourselves a question: How important is motivation in obtaining results?
After the successes of Luca Braidot, we have seen an exponential surge in the results of other Azzurri. Where above all the girls of the Santa Cruz team have reached a very important level of competitiveness.
The topic of motivation and mental training in general is very vast, so we contacted Alberto Botta, professional mental coach, to briefly explain some elements that often underlie the results.
These are his words: " In the approach to mental coaching two essential elements are the environment and the example. The first is given by the context in which an athlete moves and teammates, technicians and family are important; while the second leads to triggering a spring given by observing other athletes who obtain successes, which leads to the affirmation 'if he succeeded, I can too. In sport we have some fundamental examples; just think of what happened with the arrival of Federica Pellegrini in swimming, what is happening in tennis and women's skiing, where the explosion of some great athletes has generated a very important chain effect. From this point of view, the first example we bring to the mental coaching seminars is that of Sir Bannister, a British middle-distance runner known for being the first athlete to go below 4 'over a mile. Before him, insiders claimed that it was physically impossible for the man to descend below the wall of 4 'on the mile. after the feat of him in a short time other 20 runners managed to obtain a resultor similar.
The reason? Sir Bannister had been an example that other runners had later followed, so the psychological element had played an important role in these middle distance runners.".
This brings a brief reflection on an issue that has become increasingly important in the management of athletes. In September we will have the opportunity to better investigate the issues with Alberto Botta with a series of in-depth analyzes, so continue to follow us.
