Athletes recognized as world leaders in their disciplines, Rafa Nadal in tennis or Carolina Marin In badminton, they assume that a defeat is one more step in their trajectory, something that must be taught from the first steps of each child when they begin to practice exercise.
This was explained to Efe by the sports psychologist Juan Carlos Alvarez Campillo, one of the main “coach” of Spanish sport for his work, among others, with Carolina Marín, the Spanish soccer or field hockey teams and several Olympic medalists and who is also a teacher of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR).
Just two days ago Nadal announced that he was giving up playing Wimbledon and the Olympic Games, something that marks a “defeat” for an athlete because, especially, it means not going to Such to a single appointment “and that all athletes expect as a culmination of their career”, details this psychologist.
But the Balearic tennis player “has been able to decide this to dose himself and for security measures” although “it sure has been very hard for him to make this decision.”
Álvarez Campillo has stressed that being able to give up the Games is a sample of Nadal’s mental integrity “that should be an example for any athlete.”
A toughness of character that he has shown when in his career he has suffered a setback and has returned to his best performance.
The basis for this process is that “even if it is hard for them, high-level athletes are aware that defeat is one more step” and are capable of “self-managing” poor results and “not even going up to heaven for a victory. or sink to lose a day. “
“The first thing an athlete must learn and that must be taught is the value of performance, which is above results,” recalls psychologist Juan Carlos Álvarez
This message “is something that children should learn when they start” although in many cases “they encounter the obstacle that some parents pose to their development as athletes”
He admits that “all parents have the best intentions” with their children “but many times they do not assume that each child has different qualities and the important thing is to enhance them, regardless of the result.”
“Many kids are more afraid of their parents than of losing,” the psychologist stressed, emphasizing to adults “that they assume that each child has certain qualities” and try to enhance them “instead of blocking the development” of future athletes .
In fact, for many kids who have good qualities, this situation is what limits their future development “because, saving the supercracks of each sport, then there is a group of players who have a very equal level” but “many kids don’t reach their level. better performance because he has not gotten along with his career psychologically. “
Mismanaged pressure
In fact, he assumes, that mismanaged “pressure” has in many cases prevented kids from reaching professional sports “which does not have to be to become world champion” although “sometimes parents only think about that.”
“The first thing that an athlete must learn and that must be taught is the value of performance, which is above results” since it implies “knowing where the best version of oneself is and with that gain confidence, security and be focused “and” if when you have obtained that good performance you do not win, you have to know how to assume it “.
That step “leads you to be more critical when there is a defeat if you have not surrendered to the maximum”, a concept that reaches many athletes, both in the training phase and already in the elite, through sports psychologists, who have won presence in clubs of different disciplines for years.
However, Álvarez Campillo assures, “this work is more advanced in some modalities of those that are called minority, in which they see us as a support”.
However, “in the big team sports”, such as soccer, basketball or handball “it has been believed for a long time that this work is a matter of throwing only four ideas to the players and that anyone can say them” without considering that “it is one. very special and highly specialized work “.
