Sports psychology in school and youth football

This talk is intended to remember some experiences and raise some questions in a field as attractive as unknown or better explored, football and sports psychology.

In this Psychology Line article, we will present a talk of LTo Sports Psychology in school and youth football.

Let us start this talk and I have no doubt that I will be at least interesting and not only to those who feel passion for this wonderful sport (today turned into a wonderful business) but also to lovers and practitioners of psychology, physical culture and to All that person with a weakness to deepen issues in relation to human thought and sport.

1. The importance of football in our society
2. The psychological issue in future athletes
3. Prevention for future athletes
4. Discussion of a comprehensive program

The importance of football in our society

Soccer is probably the most beautiful sport, the only one capable of combining ingredients such as Art, aesthetics, hatred, aggressiveness, solidarity and emotion among others and there is also something that we must underline is the only sport that is played with your feet exclusively but its strategy is mental. When referring to football and the place occupied in the social level is a passion that multiplies.

It is the sport chosen by more human beings in the world to play it, go enjoy the courts, follow him on television or simply read it. It is a sport where everyone thinks about the game; people, journalists, players and technicians. Soccer is a sport that has been super-professionalized and as a super-professionalized sport it has been transformed into a new product, A new merchandise. It is impossible to believe in this environment that a player fully enjoy the game, that is, feel satisfaction, playful pleasure; In high competition, pleasure is minimized because the excessive pressure in the competition produces breaks of balance and psychological well -being both in professional football and in the school and youth before it was played by honor, by a medal, by the neighborhood today you Play for an institution, for fame, for money or for an abroad transfer.

When we talk about school and youth football we talk about a population of teenagers between 13 and 18 years With the same passion and the same objective a motivation but with different family, personality, different social extraction and psychological attitude.

The psychological issue in future athletes

According to the contribution of different authors, future athletes feel inclined towards the practice of sport for:

• Satisfaction with physical activity
• Improve your skills
• Art and expertise in sport
• Trips
• Extrinsic rewards

The future footballer must be an athlete who is characterized by having:

Clarity of objectives.

• Initiative.
• Discipline.
• Entry decision.
• Tenacity.
• SAFT SAFT SI.
• Self -direction.

But when working with athletes from the school or youth categories we find a totally different picture, such as different works executed in Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia that characterize it with one:

• Low self-esteem.
• Poor communication capacity.
• Emotional instability.
• Critical family medium.
• Justifying attitude towards failures.
• Difficulties in interpersonal relationships.
• Behavior problems.

Before this picture Sports psychology raises:

• Resolve conflicts (communication, athlete coach, public family)
• Social development of the young man
• Stress management
• Personality development
• Stimulate research
• Health and life philosophy.

The psychologist's work such as the coach, physical and medical trainer is measured by its effective. The great two Objectives that guide the psychologist's task In this category they are:

1. Prevention and promotion of mental health of the athlete, framed in the plane of the human being.
2. He higher possible performance At the time of competition, that is: potential and mentally train psychological attitudes such as trust, concentration, motivation, isolation of external and internal pressures, helping the group cohesive and improve the coach-player relationship.

When we work in school and youth football we must know that the axis is not put exclusively on the results, but in the promotion of the greatest possible number of players to the professional division.

Prevention for future athletes

When developing this task We must prevent:

• School dropout: First we try to overcome false dichotomies such as play or study, play or have a girlfriend, etc. We must instead try to guide it since if you organize your time the young man can train, play, have a girlfriend, etc. In this way you can perform on all planes without losing their interests and motivations. For adolescents mostly the school is synonymous with having a good time, football is a short race without taking into account the possible injuries that appear, to do then in the other 30 years of life. Starting from this education gives more elements to face life more and more difficult.
• Expulsions: Soccer is a team game in addition to harming the expulsion the expulsion also harms the entire group since the team leaves in numerical inferiority, this being an aspect that goes unnoticed but that is necessary to take it into account in the different competitions.
• INJURIES: Statistics tell us that players who arrive for the first time to a club are injured more frequently, usually in the first month; There are two fundamental factors: the environmental change and the change of rhythm in training demands, the first refers to the physical place (house, hotel, town, city) interpersonal relationships (family, girlfriend, friends, school, etc.) The second factor in most cases the training rate is greater than the usual.
• Stress inductors: In this division the parents, the bride, the friends in many cases are the inductors of stress, drugs, alcoholism and competitive aggression. As evidenced by the following phrase "as a young man can play well if every time he makes an error, he listen to the mother's laments and perceive the father's disappointed face (L. Forti) "

At this stage there is the greatest number of desertions both school and sports, as evidenced by Weinberg and Gould (1995) establish that The maximum sports participation occurs between 10-13 years And that, from this age, the sports practice begins to be abandoned by placing the rate around 35% in the youth age, or what is the same, of every 10 children involved, 3-4 leave when they are young

GOULD et al. (1982) raise some of the reasons why young athletes leave physical-sports practice:

• I have other things to do.
• It wasn't as good as I thought.
• It wasn't fun enough.
• I wanted to do another sport.
• I couldn't stand the pressure.
• It was boring.
• I didn't like the coach.

Other researchers indicate that the reasons why adolescents abandon sports are due to the fact that they perceive that their personal goals have not been fulfilled. Some reasons that support this argument are: they play little time, they have little chances of improving their skills, they experience competitive stress, there is excessive emphasis on winning, lack of motivation on the part of their family and friends and, consequently, they stop finding it funny. Young people abandon physical-sports activity because they find more fun hobbies or because their expectations, both inside and outside the school context, have been frustrated (Fox and Biddle, 1988).

Given this phenomenon of sports drop -out we raise the following with a view to Improve football practice school and youth and Avoid defections:

• Reinforce the effort
• Less competencies by rivalry
• Individual instructions.
• Self -esteem development.
• Success control
• Parents' education.
• Develop cooperation and promote among children moral reasoning strategies in physical education classes.
• Improve the training and advice of school -age children coaches.
• Train and advise the referees.

Discussion of a comprehensive program

Finally, we present a comprehensive training program to discussion aimed at sports directors, coaches, parents and athletes of this category:

• Health and nutrition.
• Education.
• Life Training.
• Economic campaign.
• Soccer Schools.
• Interview with parents. Socio-family survey.
• Psychopedagogical training to coaches.
• Psychological evaluation to soccer players.
• Control of educational and sports behavior. (academic monitoring and advice).
• Development of participatory techniques. Dynamics.
• Development of artistic and occupational workshops.
• Participation in competitions

As a result of this proposal by locking with athletes from these categories We have achieved:

• Improve behavior of youth players
• The family has taken More process awareness
• The coaches acquire Greater Group Domain
• The application of workshops Improve personal development

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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