All in Attitude!
Iliana Dimitrova: The sports psychologist must work not only with the athletes, but also with their coaches!
Sports results depend on a stable psyche. There are many contestants who are undisputed talents but perform at a mediocre level. He is worried that in the training process the athlete is flawless, unique, performs well. However, at the competition itself, he cannot show half of this capacity. There is a difference between having skills and putting them into practice. Sports psychology works precisely for that.
It studies the mental processes, states, behaviors and characteristics of the athlete's personality in order to increase his effectiveness. Sports psychology is just starting to make noise in Bulgaria.
The explanation is given by the specialist in this field, Iliana Dimitrova. She does it in episode #11 of the educational studio of NSК Olimp "We will meet at the top". Iliana Dimitrova graduated in clinical and counseling psychology at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, as well as sports psychology at National Sports Academi Vasil Levski. She is a cognitive behavioral psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. She works as a freelancer, but also is a member of the football team of "Lokomotiv" (Plovdiv). She also works with children, teenagers and men and women.
In Bulgaria, the sports psychologist is sought after at the last moment, when there are accumulated losses. When there is any problem and something is happening. This is not right. For me, the sports psychologist must work at all times with the athletes in order to create certain stability in the work.
If a competitive athlete is being worked on once or twice, it will have an effect, but it will not be stable over time, since the given athlete has established patterns of behavior and thinking. And accordingly, when a certain period of time has passed, they retroactively return. So, there must be a systematic work at presence.
The youngest age in the Lokomotiv school is 10-year-old children. The coaches also rely on me for the younger players, in case a child has some difficulties, and it’s alarming. When they realize something is happening in the family environment maybe, in the family dynamic. Accordingly, it affects the training and competition process.
With the youngest, I often work with their fears. For example, if a coach reports to me: I have a problem with a child who wants his parents to be in the same room with him at every tournament. Such situation is problematic.
Temperament is the faculty we are born with. This is how we respond behaviorally. It manifests itself in games and in the reaction to the surrounding world. The temperament is a feature of the central nervous system. It encounters the factors of the environment and they react accordingly. Parenting patterns are important. The family is the first socializing institution of the child.
The pre-start conditions can manifest as dry mouth, body tremors, stomach discomfort, urge to urinate, or general anxiety. The competitive athlete says his legs are getting heavy. The athlete may not feel them all. In case of errors, these states are being worked on. It should be worked on the internal dialogue, what the competitor says to himself. By means of psychological techniques, the attitude is changed, the sensations are also changed. Work is being done to build strong-willed qualities, purposefulness, courage, zest, fighting spirit. In short, it builds emotional self-control.
Professional athletes use much more effective coping strategies than adolescents. This comes with experience.
Children are literally like plasticine. They are easier to work with. They don't have the critical mind - to question everything. They are much more susceptible to impression. They become much more mobilized when they achieve results. They become ecstatic when they see that they are getting closer to the goal.
With ladies, who are much more emotional beings, the methods are focused mainly on emotions and the inner voice.
This is the key that keeps the score high. It manages to keep the athlete at a high level in the sport. This is the ability to suppress tension, emotions, also difficulties. The psyche is at the core. The psyche is the foundation. It is the prerequisite not only in the training process, but also in competitions. The coach must know the character of his child.
They are used when there is both mental and physical fatigue. It applies autogenic training, diaphragmatic breathing, the increasingly popular guided meditation (conducted by guiding through the voice of a teacher or meditation specialist, in order to find calm and inner peace to continue moving forward in life with firm and sure steps). There is also work with hypnosis. Various suggestions are given under hypnosis, work is done with the subconscious and they work wonders. The suggestions should be based on the conversation with the person. When a person is very relaxed, the Superego, that critical structure where there is always some doubt, is understated.
This is a very current topic lately. Not only athletes suffer from burnout, but so do their coaches. It is necessary for a balanced model to be created, the work to be complete and finalized, and to be applied simultaneously to coaches and athletes. It will be seen how these contestants reside mostly in the activity, literally. Training, extra training, school, courses and what not.
I often feel sorry for today's children. They have no time for absolutely anything. It's not normal that they don't have time to play, instead break their back at school and at training. At some point, burnout comes. Then the exact opposite should be done. One should know the thing that charges the batteries. I always recommend that athletes to come up with three things. It can be some kind of hobby, for example.
Burnout happens to perfectionists. For those who want everything to be flawless. They don't accept error as an option. They work nonstop. And when you constantly push your body, the body finds a way to say “stop”.
Before the start, the most important thing is to master the pre-start conditions. If there is palpitations, tremors, discomfort in the stomach, they interfere with the performance. There must be control over these sensations.
For Bulgarian sports, I can categorically say that there is still no clear idea of the role of sports psychology exactly is. Also the need for such specialists is still being defined. Globally, the situation is different. A comparison cannot be made. I worked with a soccer coach in Germany who told me that in the better teams, every team has a sports psychologist. He works with both the children and the coaches. Here, only a few clubs have a well-prepared sports specialist.
The educational show "We will meet at the top" is being broadcasted twice a month (one week apart) on Wednesday evenings at 20:00, live on our FB channel.
All shows in the series ‘We will meet at the top’ (see here)
