Fran Cintado, Bachelor of Psychology, National Tennis Monitor and psychological trainer of high performance athletes, will offer us a series of 'Notes of Applied Psychology Paddle', which will deal with very interesting topics. In this article, we rescue your indications about when to start a mental training
Padel World Press .- Until we have practiced again and again the change of direction, the changes of direction, the signs, the additions to the highways, the happy parking, etc, we are all subjected to a lot of tension and our responses are often not precise and 'fearful' '... Besides dangerous, sometimes.
Until we practice (train) driving and 'automate' the different driving skills and situations, we do not reach our goal: the Driving License.
As 'our driver's license in paddle tennis', requires that we practice and train those situations where we will be required to 'compete' and achieve certain results in the competition.
However, the majority tend to 'leave everything to the end', until they have seen themselves in a situation of excessive tension, lack of concentration, loss of security, fear of winning, easy matches lost, frustration at the lack of security, ... It is when the possibility arises that, maybe, the 'head' has something to do with it.
The difference between 'good students' and' bad students, or what is the same, those who 'get good grades' and those who' fail ', is in the' Study Planning '. If we move it to the paddle tennis court, it is about carrying out good planning in the medium and long term of the acquisition of the psychological techniques necessary to have them automated so that, when the critical moment arrives (the exam), they can be put into practice without any added difficulty.
'Working the head' requires a learning process that must be started when the demands of the competition do not constitute any 'barrier'.
So, when is the best time to start a mental workout?
Well the answer is always before the competition is a requirement.
Every technique takes time to learn. This time is a function of the capabilities of the paddle tennis player, the time available to practice it, their objectives and the application in real play, among other factors.
The best time to acquire the mental skills in the paddle is to do it simultaneously when you are acquiring the technical skills.
The padel player learns and practices the psychological skills and techniques integrated in the technical and tactical training. Thus, they are mechanized without any added effort and become part of your repertoire of automatically acquired capabilities.
The Padel Schools should include the training of these techniques from the Sports Initiation, since it will be very useful for the competition and, without a doubt, for their daily life, for the studies in the schools as well as in their social skills and response to difficulties.
Psychological preparation contributes to the Emotional Balance of paddle tennis players, both on a sporting and personal level. The earlier we begin to work on the mind, the sooner we begin to feel better and control our emotions. Putting the 'mind in shape' should be a 'requirement', not an alternative.
«We don't want to pass the exam and get the best grade if we haven't done our homework before ...«.
In summary, psychological training should always be started before the difficulties of competition arise. There are a number of psychological techniques that have proven very effective in improving athletic performance, regardless of the competition. They are relaxation, concentration, goal planning, emotional control and visualization.
All these techniques must be trained in an integrated way with physical, technical and tactical preparation, to favor their automation when it is required to put them into practice during the competition. And the proper age to start training them is when they start practicing sports.
The most important thing: have fun always playing paddle tennis !!
Fran Cintado
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