Not(?) doing it

I have tried to do a muscle up on a bar way too many times without succeeding so far. It feels frustrating to try something over and over again. Failure after failure I start to think that I will never get on that bar. It causes fear inside me, to watch the bar again the next day thinking: “I couldn't do it yesterday after so many tries, how could it be possible to do it now?”

The fear of failure is very common feeling among athletes and leads to negative results of failing: underestimating oneself, the feeling of insecure future, shame and embarrassment. Athlete’s energy and performance motivation goes off track and therefore the athlete starts to avoid taking risks. ( Matikka – Roos-Salmi 2012, 76.)

Thinking of the failure in the next similar situation leads to thinking: “I will not do the same mistake this time”. But unconsciously we react precisely the same way we did. Actually thinking of the mistake increases the possibility of it happening again. When we are trying to avoid the mistake, we are actually focusing on doing it. (Gardin 2013.)

The mistake has to be processed. After a while the athlete is capable of reviewing the mistake and the emotions it brought out. The experience stops haunting after being brought to consciousness and being recognized. The mere walk-through of thoughts is not sufficient. (Gardin 2013.)

In my opinion another subject relating to the fear of failure is self-talking. Not the kind of when you start talking to yourself out loud after being home alone for a while, but the one that describes your thoughts. Your thinking.

If you think that you will not do the same mistake again, you will definitely do it, because the brain does not “turn” negative words the way we would like them to turn. Thinking: “Don’t do it”, is actually the same as thinking: “Do it”. The words we should use while learning a new talent or trying not to do something should be guiding. Succinct, realistic and positively formed words help us to keep our thoughts in the doing. (Matikka – Roos-Salmi 2012, 164-165.)

I still haven’t been able to do that muscle up. Or should I say, I still haven’t done it. But I can do it, I will do it. I have watched some tutorials and found some “keywords” to use the next time I’ll try. Maybe it will take some time still but I will learn how to do it.

“You never fail until you stop trying.” – Albert Einstein

Sources:

Gardin, M. Epäonnistunut urheilusuoritus. Lounais-Suomen liikunta ja urheilu ry. 2013. Osoitteessa: http://www.liiku.fi/seuroille/valmentaminen/epaonnistunut-urheilusuoritus/ 28.10.2013

Matikka, L. – Roos-Salmi, M. 2012. Urheilupsykologian perusteet. Liikuntatieteellisen seuran julkaisu nro 169. Helsinki.

Picture:

http://www.globalbodyweighttraining.com/kipping-muscle-up-series/ 28.10.2013

Something in Swedish

Sammanfattningen av studiekursen Motionerande ungdomen – den sunda framtiden.

Studiekursen innehöll olika läroämnen. Vi har studerat fysiologi, svenska och (även om!) idrott som bollspel, redskapsgymnastik och dans. Vi har upprepat anatomi, hur man talar svenska och lärt oss några nya ord för tutorialen. Vi har dansat olika pardanser likväl vals, lärt grundform av bollspel och lett gymnastik på engelska. 

Under den här kursen har vi också organiserat ett par idrottsevenemang för skolorna. En av dom var friidrott och de andra var fotbolltävling mellan skolorna. På fotbollhändelse räknade jag resultat och på friidrottshändelse hjälpte jag lite för allt.

Grupperna för tutorialen var formade på nytt och jag tillhör nu på auditiv gruppen. I tutorialen har vi studerat ungdomarnas värderingar mot idrott, att möta ungdomar med hjälp av idrott, utveckling av coaching och idrottsorganisationerna i de nordiska länderna.

And in the tournament

”Keep an eye on that coach over there, I think he doesn't let everybody play.”

It was a football competition between schools. A few of our classmates had arranged it and we were there to run the competitions of girls aged 10 to 11. We had told the coaches to follow the rules of Fair Play, which meant that everybody should play as much.

The coach had twenty minutes time to give every girl a change to play. Instead two of the girls got to the field only for the last two minutes. That was when the coach realized that they had lost the match. If one of us hadn’t had the guts to go and talk to the man during the game, maybe the two girls hadn’t played at all.

The coach was taking the game ridiculously seriously. He seemed to want to win more than the girls. If the most important thing for the coach is to get the children he trains to win, the children will probably start feeling too much pressure towards the sport they train. In that case children won’t have enough joy from doing sports. (Martin 1993, 34-35.)

Adults’ participation in children’s’ sport is inevitable: they plan their training, put the plan into practice and assess children’s performances. That’s why adults should remember not to highlight winning too much. Every coach should remember that sports are for children and not vice versa! There is no place to set performance anxiety or to demand success in children’s sport. (Nuori Suomi 2012, 5.)

Children don’t usually even play competitively until they go to school. If adults participate too much and have too much authority while coaching, kids may forget how to enjoy the games. Winning becomes everything and playing may develop into something worse. (Auvinen 2004, 24-25.)

Every educator should learn their own values in coaching and realize which values are the ones that should be preferred while coaching children. If you’re in it to win it, you’re not there for the kids.

”Keep an eye on that coach over there, I think he doesn't let everybody play.” That’s what one of my school friends said just before the gold-game. Ironically there were two kinds of opposites of coaches (one of them I already “introduced”) whose team had made their way up to the gold-game. The other coach had said in the beginning of the tournament: “Winning isn't important at all, we just came here to play!”

And they won.

Sources:

Auvinen, P. 2004. Kilpailu lasten ja nuorten urheilussa: Vertailututkimus 11 lajiliiton kilpailujärjestelmistä. Liikuntapedagogiikan pro gradu-tutkielma. Jyväskylän yliopisto. Osoitteessa: https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/9598/G0000583.pdf?sequence=1 7.10.2013

Martin, L. 1993. Coaching children in sports: Principles and practise. Spon press. Lontoo, Iso-britannia. Osoitteessa: http://ez.ramk.fi:2143/lib/ramklibrary/docDetail.action?docID=10060750&p00=sports%20coaching 7.10.2013

Nuori Suomi. 2012. Lasten ja nuorten kilpailutoiminnan suositukset. Osoitteessa:  http://www.nuorisuomi.fi/files/ns2/Urheiluseurat_PDF/Kilpailutoiminnansuositukset.pdf 7.10.2013 

Picture: http://leemcgowan.wordpress.com/tag/saturday-morning-soccer/

While walking in the forest

I had been waiting a good day to take a walk in the forest. Those nice sunny days are rare in the autumn. I would have liked to take some pictures of the beautiful autumn colors because after the colors are gone, it’s quite depressing in here.

The beautiful day was here, so I took my camera with me to school. Unfortunately, after trying to focus a few hours for schoolstuff I realized that the sun was gone again. Nevertheless I took my camera and headed to the forest. I had a little flue going on so climbing even the gentlest hill
got me out of breath. As I was steading my breath I started to
observe the forest. It was a grey afternoon with a feel of rain in the air, but it wasn’t raining at the time. The forest had a little movement on it: I could hear the wind sway the trees. Some leaves were dropping and made a rustling sound after reaching the ground. I heard a woodpecker drumming a tree somewhere near. The sound of the motor road in the distant was the only thing that was out of place, spoiling just a bit of the atmosphere, but I didn’t mind.

I had made an information retrieval from the subject: “How do
sports help people under the threat of social exclusion?” and for
some reason that came into my mind. In this case positive
outcome had come through adventurous outdoor activity.
Doing sports doesn’t help as such, but especially the environment has
a great effect to the people. (Miettinen 2000, 64.)

I started wondering that if outdoor sports could help the people under the threat of social exclusion, could it help people suffering from depression or other mental problems as well? I know couple of depressed people, so this subject caught my interest.

Last of the autumn colours

The connection between sports and mental well-being is not clear. It is known that sports do improve mental well-being, but it is not quite sure how. It can be explained physically, biochemically and psychosocially (Rantonen – Lakkarinen 2008, 3) but does nature have something to do with it? Would depression be such a big problem, if people weren’t so diverged from nature?

I’m glad I still enjoy the outdoors once in a while. Being in the forest all by yourself can really lift your mood up. As I was walking towards home some people seemed to be in a hurry, rushing past me to somewhere, but I felt relaxed. It started to rain when I was almost home but instead of rushing inside, I stayed out a while: savoring the moment. By doing absolutely nothing for school, I had cleared my head and had a great idea for thesis and even for the first blog scripture.

Sources:
                        Miettinen, M. 2000. Haasteena huomisen hyvinvointi – Miten liikunta lisää mahdollisuuksia? Liikunnan yhteiskunnallinen perustelu II Tutkimuskatsaus. Liikunnan ja kansanterveyden julkaisuja 124.

                        Rantonen, K. – Laukkarinen, I. 2006. Liikunta ja mielenterveys. Mielenterveyden keskusliitto. Opas 2006. Pori. Osoitteessa: