The great challenge of team flow

Youth sectors: the microcosm of a wider society

It is not easy today to be adolescent athletes: a generation that grew up in a network.
It is inevitable that adults ask themselves about the adaptive use of social media and video games, or the danger of cyberbullying, addictions and social withdrawal.
And, in any case, how many hours are ok in front of a monitor?

Sport could give correct answers, even if things are not always simple.

Between school choices, cards and transfers, pressure from parents, or too demanding coaches there are too often expectations problems, of educational coherence and alignment of values.
What are the role boundaries between family, school and sports environment?

Sports culture seems to be the answer: it is essential to field theoretically solid proposals, which know how to put the child at the center of projects, which involve the intertwining of professional spaces and multidisciplinary collaborations.

The formula:

An integrated work plan is envisaged, based on tailor paths, which include services aimed at:

players: general and discipline specific assessment, mental training, field training, video analysis
staff: team coaching, team development, on-line meeting
families: on-line encounter, in-depth meetings on specific issues

Who to:

To Federations, Clubs, for players of different ages and technical levels.

High-level team sport

Early studies by Jackson and Marsh, the two Australian researchers at Queensland University who developed the Flow State Scale, involved team sports.

The challenge: is team Flow a summation of individual players flow situations?

Our studies over the years provided us with the answers, but, above all, they showed us how the Flow State Scale can favor the optimization of the locker room, increasingly characterized, already at a youth level, by the presence of different individualities, cultures, sports and life experiences.

The Flow State Scale, in fact, can be used in a reduced form (9 items, a per dimension) validated by Jackson and Marsh themselves.

At the end of the training – the coach will suggest the frequency – players are asked to fill in the 9-item scale, recalling the sensations experienced on the pitch.

The comparison of the individual profiles with those of optimal functioning, evaluated at the beginning of the season, will favor dialogue, with obvious advantages regarding collective efficacy and intrinsic motivation.

Individual interviews with the management, group and individual meetings with the technical staff and interventions for small groups, allow to acquire a more complete picture of individuality, synergies, and methods of communication in the field, as well as of possible conflicts.

Objectives:

Sharing, alignment of objectives, focus on the coach, which are crucial in feeding and supporting the emotional-motivational resources of the players.

Formula:

In a shared path with the coach, staff and management, it is possible to work through:

observation, evaluation and debriefing of training sessions,
individual and collective Mental Training sessions,
targeted meetings for small groups (based on the role on the pitch) and team building sessions.