Methodology for overcoming artistic gymnastic coaches
for the psychological preparation of athletes
Abstract
This article aims to establish a methodology to improve artistic gymnastics coaches for
the direction of the psychological preparation process of athletes, an aspect that today
presents limitations from theory, practice and properly, from research. A theoretical
matrix is assumed that reconceptualizes the term of psychological preparation or
psychological training in the field of said sport, an aspect that serves as a starting point
to perfect this process. In this case, the methodology is based on the interrelation
between the basic elements of sport psychology and the specialized actions of
psychological preparation for these athletes. In itself, the constituents of the
methodology guide the design of actions that the coaches must carry out once they are
trained, everything that must produce significant changes with respect to the results of
that sport. For the article, theoretical research methods and techniques were used in
essence, such as analysis-synthesis, induction-deduction and generalization, as well as
workshops on critical opinion and collective construction.
Key Words: Artistic Gymnastics, sport, improvement, psychological preparation.
Introduction
Sport is a socializing activity par excellence; therefore, the way in which it is valued and
respected depends, to a large extent, on the physical effort and preparation of the
athletes and, behind them, on the work carried out by the respective coaches.
Today there are countless proposals related directly or indirectly to the improvement of
coaches (Marques, Nonohay, Koller, Gauer and Cruz, 2015; Loaiza, Ayala and Ramos,
2015; Cañizares, Pérez and Saura, 2017 among many). However, it is still evident that,
up to date, at least in the Ecuadorian sphere, there is no fully defined idea on how to
solve this contradiction in artistic gymnastics.
In this environment, there is an urgent need to provide attention to technicians and
specialists linked to competitive sport, specifically, those of artistic gymnastics on
issues related to advances in science and technology on the importance of the
development and promotion of athletes with a high performance and, essentially, on the
psychological preparation of them between several and multiple spheres.
In that sense, regardless of that reality, sports training and the coach itself, cannot be
outside the influence that science has on the athlete's psyche (Nunomura, Alvez, Duarte,
Midori and Santos, 2016), since that, among its functions, it must take as sustenance the
laws of psychology and psychic development so that the athlete achieves effective and
efficient results. Thus, and regardless of the presence of specialized professionals as part
of the teams, there is a need for the coach to master psychological procedures and
techniques that she can systematically put into practice in the interaction with her
gymnasts.
It is not strange then to suppose why psychology, according to Sáez (2015), focuses its
interest on the interactions coach-athlete, athlete-athlete, athlete-judges, athlete-public,
among many others that occur in sports spaces,both to deepen the basic psychic
processes that are carried out in them, and to materialize psychological intervention
techniques derived from the study of these processes.
All the ideas outlined certify the need for the coach to apply content and processes of
Psychology, towards which their improvement must be oriented, in order to be able to
put them into practice in a comprehensive and creative way according to the demands of
contemporary sport, which is increasingly more rigorous. For this reason, this
preparation must be seen in a more comprehensive way as part of the training, whose
starting point, in the process of overcoming the trainers, lies in the preparation to
determine the real psychological needs of the gymnasts, to then to be able to adequately
plan the stages of psychological training, the actions to be developed in each of the
components, the methods and procedures of psychic influence, as well as the principles
that support the planning of the athlete's psychological component.
Today, it is known that artistic gymnastics is considered a sport that shows the
execution of mixed exercises, a competitive art that integrates the gymnast in a
continuum of rhythms, melodies, instruments, everything that suggests that the
appropriate movement through which emotions are manifested, as expressed by
Carreirão and Fernández (2017) and Martínez (2019). During the development of
competencies of different levels and complexity, each selection, optional or mandatory,
is valued by the judges who, from their own preparation, but also from their subjectivity
and modes of apprehension of the various routines, determine the results of the
execution through a type of qualification, which can positively or negatively influence
the psyche of the athlete (International Gymnastics Federation, 2016).
This denotes that, in the exceptional conditions in which the gymnast performs during
training and competitions, and the necessary specialized manifestation of physical and
mental efforts to achieve high competitive results, makes the psychological
improvement of the coach an essential action to take into account as part of the planning
and management process of such preparation. For this reason, this article aims to
establish a methodology to improve these artistic gymnastics professionals for the
direction of the psychological preparation process of their athletes.
Methodology
For the development of this paper methods and techniques of investigation were used in
the theoretical order such as: synthesis- analysis, induction-deduction and generalization
to observe the up date tendencies about the problem; in a way it facilitates to get an idea
to elaborate the methodology.
In this way there were programmed many workshops of critical opinions and collective
building with 20 coaches of the sports or related to it, which purpose was to value at
first time in the theoretical order the credibility of the proposal.
Results and Discussion
If a comparative study is carried out of the particularities of artistic gymnastics with
respect to past decades and how this behaves today, it is possible to visualize
contradictions regarding to the composition, diversity and types of difficulty in its
competitive structure, which is evident in the dissimilar indicators of the load present in
training, which is what causes the organic and psychological accommodation of the
athletes of this sport with respect to higher stages of preparation.
In common, observe the different points of view of the coaches who have already
recognized results when they point out the complexity involved in forming a gymnast
who is excellent in competition; which, to a certain extent, corroborates a given reality
in which many of them, with an adequate technical preparation, do not achieve the best
competitive results due to insufficient psychological preparation to face this challenge.
According to García (2016):
… The coach must be sensitive to the individual differences of the athletes, consistent in
her actions, she must know that the personality of the team is a reflection of her own
personality, therefore, managing athletes is a true art and science, to be trainers first of
"people" and then "champions" in life ...
In this sense, when referring to the preparation that the coaches must achieve, this
places communication in the context of sports training in a central place. This
knowledge aims to systematize and organize modes of intervention and management
processes in it, based on a direction of the psychological training process that leads to
the formation of the personality of the athletes.
Taking these considerations as a basis, it is therefore worth noting to emphasize that the
improvement of artistic gymnastics coaches, for the direction of psychological
preparation, constitutes a process of individual transformation that facilitates converting
the sporting context that is the object of attention, into a result of the improvement and
updating of the contents, the methodology of science and the values inherent to sport
(Pastorino and Ruga, 2016).
Sports Psychology has among its tasks that of responding objectively, with a defined
method, to the demands of contemporary sport in terms of preparation techniques and
procedures, oriented towards the study, reinforcement and search for balance of
functions, qualities and psychic states of the personality, which recognize the
achievement of an optimal state of disposition and certainty, during training and its
result in participation in competitions.
In itself, psychological preparation provides a starting point that is a necessary tool for
daily work and allows to acquire an in-depth understanding of the complex phenomena
that occur in training and, therefore, a theoretical, methodological and practical
foundation to plan, organize, direct, develop and evaluate professional practice.
It is appropriate to point out that psychological preparation in gymnastics, like the rest
of the components of the athlete's preparation, must be specified from the earliest ages
and categories of the sports pyramid. In this way, the assimilation of more complex
resources depending on age and the degree of complexity of the exercises is ensured
early on.
All this bases the place that such training occupies in the coach within the sporting
experiential context, for which it is inevitable to place it in communion with the various
components of the preparation, which maintain their legitimacy on the basis of their
corresponding systems of knowledge, skills and values, in short of professional
competencies, which are expressed in the unity of the instructive and educational
aspects of the sports training of this sport.
Among other aspects, the coach must understand the importance and objectives of all
preparations, know which is the most important at each specific moment, in training or
competition, the interconnection between them, the way in which a more useful
interaction is achieved. among various aspects. On the other hand, it must be able to
prepare athletes to optimally cope with the various demands of each moment and
achieve the best benefits.
In short, sports training in this area should not be separated at any time from the
influence of the coach on the psyche of the athletes; In this way, in order to achieve an
effective improvement methodology for the direction of the psychological preparation
process, it is necessary to take into account certain qualities, processes and knowledge;
among them:
• Its focus on the knowledge, skills and essential values that the coach must possess in
the psychological order for effective work in sports training and the treatment of
athletes (Jiménez, 2012).
• The attention that should be focused on the control and evaluation for the
psychological treatment of the athletes. In this sense, the evaluation, in the process of
sports training, aims to manage relevant information on the behavior of these, to correct
this process (Aoyagi, Poczwardowski, Statler, Shapiro and Cohen, 2017; Beckmann and
Elbe, 2015; Breslin, Shannon, Haughey , Donnelly and Leavey, 2017). However, in the
context that is the focus of this article, there is still a meager number of comprehensive
and accurate tests, questionnaires and laboratory tests that evaluate dimensions and
indicators in this area of knowledge.
In this process of improvement, it must be taken into account that artistic gymnastics, as
a sport that generally has an individual dimension and is specified by opposition, has
specific psychological peculiarities, which creates stress and requires coordination.
• As part of the premises that are established, attention must be paid to the fact that the
various actions that anyone carries out have a psychological treatment, since they lead
to a group of mental operations that favor or not the effectiveness of said actions, which
has been investigated and studied from the perspective of the most diverse sports
according to the psychological demands of each of them (Batista, Bobo, Lebre and
Ávila-Carvalho, 2015).
From the sports practice of artistic gymnastics at the Club D´Fernanda, located in Quito,
where the authors of this article work, it has been evidenced in the athletes lack of
motivation and combativeness to face their routines, which showed problems at the time
to complete some tasks; at the same time, it was evidenced that, on the part of some
coaches, there was no planning of psychological actions. In fact, multiple problems
were observed in the technical weighting beyond the psychological, fears in the athletes,
insecurity, asystematicity of the psychological treatment, pathological behaviors
without an appreciable follow-up, loss of motivation, among others, as well as, in some
of these cases Cole, Bellizzi, Flegal and Dietz (2000).
As effects of the aspects addressed, the authors developed a methodology for
overcoming trainers to direct the process of psychological preparation of artistic
gymnastics athletes; methodology that is made up of various phases and moments, as
well as actions and orientations that govern its logical and methodological application.
Objective: To prepare the coaches to optimally direct the psychological preparation of
artistic gymnastics athletes from sports training and the competitions they face.
Conception of the Methodology: This contribution reveals a procedural character from
what has been argued. All this requires that such a process of improvement be organized
from a perspective that contemplates a previous diagnosis to the coaches and values
their results as a way of solving the current problem. The methodology includes the
theoretical assumptions, characteristics and concepts of essence; the objective, already
stated; and four phases that will be described and substantiated in the future.
Its characteristics:
• Integrative: it recognizes the harmony of the actions of improvement for the
preparation of the coaches, from an approach that tends to integrate the components of
the preparation of the athletes, from a conducive atmosphere.
• Contextualized: it responds to the space, media, conditions, idiosyncrasies, demands
and needs of gymnastics coaches and athletes.
• Systemic: because the modalities that make up the methodology and the actions to be
developed show relationships with each other, present exchange relationships with the
environment, through inputs and outputs that make it open and adaptive.
Flexible: Adaptability shows the coach that she has flexible thinking, open to options
and solution decisions, which makes it easier for her to establish appropriate
relationships with her athletes and makes it possible to include alternatives to find
plausible solutions.
• Formative: since in the actions designed it is necessary for the coach to appropriate a
psychological culture, as well as a didactic, scientific and contextual culture of sports
training.
In this way, in order to achieve the objective, aspects to be considered are taken into
account in an unavoidable way, that the unity between the activity-communication-
personality, the instructive-educational-developer, between the affective-cognitive, as
well as the coach's own individuality and their learning rhythms. The methodology
consists of three phases:
1) Previous diagnosis of the coaches for the improvement process, whose objective is
to know about the initial preparation of the coach to work on the psychological
component in training and competitions. In this way, it is investigated to find out about
the knowledge she possesses,her potentialities and difficulties. It depends largely on
how the rest of the phases of the methodology, what is going to be designed, will be
specified. For this reason, it will be taken into consideration that the diagnosis has an
individual orientation, although the overcoming from a specific group of trainers is
conformed; Also, what is related to the gap between the desired state and the real state
will be taken into account, in line with the historical-cultural approach (Vigotsky, 1997)
and in accordance with the results or the real behaviors that are expected.
This phase materializes in three moments:
• In the first, the diagnosis is designed for which the objective of the diagnosis is
defined, and the methods and techniques to be applied are evaluated; Bibliographic and
personal information sources that can provide information are also delimited.
• Second, the diagnostics itself is run.
• Finally, the conclusions are offered from a quantitative and qualitative perspective.
2) Operational management of improvement. In a first stage, it is aimed at the
creation of a psychological culture in the coach to improve sports training and the
participation of athletes in various types of competitions, as well as the achievement of
a favorable attitude towards mastering psychological methods and techniques. that
makes it easier for you to give new meanings to the roles of athletes. A substantial
aspect is found in the planning of the workshops with a collaborative base to facilitate
the exchange of experiences and experiences according to the heterogeneity of the
group. In this way, each coach has a responsibility with their learning and with that of
the rest by sustaining these in a systematic exchange. In itself, the following actions are
carried out from a vital pedagogical logic:
• Help participation, recognizing individual modes of expression.
• Use of a concrete and precise language from the accepted technical terminology.
• Reflective processes should be encouraged from group learning.
• Go from simple to more complex topics.
• Coaches' understanding should be accessed through phrases, observations,
brainstorming, or other group interaction procedures.
• Assess the effectiveness of the methodology with the same methods and
instruments used in the diagnosis.
This system of workshops is visualized as a group interactive learning process, in which
the trainers participate in an individual-social balance. In that sense, the most important
thing is to meet the objectives. For their development, the workshops must follow the
following structure:
• Group formation, for which the prior knowledge of each coach is required.
• Presentation, which is the first contact of the group members; There they can
make their expectations, their doubts and their specific needs known.
• Previous diagnosis, by means of questions or participatory techniques, the initial
state of each one regarding the subject to be discussed is identified.
• Guidance of individual and team work through dynamics that encourage
individual and group reflections.
• In plenary, the results of the teams are presented, which encourages the final
discussion and the necessary adjustment with the contributions of the others.
• Qualitative assessment: which is carried out on the basis not only of the results
obtained, but also of the process of execution of the assigned tasks and their
results.
The content of the workshops integrates the psychological component of the athlete's
preparation; that is, in the physical preparation linked to the volitional and motivational
spheres; in the technique related to the cognitive and motivational sphere and in the
tactics linked to the cognitive sphere.
In a second stage, this phase has a practical sequential organization given by:
a) Determination of tasks for the coach to plan the psychological preparation of the
athletes taking into account the periods and stages of the athlete's preparation.
b) Design of psychological actions for the coach to fully direct the psychological
component from sports training. Thus, emphasis will be placed on preparing for:
• That the athletes develop capacities to carry out prolonged volitional efforts.
• Stimulate and convince them.
• The decision and perseverance in the tasks of resistance, strength and speed.
• That the athletes develop safety in their executions; in this way, they will be prepared
to offer explanations before, simultaneously and after the executions.
• Create a psychological basis for them to perform tasks of strength, endurance and
speed.
• Teach to develop goals to achieve the proposed objectives; for example, repetitions.
Motivate athletes through autosuggestion to overcome fatigue or stress.
• Create a favorable psychological-emotional climate from the use of psychological
methods and techniques aimed at convincing, self-convincing, among others.
• Manage tasks and exercises that constitute a physical and psychological challenge
based on complex situations in which the athlete works on fatigue.
• Recognize the results of the physical and psychological preparation achieved.
• Show how to locate reference points of spaces, distances, repetitions, which facilitates
disposition, motivation and will.
From the technical preparation, instruct them so that, through self-improvement actions,
they achieve:
• Hypothetically anticipate situations that may occur in competition.
• Properly use teaching aids.
• Demonstrate the link between the technical content and the procedural aspects of the
execution, taking into account the phases of the motor actions.
• Expose and indicate to the athletes those procedures or technical elements to satisfy
the expected purposes in the execution.
• Manage the verbal and written delineation of the technical elements of artistic
gymnastics.
• Express to them the value of practical representations of gymnastics.
• Individualize the training by assigning tasks or exercises where the technique that
presents difficulty must be executed.
• Positively reinforce the achievements of the athletes after the execution.
• Entrusting athletes with situations with varying degrees of complexity.
From the tactical preparation, instruct them so that, through self-improvement actions,
they achieve:
• Use problematic questions.
• Create real competition simulations under stressful situations.
• Create security levels using self-evaluating and evaluative processes.
• Motivate athletes to successfully carry out the load, volume and intensity of the
activity, during and at the end of training.
• Manage media where dissimilar tactical exercises of interest are valued.
• Establish interpersonal relationships with your athletes.
• Clearly and accurately demonstrate complex tactical exercises.
c) Execution of preparation actions from the training itself with the guidance of the
counselor who directs the improvement process. In this regard, it should be taken into
account:
• The adequacy of the fulfillment of the projected psychological actions, the satisfaction
and participation of the athletes and the quality of the activities carried out by the
coaches.
• The management of the methods and techniques to be used, as well as the elaboration
of the rigorous instruments for the collection of the information.
3) Control and evaluation of the improvement. This is the third phase of the
methodology where a process of evaluation of the transformations operated in the
trainers is carried out. For the evaluation to provide the expected results, it is necessary
to clearly specify which aspects are to be evaluated and self-evaluated in the process,
and to determine the types of instruments or optimal scales in each case. On the other
hand, the study of the psychological conditions that are instituted in permanent practices
is imposed.
The process of evaluating the feasibility of the proposed Methodology was specified
through the holding of critical opinion and collective construction workshops in which
20 athletes and sports professionals linked to artistic gymnastics or similar sports
participated, most of them graduates of careers. related with an experience between
seven and 15 years. When choosing them, the relationship between their pedagogical
and psychological work with the sport in question was taken into account; the link
between their work and their skills to work with athletes; and, at least five years of
experience in working with artistic gymnastics. They were developed in several stages:
Stage prior to the workshops:
• In the selection of the groups from a global perspective, those who had affinity and
professional knowledge for the topic to be discussed in the workshop were chosen.
• Three groups were defined: the first made up of the D´Fernanda Club coaches; the
second, by the sports coaches who work in other clubs; and, the third, those who work
in other related sports.
• Based on the selection of the groups, it was decided to hold three workshops in which
all the professionals would participate.
Stage of implementation of the workshops: During the workshops, the interventions of
the participants were recorded, in audio, which made possible the subsequent analysis
of the criteria issued. For its execution, it was requested that everyone identify
themselves when intervening and proceeded as follows:
• Introduction to the workshop: a presentation was made of the theoretical foundation,
the conception and the proposed Methodology. It took about 30 minutes.
• Development of the workshop: it was subjected to collective analysis, which the
authors of this article stimulated in order to achieve sufficient argumentation around the
object of discussion.
• Conclusion of the workshop: the aspects to be included, eliminated or modified in the
Methodology to contribute to its improvement were summarized.
Stage after each workshop:
• A detailed study of the criteria issued by the participants was carried out and a
synthesis of the most significant aspects was drawn up.
• The proposal was re-elaborated with the elements contributed by each group and the
document to be presented at the next workshop was prepared.
• The results of each workshop were contrasted, counting on the preparation of the
participants, which gave foundation to the stated criteria.
• At the end of the last workshop, a synthesis was made of what each one contributed to
the proposal, so as to show the dynamics of change.
As a result, a file was documented that collected the collective characterization of the
group in question, the record of experiences with the memory of each work session and
a synthetic summary of it. Below is a synthesis of the key results:
• The participants agreed that the theoretical and practical foundations that support the
Methodology are pertinent, at the same time they suggest increasing aspects related to
the methods to be used among the foundations of the proposal.
The theoretical construct was valued as novel, despite the corrections that need to be
made.
• Elements of the conception that were not conceived or perfectly defined in the
psychological preparation of the sports athletes in the Ecuadorian case are highlighted.
• They coincide in pointing out that the Methodology is viable for its application, based
on its particularities, for the improvement of sports coaches.
Conclusions
The methodology presented is a reflection of an organization and structure that
facilitates the fulfillment of the stated purposes to ensure that artistic gymnastics
coaches achieve adequate preparation regarding the psychological help that they must
provide to their athletes, without ignoring, around them, the presence of a group of
specialists who help to give rigor and solidity both to sports training and to competition.
But, from this improvement, greater effectiveness is achieved due to the degree of
relationship and affectivity that exists between the coach and her gymnasts; while
developing pedagogical and communication skills to direct sports training and serves as
a guide in competitions.
In this way, the coach can also achieve a conscious and dynamic apprehension of the
psychological process in the preparation of athletes, which means that she manages this
preparation through critical contributions and issuing solutions committed to the sport
and the context for which is exceeded; everything that favors a change in the traditional
approaches related to this problem.
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