Makis Chamalidis: "This period is rather a time of opening for athletes"

Text by: David Kalfa Follow

Makis Chamalidis is a sports psychologist and co-author with François Ducasse of Champion in the head. The specialist in mental coaching evokes for RFI this potentially complicated period for a high-level athlete that is containment.

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RFI : Makis Chamalidis, is containment, which currently affects several billion people around the world, more difficult for a high-level athlete, do you think ?

Makis Chamalidis : I want to say that this concerns all people who need to move, who are in movement, who need to exercise but also to coordinate their bodies. We can also think of the dancers.

But I would say that it is difficult for an athlete because he cannot exercise his profession. We could say the same thing about many other people. But it is above all the question of the body which arises: what becomes of this body which is trained several times a day? Suddenly, it is maintained. He is not sure which goals to turn to. That's my real question.

What can be the hardest thing to bear for a top athlete during such a particular period? Lack of adrenaline, what usually provides competition and / or adversity? Or the lack of prospects, when the days and weeks of sportsmen / women are often set like musical paper?

If we take the example of an athlete injured during a season, he knows that sooner or later, after three or four months, he will resume. He knows the steps to re-athletize. So there is a goal. Right now, the hardest part is the lack of goals. We don't know where to turn. We do not know when we will resume the season, or under what conditions.

But there is also the lack of adrenaline. Is it possible to create other situations where there is adrenaline? It's always going to be a bit artificial. We are going to get out of it on the Internet or on social networks, through certain challenges. But that in no way replaces the stakes of a competition.

So I think there is a real need for athletes to see the big picture, that is to say understand that it is a global crisis. You have to put things in perspective and also put your ego aside. You have to ask yourself what these 3, 4, 5, 6 months represent in a career.

Some athletes sometimes train for several months or even years for a single competition. Do you think, like swimmer Michael Phelps, that cancellations or postponements of events, like the one at the Tokyo Olympics, pose a risk of depression ?

My first reaction was to say that postponing the Olympic Games for a year was a good thing. Because it would have created too much inequality, otherwise. We know that athletes are already training in other countries. However, among the French, this is not really the case. If the Olympics had taken place this year, everyone would not have been on an equal footing. There, there is time for everyone to prepare well.

Now, it is certain that it is not the same to go to the Olympic Games for a player of tennis or golf, and for a wrestler or a badminton player. This event, in certain sports, is the one not to be missed.

I am also thinking of athletes who wanted to stop their careers this year, with these Olympic Games, and who realize that the Games will take place next year. They say to themselves: "  Should I continue or not?  "

Then, compared to what Michael Phelps said, the risk of depression comes especially when there is a lack of meaning, when it no longer makes sense for an athlete to train. The lack of benchmarks imbalance. Depression will come in some people, if they see everything in black and for them there are no longer any prospects. Now, we are awaiting prospects.

Finally, everyone is a little in the same boat. This is why on the networks, there is a kind of solidarity between athletes. They regroup. From one discipline to another, they begin to communicate. So I think it's more of an opening time for them.

► To read, Champion in mind

Are athletes practicing a collective sport a greater risk than those practicing an individual discipline ?

I tell myself that each field, collective sports on the one hand and individual sports on the other, has its differences but that there are common denominators.

For a football or handball player, the fact of no longer having access to the locker room creates a lack, even on the olfactory level. There is also usually the group, the team, of course. It's a lifestyle. However, even in some individual sports, there are training groups, with athletes who rub shoulders every day. You are never really alone, except in certain disciplines.

I almost want to say that team sports practitioners will group differently. They will share a little more on social media. In individual sports, competitors may get closer, as we see with the big tennis stars who exchange a lot with each other.

In some countries, training and / or competition has resumed. These activities are sometimes accompanied by safety instructions related to the coronavirus, such as avoiding certain contacts. This is the case, for example, in Germany, where footballers train again. Is being in restraint compatible with the practice of high-level sport ?

From an educational point of view, saying to athletes "  go ahead, but don't touch yourself  ", is this compatible with the animal side where you really have to let go? I think it is a real challenge for coaches to have exercises and tactical diagrams that allow athletes to go all the way. Because, if we have to hold back, what's the point of training? We have already found that in certain sports, athletes do not respect safety measures. So it's a risk-taking.

You mentioned the need for an athlete to broaden the perspective, to put his case into perspective compared to the current situation. Is this really the advice you would give to top athletes to live this situation well ?

I want to tell them several things. The first is that they are not alone. Next, there are two categories of athletes. There are those who will complain at first, saying that their toy has been taken away from them, who will try to maintain themselves physically. And then there are those who say to themselves: "  Ok, I adapt and I stay on what depends on me, and I will do something with it . »Besides, we saw quite a lot of sportsmen starting to cook, to re-release a musical instrument to which they haven't touched for a long time. So, this is really the moment when we can develop skills that we would not have worked if it weren't for this crisis. The idea is not to pick up where I left off before the crisis. The idea is to hone skills, to get stronger, to renew yourself, to keep the good habits acquired during this crisis before the pace of competition resumes. Currently, we are getting organized, living at our own pace. You will have to keep one or two good habits to tell yourself that you have progressed.

► To visit, the site of Markis Chamalidis

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