05/09/2020 - 16:53
- Clarín.com
- sports
When Mario Ledesma took over as head coach of Jaguares in January 2018, he found a mentally weak team, which could not transform its great potential into good results. In just ten games, it transformed him into a team with identity and conviction. At the end of that season, he became the new coach of Los Pumas and decided to transfer the vision of work with which he had grown the Argentine franchise to the selected team.
He did so, but in 2019, things did not go as he and his staff expected. The elimination in the first round of the World Cup in Japan, which they arrived with the illusion of playing a good role, was a hard blow. So, for this 2020, he decided to redouble his bet and start working more deeply not only in the identity and culture of the team, but also in the development of tools to manage emotions, pressures and stress and improve performance within court.
To put this idea into practice, he contacted Ernesto García González, a psychologist specialized in sport with a lot of experience in the world of rugby , who was already working at the Regatas Bella Vista club and individually with some players from Los Pumas and Jaguars. After a first meeting, García González presented a project that convinced Ledesma, his coaching staff and the leadership of the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) . And they got down to work.
"We had been working with Los Pumas on the issue of identity, the sense of belonging and the culture of the team, as we had done with Jaguares. We had tackled it more from strategic communication, keywords and so on. Shortly before the World Cup we wanted to give it a twist and we started doing other activities, on the one hand of neuroscience with Estanislao Bachrach and on the other, with Raúl Medina, the director of leadership and mental tools of the IAE (of the Austral University) .I think we should have started earlier , because We had very little time before the World Cup. After that tournament, we planned to continue on this path, but do it in depth so that the boys could see the added value. Medina recommended Ernesto, who works with him at IAE, I met and I liked what he proposed, "says Ledesma in a chat with Clarín .
"My vision is that the player knows himself, that he can have all the sports psychology tools necessary to know what is his best way to perform and ensure that high performance does not detract from his well-being," explains García González.
The project is focused on three groups. On the one hand, the technical staff, to help you understand the best way to motivate each player and achieve their best version on the field. On the other, in a first instance, a small group of players -the captain and some referents- to deal with more specific issues. And then a long-term proposal with the whole group "which consists of making a diagnosis of where the boys stand individually and in groups. And from that diagnosis, give them as many tools as possible so that they have the best possible level as a team and as individuals, "says García González.
Agustín Creevy and captain Pablo Matera, two referents of the Pumas squad who began working with a sports psychologist this season. Photo: AP / Peter Morrison).
And he remembers: "One of the concerns Mario shared with me in that first meeting was about the World Cup. He asked me what I thought and what they should do about that event, if the page had to be turned or contained. But what what mattered most was that he help them train these players and give each one what they needed to arrive safely. "
"We began to work with Ernesto and the staff to somehow start this new process on a white page, without dragging anything that had happened previously. We are also subject to pressure, stress and emotions. But beyond self-knowledge Those tools that we are "training" help us to get to know the boys better The times of rugby in which everyone was spoken to the same and in a rather crude way and we all understood in the same way, they have long since passed. Today the players are all individuals who react differently to different things and it is important to know how much criticism and flattery affect each one. So, selfishly, we are learning how to know what buttons we have to press to get the best out of each and achieve make them the best players they can be, "reflects Ledesma.
The Argentine coach highlights that beyond the approach that aims for the player to develop a sense of belonging with the team, what is sought in this new stage is that both rugby players and the coaching staff find the tools to know how to handle the emotions that are generated with each match and with each tournament.
"It is a very complex topic because an emotion overwhelms you and covers everything. So the idea is that we can all learn to identify emotions; to have them under control; to keep certain thoughts at bay; to focus on the present; to manage pressure and understanding that to some extent pressure and stress can be helpful, and to handle fear and other distracting agents, "says Ledesma.
The objective of the work they began to do with the psychologist Ernesto García González is for both players and staff to learn to manage emotions. "It is a very complex subject," Ledesma assuredly. (Photo: German Garcia Adrasti).
Work with the coaching staff began in December. And this year, with a first small group of players, which would expand in the coming weeks. They were long and very positive encounters, with talks and exercises scheduled in advance.
The original plan was to start a gradual follow-up in the first half of the year, without invading the Jaguars season in Super Rugby, and then increase the work during the selection calendar. But due to the mandatory quarantine in Argentina due to the coronavirus pandemic, this planning had to be modified. Although despite the uncertainty about what will happen in the rest of the year, the meetings did not stop and continue to take place virtually.
As the project is still at a very early stage, García González has not yet made a diagnosis on which aspects should focus the work at group and individual level. Although the few meetings he had with players and the coaching staff were enough to verify everyone's great commitment to the proposal.
"These players love what they do and are in pain because of what they lived through in the World Cup. They were prepared to do better and they were hurt. Hopefully, that pain later turns into positive things and resilience. They are very willing to work to turn the page and write a better story. From the beginning they were very open and very humble to ask, debate and learn. What's more, I know that they are meeting alone on their own to continue deepening some topics. And the staff too ", says the psychologist.
With the players and coaching staff on board the project, the Argentine coach is excited to find ways and tools to restore Los Pumas to its identity and bring it back to the forefront of international rugby. Although, he assures, the results will come as a consequence of the work and are not the end goal.
"If the work pays off in terms of culture, identity and a sense of belonging, the numerical results will be seen on the pitch," says the Argentine coach. (Photo: Reuters / Issei Kato).
"The important thing is that getting the boys to get involved, commit, be responsible and take charge of what they are living. That they take ownership of what they are doing, of the culture that they are helping to create for the team, and understand the impact that each individual action has on the group. That they become the owners of the team. If this work bears the fruits that it has to give in terms of culture, identity and sense of belonging, the numerical results will be seen in the court ", predicts Ledesma.
The 2020 season and the uncertainty about the coronavirus
Rugby, like the vast majority of sports, was forced to put a stop to its competition in much of the world due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the southern hemisphere, Super Rugby, the franchise tournament, including Jaguares, was suspended in the first half of the year. And although, for now, the Rugby Championship and the windows of June and November, the commitments of Los Pumas for this year, still remain, there is no certainty about when the action will return.
Faced with this scenario, Mario Ledesma had to modify his way of working and, without the possibility of carrying out specific planning for the coming months, he sought ways to get the most out of this forced and undefined position.
"I have very close communication with the UAR and they with SANZAR. I know that the two organizations are doing everything possible so that we can play again as soon as possible. But today we do not know when it will be. So the detailed planning for the year is the day that this scenario will be resolved and in Argentina we will know when they are going to let us leave the house. For now, the planning we are doing is how the re-athletization of the boys will be. Because surely some are going to lose a lot of mass muscular and many -because we have a large percentage living in apartments- will not even be able to run at this time. So it will take us more than a month to prepare the boys to be able to have one hundred percent contact. little particular and that is what we are working on today, "says the coach.
With the incentive about when the action will return, Ledesma focuses his planning for now on how he will recover the physical state of his players. "Surely some will lose a lot of muscle mass," he reflects. (Photo: AFP / Odd Andersen).
And he adds: "Meanwhile, we are having a lot of time to dedicate to these leadership activities and mental tools and deepen them. In addition, we are defining the profiles of the players from the technical, tactical, nutritional, physical and mental aspects, to understand how to make everything go in the sense of the player we want to have. We are studying a lot and trying to give a twist for the better for our game from the point of view of the roles and spaces that the players have to occupy. several weekly UAR meetings with all the coaches from the system and from Academies. And then each one on his own, trying to improve. So we are working hard. "
Ledesma also keeps abreast of all the work his players are doing - today, most of them still wearing the Jaguares shirt - since the running of the bulls. "At the UAR, the head of the physical part is from the Union, not from Jaguares or Los Pumas. The physical is all organized together, so we know well what the boys are doing. They are working every day, double shift and with monitoring to know if there was any type of injury or some type of discomfort. Everything is coordinated, "he explains.
Although there was still no official announcement from SANZAR, Ledesma assures that it is practically decided that Super Rugby will not resume and that when that cancellation is confirmed, he and his coaching staff will take the team's hand, since the Jaguares team is in mostly the same as that of Los Pumas. But unlike other years, the players will come into their hands with almost no game load, which will force them to modify a little the usual work of the preseason.
"We are going to start from a lower physical level than we are used to in any season. Getting the boys to recover the kilos of muscles that they will surely lose will take a long time. Outside of that, it will be a normal preseason," he analyzed. .
Dump the Los Pumas project to all high performance
The Pumas are the visible face, the trademark of the Argentine Rugby Union. But in this organization for years the focus has been on developing high performance at all levels. For this reason, the plan of the Union is that the work begun by those led by Mario Ledesma to strengthen the team with mental training and psychological work will be devoted to all those selected and to the Academies.
"The physical and the rugby go hand in hand with the mental, we cannot separate them. It is all the same thing. If we are bad, we are going to play badly. Generally, injuries or dips in sports coincide with dips that are happening For this reason, we are seeking to achieve a complete vision and extend the project that Los Pumas is carrying out to all high performance, "says Francisco Rubio, Rugby Manager at UAR.
The UAR wants to transfer all the mental and psychological work that those selected are doing to the rest of the high performance, among them the Academies. (UAR Press Photo)
In the Union they want the psychological work to complement what they had been doing with Estanislao Bachrach for two seasons with the selected sub 20.
"Estanislao started in May 2018 with the Pumitas - players and coaching staff - and gave us many tools to work on mental training and leadership. We thought it was great and we want to deepen it and focus on all high performance. After the U20 World Cup in Rosario last year, we started to do a project for that, which was truncated by the issue of the pandemic. At the same time, we saw that there was a part that was not covered by what Estanislao was doing, which was interpersonal and group relationships from psychology. So I presented that concern to Ernesto to see how we could also transfer to the academies that more personalized work that the psychologist performs. We were just in a diagnostic stage when we had to stop for the coronavirus, "explains Rubio.
The health crisis put on hold that idea of achieving a complete vision and complementing the work of these two professionals. But Rubio knows that, once everything is back to normal, they will be able to resume the proposals. "The truth is that today we do not know how we are going to continue this 2020. Personally, I think that just next year we will be able to be fully organized again with all the structures. But trying to adapt to the situation and we are preparing to when that happens. It is incredible the work that is being done off the field right now, "he says.
