INTERVIEW WITH IÑIGO AGUINAGA, PSYCHOLOGIST OF BILBAO ATHLETIC
Íñigo Aguinaga is a sports psychologist and currently works for Bilbao Athletic (U23 Athletic Club team). After years as a player and as a person interested in the processes of human behavior, he has managed to unite his two passions, football and psychology.
He is an active part of a working group with other sports coaches, applying his knowledge of psychology to the daily reality of a team, acting on the field, during training sessions, with players and with their coaches.
What did we talk about in the interview?
Being Íñigo one of the speakers at the next online Congress Psychology: attention to the soccer player, it was interesting to know details of his work.
In the interview we learn about the role that the sports psychologist has in the Athletic Club teams and how his function has evolved in recent years towards a much more active and continuous position throughout the training process of players. His intervention is done on coaches for their individual aspects (such as communication), to jointly design strategies with players, and on the athletes themselves to prevent situations and help them improve their performance.
Íñigo also explains how to manage the expectations of players who are close to professionalism and the keys to different techniques, such as setting individual goals, relaxation or conversations.
Most notable ideas
1
The sports psychologist has gone from being a “fire figther” who was only called to solve problems to being another technician, present in the day-to-day life of the teams, not only to intervene but also to prevent.
2
In order to address the challenges faced by players, it is not only necessary to look at the individual, but also at the contexts in which they operate.
3
An Athletic Club player not only attends to his own expectations, but also to those of an environment in which the Club has a great social weight.
4
Training is where the player behaves most naturally. That is where the psychologist’s observation is most important.
5
The establishment of individual objectives is a motivational technique that is much more useful if it starts from the player himself/herself.
6
3 keys to a good conversation: the ability to ask open questions, active listening and a critical spirit to question your own beliefs.
