Jannik Sinner, renowned mental coach raises alarm

Jannik Sinner&#8217s withdrawal during the Cincinnati tournament final had many worried: the San Candido ace played just 23 minutes before raising the white flag. “I am so sorry, especially because the match lasted so short and I know it was not easy for many to be there because they would have to work. I am sorry to have disappointed the public” he said.

Nicoletta Romanazzi, renowned mental coach who supported the likes of Marcell Jacobs, Gianluigi Donnarumma and many others, sounded an alarm: “Often in top athletes the competitive part is out of proportion, they train like there is no tomorrow”.

“Of course, it is hard to tell from a distance what happened – he told ANSA’ANSA– it could have been an intestinal flu, but he was certainly tired. After Wimbledon he was off for a month, it is true, but it would be important to understand how. Every once in a while you need to really take off, to get back to performance and to really enjoy what you”re doing.

Nicoletta Romanazzi then elaborated on this issue: “If competitiveness is very high, for the athlete, listening to the body is zero. It’s an unknown entity: if the body gives signals, it does not perceive them. That&#8217s why I try to make my athletes understand that rest is as important as training. Our system responds to precise rhythms: the peaks last 90/120 minutes, then comes the valley which is important: if we don&#8217t listen to it and for 20 minutes we slow down, the next peak will be lower, and the next one even lower, until we get to the situation where either I don&#8217t feel like doing anything anymore or I&#8217m always out of the loop, an anxiety situation. This happens when we don&#8217t respect our cycle: if athletes understand this, they allow themselves the weekly gluttony to the diet, the’going out with friends, the rest. More time for themselves, and they become better performers and have fun: fun is essential”.

“My example is Olympic gold medalist Luigi Busà: he wanted to go to the Games, karate was his life, he had to be No. 1 at all costs but suddenly he couldn&#8217t take it anymore and wanted to quit. He thought he was having fun, actually he was not. Now he knows how to take breaks: and he still does karate” concluded the mental coach.