Katanch in criticism: You are responsible!

According to “Verzeh Se”, the Slovenian head coach of this team is under pressure of criticism despite the Uzbek national team’s defeat on penalties against Qatar in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup.

Aleksandra Khusainova, a Russian sports psychologist who has worked with many football, hockey and gymnastics players, analyzed the reactions and performances of the head coach of the Uzbekistan national team, Serchko Katanch, to reporters’ questions after the loss to Qatar.

Diplomatically, one can only praise the head coach of the Uzbekistan national team for managing to evade all pressing questions while the players gave 100 or even 120 percent of their strength. Katanch doesn’t want to go because he has reached his minimum goal. But diplomatic responses always mean shirking responsibility. According to the Uzbek head coach, everything is good, everyone is great, but the fact is that the players were not mentally ready. This is a small detail that is very important in professional sports.

Yes, it sounds trivial, but who is responsible for the mental and emotional state of players? This work is carried out by sports psychologists, for example, a specialist from Austria works in the Korean national team. If there is no sports psychologist, this responsibility falls to the head coach. The logical question then arises for the coach: Why weren’t the players ready for penalties? This question cannot be asked of anyone else.

Of course, the blame rarely lies with the coaches and it is often the players who suffer from such situations. Of course, you won’t get anywhere by looking for mistakes, because in professional sports there is almost never one person to blame. Here, as in family life, everyone is to blame in their own way. You can’t just blame the coach or certain players. There is a system that formed such a team and appointed such a coach.

As a psychologist, I have questions from the trainer so that we can analyze his conversation. He lamented the players’ lack of mental and emotional preparation. Who is responsible?

When we look at non-verbal situations, we see a “switching off” at the very first question. Now you don’t have to be a psychologist to “do the math.” Most people know what it is from popular literature. A person may say something, but his body movements reveal his hidden feelings. Keeping your arms closed or crossed serves as a defense throughout almost the entire conversation. So he seems to be saying: “I will defend myself against you and against your questions. I am ready for your attacks and I can defend myself.”

In general, three factors influence performance success in professional sports. First and foremost, it is the athlete’s talent, for which the living environment is responsible, as well as the state and professional associations that enable this talent to develop. Two further aspects are technical and psychological preparation. Everything is determined by the technical training and the trainer takes full responsibility for it.

Psychology still does not work well, because coaches often do not include a psychologist in their team and say, we will do it ourselves. At the same time, sometimes they do not know exactly what to do in such a situation and how to behave in a particular situation .

It is always a good excuse to say that a player is not mentally ready, but this answer can be given when a player or a team in general has already shown great results and then suddenly something is “wrong”. In this case you can really say that the player was not in a good mood and “his star did not match our star”, but as I said, the coach is responsible for this. He has to motivate, unite the team and also know where to progress and where to be gentle.