“Mental health and sports psychology: practical foundations”, It is called the latest book by Marcelo Roffé, the specialized psychologist, who wrote together with David Peris-Del Campo, Pablo Jodra and Francisco García Ucha. In this work they specifically describe the disorders that usually affect high-performance competitors, three months before the start of the Paris Olympic Games.
-How did you define the profile of the book?
-The book was born from what we have been observing in recent times. There were several elite athletes who made the issue of mental health visible, and put it at the forefront. Now I remember (American artistic gymnast) Simone Biles, who kicked the board at the Tokyo Olympics. She was one of the 300 girls abused by the former US Gymnastics Team doctor (Larry Nassar), and she had the courage to withdraw from those Games during the artistic gymnastics team final, citing mental health problems. There is also the case of (Japanese tennis player) Naomi Osaka, who withdrew from Roland Garros in 2021 because she was forced to give press conferences and she was not mentally well. Osaka admitted that she suffered from depression. There are two women in the middle of the female revolution.
-And what happened from them?
-We began to detect these cases, in addition to (Emiliano) “Dibu” Martínez, who although he did not stop playing, said that he was close to giving up and that he had to start treatment with a psychologist. Previously, there was (former Italian goalkeeper) Gianluigi Buffon, who wrote a letter about his depression. There is also (Spanish footballer) Andrés Iniesta, who in his book acknowledged that he fell into a very strong depression after the death of his friend Daniel Jarque, former Espanyol player from Barcelona. We can also mention the Spanish basketball player Ricardo “Ricky” Rubio, who left the NBA due to mental health problems. The worst was that of Santiago “Morro” García, the Uruguayan who committed suicide while playing for Godoy Cruz.
-How do you deepen these topics?
-We have been saying this for a long time. The first book dates back to 1999, which is “Psychology of the soccer player: with the head balled up”and the second is “Pressure football”, from the year 2000. In this last one I wrote about Mirko Saric, the boy who played for San Lorenzo and took his life in April 2000, and there I say that they are human beings, made of flesh and blood, and they are not robots. So, more than 20 years passed and football did not improve at all. There is a tendency in today’s activity to take more care of the body than the mind. In fact, there are six teams out of the 28 in the First Division that have a sports psychologist.
Roffé, who has 22 books (they can be found at the Lugar Editorial stand at the Book Fair) published with different colleagues, is working with the Colombian soccer team led by the Argentine Néstor Lorenzo. He attends to figures not only from this activity, but from other disciplines. On his website www.marceloroffe.com/#/ and also on his social networks (@ MarceloRoffé, IG: marcelo.roffe) you can glimpse much of his work.
-Why is the competition so fierce?
-The high-performance sports industry is a dictatorship of results. No one is saved in that meat grinding machinery, sooner or later. The sports psychologist tries to contribute his grain of sand, so that the elite athlete does not suffer, controls the pressure well, and enjoys even under pressure. A small group can accomplish that alone, and most need professional work. Of the elite athlete you only see the performance. To ordinary people, to the “haters” – people who dedicate themselves, through social networks or communities, to denigrate or offend an organization or person – those who are on social networks do not care if They have a family, or if they are going through personal problems. In fact, (former swimmer) Delfina Pignatiello quit after the haters beat her up.
-How does it affect them?
-There is a very good documentary by (former American swimmer) Michael Phelps, scripted by him, called “The weight of gold”, and shows all those who tried to commit suicide after an Olympic Games, because of the emotional emptiness they feel when they finish. He was saved because he turned to professional help, but there were others who committed suicide, and that shows it. He is very brave.
-What is the topic that most involves the athlete in a conversation with the professional?
-In the book we talk about many topics. Social networks became a new pressure. At a conference in Spain I spoke about the way it affects the health of coaches and athletes. There are cases of footballers who after a bad competition close Facebook, Instagram or X. Others prohibit people’s comments. That is a very hot point in the sessions.
-Do networks end up being harmful?
-Networks are a double-edged sword, you can use them in your favor, but if you don’t know how to handle it, it can work against you, because you end up being a slave. An elite athlete once came to a session and was very distressed by something that had been written to him on Twitter. First I told him to close the network, and second that we had to work on why he cares so much about what a stranger says. For example, (Gonzalo) Higuaín was subjected to terrible cyberbullying. The South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han says that what was the “amen” of the church, today is the “like” of social networks. In other words, there was a change of religion. He says that before the company exploited you, the factory exploited you, and today we exploit ourselves. Before they used a detective to find out something about our lives, and now we publish what we eat or what we watch. With smartphones, we become the object, because the smart one is the phone and we become stupid people who depend on them.
-Are depression and addictions the causes that athletes most often fall into?
-Yeah. In the book “And what after retirement?” we take great care the issue of depression, so that it does not end in melancholy and a suicide attempt. That was the case of (former soccer player) Julio César Toresani, who was the one who inspired the book. Depression, outside of sports, is a silent disease that affects more than ten percent of the world’s population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide occurs one every 40 seconds. In addictions, we did work that proves that withdrawal can lead someone to fall into one of them. Former tennis player Gastón Gaudio once declared that the adrenaline he had in sport, he could never replace except in the casino. Here comes the issue of gambling addiction, due to which many have lost houses, cars, trucks, and apartments. There is something very perverse about the casino, which is neither day nor night. Then there is alcohol and drugs. “Coya” (former soccer player Humberto Daniel) Gutiérrez died of liver cirrhosis after retirement. The most recent cases with substance use are those of Ezequiel Lavezzi and Daniel Osvaldo.
-Is the lack of training in many elite athletes still a problem?
-That problem is becoming less and less. In 2019, when we worked in the youth teams of the Lanús club, we started doing workshops thinking about the day after retirement. Among the minors, it happens that out of 100 kids, three reach the First Division, and those 97 must have aspirations or resources to get a better job. What we encourage is to study and also to learn a trade, so that they know how to do something. Many players go to practice in the morning, then take a nap, and then don’t know what to do. The academic training thing is quite sad in this country. Among young people, and leaving football, one in two did not finish high school. And in football it is worse, one in three finished high school. At this moment, in Argentine soccer, no one has a university degree. In Italy, 20% graduate from University. And 70% finish secondary school.
-Is the word failure applicable in sports?
-In Argentina, success or failure is very easily labeled. Let’s not forget that 30% of the population resisted Messi for years, and then they quickly turned around. All because he had not become champion. For me, what is normally called failure is frustration, and success is joy or achievement achieved. Bielsa said that the 2002 World Cup failed because they couldn’t get past the first round. That can be understood by how the team got to that World Cup, after having a brilliant qualifying round.
-What would failure be for you?
-Failure is stopping trying. Winston Churchill (former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) said: “The winner is the failure who never stopped trying.” The best summary. People believe that you achieve success without going through failure. It’s not like that, you can’t skip failure, you have to go through it.
-Beyond training in an athlete, is mental health what determines everything?
-25% is tactical, another 25% is skill or technique, another 25 is physical, and the other 25 is mental. In individual sports maybe the mental is 30%. But that percentage is very important. (The Dutchman) Johan Cruyff said that football is played with the head, not with the feet. Chess is played with the head not with the hands. The order to make a decision always comes from the head.
-The cases of those who end badly after having been stars, what do you attribute it to?
-There is the case of (former South African Paralympic athlete) Oscar Pistorius, who at the best moment of his career and due to excessive drugs, killed his girlfriend. He said he mistook her for a thief. There is what sports psychologists call “the poison of success.” When you are at your best, something unconscious of losing everything and falling apart can appear. But all phenomena are multi-causal, and it may be due to bad environments. There are friends who only approach you when you are at the top, and not knowing how to ask for help in time is key. When the bubble of the elite competitor is punctured, an irreplaceable void is left.
-Is money a factor of mental imbalance?
-Could be. If you are adrift and do not have an inner circle that contains you, having a lot of money can go either way.
-Is mental work different with amateur athletes?
-You are forming them as people. Working with them is more responsible. Although they are not close to the temptations that great figures can be exposed to, they are prepared as human beings, because there is the sad phrase that says “I met many stars who are now delivery.” Then, one provides them with the resources so that tomorrow they can navigate life in a thoughtful and important way.
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