The assembly hall of the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO) hosts the second talk of the “Sports and Health: Voices that Inspire” series under the title “Mental Health in Sport”, which has as protagonists four experts in the field.
The event began with a lecture given by Joaquín Diaz, president of the Cantabrian Association of Sports Psychology and former president of the Spanish Federation of Sports Psychology.
During his speech, Joaquín addressed the development of sports psychology in Spain and when it began to give greater importance to the mental health and psychological well-being of athletes. To this end, he referred to examples of high-performance athletes who have suffered from mental health problems. In addition, he listed the risk factors, as well as the protective ones, that are present and that the sports world has suffered most frequently.
Then, it was the turn of Óscar Fernández, professional soccer player of the S.D. Logroñés, former Real Racing Club player and author of the book “Vida y fútbol: La importancia de aprender a fracasar (Life and Soccer: The Importance of Learning to Fail”. Its objective has been to show the difficulties faced by athletes through their own experiences and those of other professionals, making it clear that in sports not everything is as simple as it is transmitted on television or social networks.
Finally, psychologists Milagros Estrada (Master in Sport Psychology) and Ariadna Siri, psychologist of the Real Racing Club and graduate of the degree in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences of UNEATLANTICO, have joined a round table together with Joaquín and Óscar will form a round table.
It is worth mentioning that the “Sports and Health: Voices that Inspire” series is a group of educational lectures co-organized by the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European Univesity of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO), the Real Racing Club Foundation, and the Royal Cantabrian Football Federation. The first session “Training Planning in Team Sports” was held in February and two more sessions are planned for April and May on injury prevention and sports counseling for young athletes.