MEXICO -- After suffering their fourth defeat of the season, Cruz Azul coach Pedro Caixinha revealed that the team will turn to sports coaching to break their bad streak.
Several Mexican football teams have already incorporated coaching into their coaching staff, such as Santos, Pumas, Morelia, Querétaro and Veracruz, as well as the Mexican National Team, a move that psychologist Claudia Rivas considers a passing trend that she does not agree with or recommend "because it deals with myths".
"Trends use one or sometimes two tools and, of course, they produce results, but these are short-term, they fade away," she pointed out.
The specialist with more than 30 years of experience states that psychology is a science and the mother of several branches that have emerged over time.
"It has integrated itself with laws, theories, and research, and as a science, it has both scope and limitations, but also a framework for seeking and applying truth," she responded to ESPN Digital.
Coaching, on the other hand, "is a fashion of a set of strategies, tools, and techniques that arise from psychology, but in a light-hearted world, in a world of instant gratification, it becomes relevant because it deals with certain myths; the first myth being: we get quick results."
She states that anyone who works with human behavior and makes a modification in the stimulus will experience a change as a result, "and this is obviously fast, and all of this dates back thousands of years to the Greeks applying the laws of medicine."
Rivas says that coaching claims its technique is new "and is based on questioning, which corresponds to the Socratic method. When some people haven't researched and want an easy path, it truly is an easy path with quotation marks."
Claudia, who supported Miguel Layún in getting rid of the damage caused by the saying "everything is Layún's fault", states that psychology seeks permanent changes "and especially those who dedicate themselves to football, as there isn't much time in a tournament."
The intention of these specialists is that from the first psychological intervention, a permanent and conscious modification of the athlete's behavior will take place.
SOME FORMS OF COACHING ARE PROHIBITED
Claudia emphasizes that many times in coaching, there is a manipulation of emotions or behaviors towards the player, in this case, "through subversive stimuli, through a certain environment that generates what we call Stockholm syndrome, like with hostages, and then it becomes almost messianic."
She reveals that for this reason, in some countries like Spain, certain types of coaching, especially coercive or life coaching, are considered sects and are prohibited.
In her opinion, coaches use some elements of psychology "not always with an ethical and scientific framework. Of course, there are educated people who have values and sometimes have a psychology background, but since it's currently in vogue, marketing is marketing."
On the other hand, she warns that sports psychologists generally do not practice clinical psychology, but they can detect risky situations, something that, she claims, does not happen in coaching.
Finally, she said that for a long-term program, elite players now turn to sports psychologists instead of gurus or coaches.
The fees for a coach at a football club amount to around 200,000 pesos per month in exchange for support for the first team and lower categories.