Category: Post

Over the weekend, I celebrated with my former MTK teammates the twentieth anniversary of the 2003 NBI football title. It was a good feeling to meet our coach Sándor Egervári, our club director Ferenc Fülöp, Dr. Ákos Füzi, Béla Illés, Roland Juhász and I could list some of the former excellent footballers. As we were talking about the secret of our team's success at the time, a few aspects came up, which also had a sports psychology aspect. I would like to describe them now, as a respectful tribute to our team of that time, but without claiming to be complete.

Gábor Várszegi was the first Hungarian sports leader to apply the football academy system in Agárd. This allowed the young players to concentrate on their studies and football, which helped them to integrate into the adult team. This included playing in the same playing system for the youngsters as the adult team. This allowed the young footballers, who had entered the first team dressing room with a sense of fear, to feel at home on the pitch, experiencing the security of playing in a familiar system.

Besides the professional concept, another important factor was team cohesion. At that time, I was 19 years old when I joined MTK from Újpest. I could feel in the dressing room that the older players were welcoming the young players with fatherly love. If one of the players made a mistake, we supported each other and the focus was on correcting the mistake instead of blaming. There was order and a great atmosphere in the dressing room, which was shown on the pitch. We played disciplined football at the back and creative football up front.

The effective integration process of the young players, the supportive mentality of the more experienced players, the triple unity of order-discipline-creativity on and off the pitch was therefore essential from a mental point of view. This is how we managed to overtake the already strong Ferencváros FC team in the last round, winning the 2002-2003 championship.

Újpest-MTK | 0-1 | 2003. 05. 30 | MLSZ TV Archív – YouTube

I remember, in the last round, the experts gave MTK a minimal chance of winning the title. However, it turned out that we won 1:0 at away to my former team Újpest FC, while Ferencváros FC drew at home with DVSC. When I ran out for the pre-match warm-up, I was welcomed by the Újpest fans with the following banner: "True Újpest FC player will never be forgotten, we welcome you back Levi". It gave me a huge confidence boost because I could feel the love of my foster club supporters. Maybe that also contributed to the fact that I 'closed the door', as they say in goalkeeping circles, and we ended the match without conceding a goal. And of course Roland Juhász's header, who went on to have a fine career at international and national team level. And finally, the TEAM, with all its members.

Thanks for this unforgettable memory to my teammates, our sports managers, our fans and our loved ones!

I had a great honor on Monday, as I was able to promote the profession of sports psychologist at the Talent Center Conference held in Szeged. The one-and-a-half-hour lecture was given by Péter Kovács, head coach of the U14 youth team, which was based on our joint research and was entitled "Sports psychologist on the football pitch". I started by asking the professionals present what tasks they think a sports psychologist can perform. A word cloud was created about the answers, which contains the comments of more than 100 coaches. Then I presented how I have been working at our academy for almost three years as a future sports psychologist.

The main profile of my work is aimed at coaches. In the framework of professional days, I primarily deal with the personality development of coaches. In addition, I regularly participate in age group section meetings, where I respond to current problems from a sports psychology point of view. As a result of the trust that has developed, the coaches of our academy regularly come to me for individual counseling, and I also conduct training observations, periodically giving feedback on my experiences. Finally, the coaches of the given team can also participate in the sessions of the age-group teams, if they have a need for it.
I believe in it, the team is the mirror of the coach, which is why many problems can be faced if the professional is also mentally fine. This is where I see my greatest role, as an authentic representative of the sports psychology profession.
My other tasks in sports psychology include individual counseling, which is basically attended by players as well as coaching colleagues. This also includes parenting consultations.
Another big area is the age-group team activities, where teams from U12 to U19 take part. Team building and joint revision of current problems can be considered the main processes in this area.
External lecturers also participate in our periodic parents' academy programs, most recently Orsolya Moravcsik-Fecskés gave an interactive presentation on the topic of mobile phone addiction.

Finally, computer psychological assessments are also part of my work, which I do periodically using the Vienna Test System.
From the listed areas, it can also be seen how complex a service a professional involved in the life of a academy and performing sports psychology work can provide.
During the presentation, I also presented our sports psychology process with the U14 team. In addition to exercises aimed at developing self-confidence and solving performance anxiety, we also dealt with the issue of improving communication between players and adapting to different game situations. At the conference, I presented the steps of our joint work in detail. As a first step, we created the group rules, then we explored the problem situation together. After that, by appointing the leaders and clarifying the roles, we were able to focus on solving the current problems, monitoring the change from time to time.
Finally, I ended the presentation by saying that as sports psychologists, we study for seven years in the framework of university education, which is by far the longest process in the case of the training of mental preparation professionals. Accordingly, it is worthwhile for academy leaders to act carefully before employing a sports psychologist, coach, or mental trainer.