Franco Baresi. Roberto Donadoni. Roberto Baggio. The emergence of AC Milan as a European superpower is synonymous with the names.
They are etched into the memories of every Italian fan who watched the country lose in the World Cup.
The three spoke about how they felt when they missed their spot-kicks. The first psychology laboratory of Italian football was the Mind Room.
The Mind Room helped underpin an unprecedented run of success as the Rossoneri won 21 major trophies during the 23 years it was operational from 1986.
Combining stress relief therapy with cognitive training and neuroscience, the laboratory's impact would be felt as far away as Chelsea, where its founder constructed a similar set-up in 2009.
The plan for the first incarnation was hatched at a meeting between a soon-to-be Italian prime minister and an amateur karate champion.
Bruno Demichelis was a martial arts student. He was beaten at an international karate competition by a less-fancied Japanese opponent. He returned to Italy looking for answers after he struggled to process defeat.
"It wasn't a technical problem or a physical problem; I was very fit and very well-trained. Eventually, a friend of mine said to me: 'Is it a mental problem?'" recalled Demichelis on the Football Psychology Show in December 2020.
I realized that I had trained with Japanese people for so long that they were no longer just instructors or masters to me. They were my heroes. You can't defeat your heroes. It was self-sabotage.
Questions from Demichelis prompted an interest in psychology. He found work as a consultant to Berlusconi's media conglomerate after completing a PhD in the subject.
AC Milan was bought by Berlusconi. Demichelis arranged a meeting with the new owner. It was a discussion that would change his life.
The pitch was simple: you have seen the benefits of psychological support in the business world. They should be applied to football. Berlusconi was direct in his response.
The owner asked Demichelis if he was a Milan fan.
I said no. I remember him stepping back a bit, and I thought, "Oh no." He asked if I was a fan of Inter. I said no and he moved further back. Before he asked me the third question, I said I was not a fan of any team.
After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting, Demichelis was appointed as Milan's scientific coordinator.
After a successful start at the club that saw him win the backing of manager Arrigo Sacchi, Demichelis was in high demand. He secured investment for a psychology laboratory based at Milanello, the club's training ground. The Mind Room was born.
Its purpose was twofold. It allowed Demichelis to run group sessions and satisfy the Milan squad's growing appetite for psychological support. It gave him an opportunity to answer a question that he had wrestled with for a long time: how do you quantify and scientifically support a player's psychological development, linking this to performances on the pitch?
The Mind Room was a mental training ground. Groups of up to eight first-team members sat in state-of-the-art zero gravity chairs and were hooked up to equipment that used to monitor indicators such as blood pressure and breathing rates. The players and studious Demichelis were separated by a glass divide.
If a player said that he was not confident because of a muscle strain, Demichelis would conduct an electrical test to measure his electrical activity.
The readings allowed him to quantify conditions such as post-game tightness and take appropriate action. The development of psychological characteristics such as confidence was supported by the Mind Room in doing so.
Results from Mind Room tests were used by Demichelis to create cognitive training exercises. When placed on a person's head, the electrodes can monitor the brain's electrical activity. It is possible to strengthen the connections between the brain's cells by seeing how the individual's neurons behave. This type of therapy is designed to help players change the type of negative talk that can affect them in high-pressure situations. Baresi, Baggio and Donadoni were treated.
One of them told me that I took three or four steps back when I put the ball down. I thought about what I would do if I missed something.
He said that hit me. The ball looked like a tiger to me. I looked at the coach. I looked at the players and their teammates. I thought about the people at home. I had 4 billion tigers looking at me. I was shaking. I was confused. I almost cried.
The Mind Room used response time tests to improve players reaction speeds. If a bulb lit up, participants were presented with two buttons and a pair of bulbs. The examination was made more difficult by the use of flashing arrows, which pointed in the opposite direction to the light.
Reducing the time it takes for players to respond to rapidly changing on-pitch situations, even by a few tenths of a second, was seen as another way in which Milan could extend the careers of stalwarts such as Paolo Maldini.
You can train older players to become faster in analyzing situations, but you cannot train them to be physically faster.
They can make quicker decisions if they can process data more quickly. We were able to keep players going because of that.
Clarence Seedorf was the embodiment of this ethos. The Mind Room, also known as the Milan Lab, was where Seedorf visited frequently. The devotion to self- development of the Dutchman would pay off in many ways.
The general director of the Milan Lab said to him, "WOW, you're 31, but fitness-wise you're 26." Your biological age is younger.
dorf said to give him that print out. He asked the CEO to listen to what his lab was saying about him. They extended my contract for four more years because I am 26, biologically speaking.
The daily six-minute health checks Demichelis introduced as part of his role as the club's scientific coordinator may have aided Seedorf's age-defying physiology. The checks were used to develop a risk scoring system. Demichelis was able to identify potential susceptibility to injury by monitoring changes to a player's score against a baseline.
A yellow flag would be generated if a 10% drop in a player's score resulted in a 20% reduction. A decrease of 30% would be a red flag.
During his time at the club, Demichelis claims that the methods he helped to introduce contributed to the reduction of soft tissue injuries. The support the Mind Room received at both levels made it possible for it to be a striking statistic.
The players were on my side because we had the club on our side, says Demichelis. He told the players not to play football with their foot. You play football with your brain, that is a big asset for a sport psychologist.
The Mind Room was not used at Milanello after the departure of the Italian pair.
The methods Demichelis deployed in Milan, which professor of psychology Marc Jones describes as genuinely innovative, were used by a number of players.
Jones, who has worked with a number of football clubs, says that The Mind Room was breaking new ground in terms of its integration into the training environment.
The exception was the fact that there was a physical presence within Milan's training ground.
Jones names John Syer and Chris Connolly, who both provided psychological support for Spurs in the early 1980s, but you have to go back to 1958 to find a World Cup-winning psychologist.
The public testimony of the managers who backed Demichelis is telling, even though Milan's trophy haul goes some way to illustrating the impact of the Mind Room. Sacchi describes Demichelis as a psychologist whom he needed more than the players in his book. Demichelis was added to the club with his experience of the Milan Lab.
The players Demichelis worked with appreciated the appreciation. Seedorf lured his former colleague back to the San Siro after he became Milan manager.
The Mind Room's long-term legacy is well established despite the reunion being short-lived. The root of Milan's success was the same as it was for modern technology, according to its founder.
The players were able to deploy these skills under pressure.
If you are going to take a penalty in the World Cup final, you need to have this ability.
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