Parents First mental block: back tuck off beam

[HopefulTeamGymnast]

Hello everyone!
Im 13 and I started gymnastics In September 2022. (Yes I know that’s pretty late ) This is my first sport.
Im currently working on a back tuck off the high beam.. but I am absolutely terrified of hitting my head on the beam. I go to gymnastics once a week on Saturday’s. I started practicing this skill the week before last. Last week, I was doing it fine with a spot, and the coaches said I could try it without a spot this week. But I couldn’t even do it with a spot because I was just too scared to hit my head. They said that it’s not possible to do that but they were really nice and told me to take my time. I really didn’t want to leave scared of a skill, but I did. This is my first mental block. I know gymnastics comes with a lot of mental blocks.
I have an adjustable beam at home, it’s 8ft long, and goes from the floor to 23 inches high. I can always do it when it’s on floor mode but I feel like if I landed the way I did on high beam I might hit my head. Here are my questions:
1. Has anyone actually hit their head on the beam from a tuck dismount or is it possible to because I feel like it’s a silly fear
2. Should I keep practicing it on my floor beam (I’m not going to actually try it on high mode at home but maybe some tuck jumps onto my mat)
3. What are some drills I can do?
4. Is there a way to get over this fear?? I don’t want my fear to block my way from a skill that I was just doing last week. It’s not a good feeling and I can be hard on myself sometimes
Thanks and sorry if this was long!

 

[Aussie_coach]

It is possible to hit your head on the beam doing a back tuck off. Sometimes people travel forward on their back tuck, but if you don’t do that when you do a back tuck on floor, it’s unlikely you will do that off beam.

You can also fall forward after you land.

It rarely happens because coaches rarely allow gymnasts to do the skill until they are ready.

But it’s very common for kids to hit their heads doing a back tuck into a swimming pool. It’s the same technique, but it occurs because kids throw it at home and not under supervision and usually before they are ready.

This is not a basic/beginner skill, you should not feel in any rush to get it. Take your time, listen to your body, don’t do it until you feel ready, don’t stress if it takes time.

It is incredibly unusual to be doing back tucks off beam, when you have only been training for 6 months, especially once a week.

I’ll make a seperate post in how I would determine readiness for this skill.

 

[Aussie_coach]

First off I don’t allow my gymnasts to do a standing back tuck off beam until they have a solid standing back tuck on floor.

We usually work standing back tucks on floor once the kids have a good flic and round off flic (BHS). By level 5 they usually all have good standing back tucks in floor.

Yes, it’s easier to do it off beam, but that doesn’t mean you should. Going off beam has the potential for things to go wrong, as you are going off a hard object. We want the kids to fully understand how to do a back tuck and where they are in the air and how to control the landing before we go off the high hard object.

Once that’s mastered we work back tucks off lower objects like boxes and build up. We do it into the foam pit and off the vault table onto a resi pit.

Eventually off the vault table onto a mat. The height is similar to beam but the take off surface is wider.

We do a lot of straight jumps backwards off a high beam and straight jumps backwards over a wedge off high beam.

Then spotted off high beam. Then we stand up a wedge at the end off the high beam. The gymnast back tucks over this, this means it the fall forward they just smash into a soft wedge, and it forces them to go up.

 

[ProudGymnast]

I had that fear as a gymnast. I got over it by lots and lots of repetition-I did it off a low fat beam into the pit, off of the back of a lowered vault table, off a block, panel mat, low beam to floor, etc. It simply took a while for me to get the air sense and understanding of the skill, and so I just made sure to go where I could and get confident there before I moved up.