WAG How To Deal With Series Fear

[lindsaygymnast7]

My coach has been trying many new techniques to get my teammates and I to go for our beam series, since most of us have beam series fears. She has started to do conditioning as punishment if we don't go. However, she said if we can come up with ideas that we think would help us, we can try those instead of getting punished with conditioning.

So basically what I'm asking is, what are some ways to get over/help a beam series fear?

 

[duyetanh]

What has your coach already tried, and then maybe others can chime in with suggestions....?

 

[trampolinemom]

Are those new skills you are going for? Or skills you allready mastered and suddenly became afraid of? What do you think it is that makes you afraid? Can you visualize the skills? Also why is it that more of your squad are afraid, is it just beam or other apparatus. This article is geared more towards mental blocks (if you mastered the skill allready but can't make yourself go) and not so much for fear (if the skills / series are relatively new) https://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/2009/08/12_blocking.pdf Good luck!

 

[profmom]

CAVEAT: I am not a coach. This is based on watching lots of girls with beam series issues and on living with a daughter who had two solid years of beam woes.

Take the series down to the highest point where you can do it, whether that's on a cranked up beam with a pad or all the way down to a line on the floor. Do the numbers (sets of five or ten) and then try moving it up one step to see if you have trouble. If you do, go back and do more numbers where you can be successful. Build the habit of going for it and succeeding every time. If you're patient enough, this technique will eventually work.

Edited to add -- the ideal way for this to work is to do so many at the lower level that you're not even really thinking about it and honestly, you're getting bored with the entire exercise. Eventually it will become so habitual and so easy that you might feel a little tickle in the back of your head telling you that you WANT to try something more challenging and you're excited to move it up. It's more or less a cognitively based approach where you step away from the fear and anxiety associated with putting the series on the high beam and reprogram your brain to anticipate success.

 

[lindsaygymnast7]

What has your coach already tried, and then maybe others can chime in with suggestions....?

She has tried letting us work on our own, having us say words in our heads while we go, standing at the end of the beam, stacking up mats, and spotting. There may have been a few more but those are the ones I remember.

 

[lindsaygymnast7]

Are those new skills you are going for? Or skills you allready mastered and suddenly became afraid of? What do you think it is that makes you afraid? Can you visualize the skills? Also why is it that more of your squad are afraid, is it just beam or other apparatus. This article is geared more towards mental blocks (if you mastered the skill allready but can't make yourself go) and not so much for fear (if the skills / series are relatively new) https://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/2009/08/12_blocking.pdf Good luck!

For most they are skills that we already had and got scared of, but they are still relatively new. It is just beam where most of my team has fears.

 

[John]

CAVEAT: I am not a coach. This is based on watching lots of girls with beam series issues and on living with a daughter who had two solid years of beam woes.

Take the series down to the highest point where you can do it, whether that's on a cranked up beam with a pad or all the way down to a line on the floor. Do the numbers (sets of five or ten) and then try moving it up one step to see if you have trouble. If you do, go back and do more numbers where you can be successful. Build the habit of going for it and succeeding every time. If you're patient enough, this technique will eventually work.

Edited to add -- the ideal way for this to work is to do so many at the lower level that you're not even really thinking about it and honestly, you're getting bored with the entire exercise. Eventually, it will become so habitual and so easy that you might feel a little tickle in the back of your head telling you that you WANT to try something more challenging and you're excited to move it up. It's more or less a cognitively based approach where you step away from the fear and anxiety associated with putting the series on the high beam and reprogram your brain to anticipate success.

Everything above.

Building the confidence through repetition will prepare you to take the next step.
Trust your coach when she tells you that you are ready to try the next step, she does not want you to be injured.
Trust in yourself and learn how to miss on the skill and not injure yourself. Learn to fall.
Remember there can be no Brave without fear.

 

[mommyof1]

CAVEAT: I am not a coach. This is based on watching lots of girls with beam series issues and on living with a daughter who had two solid years of beam woes.

Take the series down to the highest point where you can do it, whether that's on a cranked up beam with a pad or all the way down to a line on the floor. Do the numbers (sets of five or ten) and then try moving it up one step to see if you have trouble. If you do, go back and do more numbers where you can be successful. Build the habit of going for it and succeeding every time. If you're patient enough, this technique will eventually work.

Edited to add -- the ideal way for this to work is to do so many at the lower level that you're not even really thinking about it and honestly, you're getting bored with the entire exercise. Eventually it will become so habitual and so easy that you might feel a little tickle in the back of your head telling you that you WANT to try something more challenging and you're excited to move it up. It's more or less a cognitively based approach where you step away from the fear and anxiety associated with putting the series on the high beam and reprogram your brain to anticipate success.

This worked for my daughter (who has a non-vestibular fear of going backwards on beam) with the BWO. Low beam, then high beam with stacked mats, then no mats, moving to the next level when she was basically bored with the previous one. And zero external pressure from the coaches.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

Beam series are tough. I don't have a single kid who ISN'T at least a little bit afraid of going for the series. I'm talking about backwards flight series like BWO-BHS, BHS-BHS, BHS-BT, BHS-BLO. It IS scary to go backwards on a 10 cm beam and not even see where you are going I don't blame my girls, it's definitely ok and actually good for their own safety to not just throw it without thinking.

Something that we do a lot is preparation like partner handstand hold with BHS hands on high beam, same with legs split, then with leg movement (from slight arch handstand to split and then feet back together). All of this can be connected to a few quick releve steps backwards immediately after landing. Then they do handstand and split handstand landing drills where the partner spots from the legs and then immediately pushes the other gymnast back to the landing position. Then we do split handstand - back handspring connections and all beams. We also do spotted handstand walks backwards with beam hands. The girls find these drills fun and they take the pressure off. Then I usually ask them to perform the skills from the series separately on the highest beam they are comfortable, 10 stuck skills (or 5 + 5 if they have something else than BHS-BHS). If they don't go to the high beam with no mats I don't expect series to happend there either.

Then I let my gymnasts stack mats under the beams. They can put as many as they want to. Also ON the beam. Then they move them away a little by little when they are ready. We all need patience. Hopefully the amount of mats at the beginning of the workout goes down day by day.

I also have a 10 second rule with them. If they are not going for the series in 10 seconds they have to come down from the beam and go at least one step backwards. This is an important rule. Standing on the beam with sweaty hands in a starting position any more than 10 seconds will ruin your chances to go for it.

Good luck!

 

[LGnyc]

Another trick I heard from dd’s performance coach. This is assuming you guys can navigate the individual skills but the series is what is getting you. Start perhaps on low beam with the first skill - BWO? - stop for two counts, then do the next skill in the series. Do that over and over and over again. When you're feeling confident, reduce the count. From two beats down to one. Repeat. When it starts feeling easy and not so scary, do a half a beat, working toward a smoother connection. Good luck!

 

[strawberries]

Assuming it isn’t vestibular (a whole other topic), the key is to get rid of the stress/anxiety association in your brain. Profmom gave a fantastic explanation! Not sure knowing you risk punishment (conditioning or other) is helpful in this regard.

If your coach NEEDS a consequence, I prefer @gymisforeveryone’s idea of going back a step in progressions to something less stressful.

 

[Aero]

CAVEAT: I am not a coach. This is based on watching lots of girls with beam series issues and on living with a daughter who had two solid years of beam woes.

Take the series down to the highest point where you can do it, whether that's on a cranked up beam with a pad or all the way down to a line on the floor. Do the numbers (sets of five or ten) and then try moving it up one step to see if you have trouble. If you do, go back and do more numbers where you can be successful. Build the habit of going for it and succeeding every time. If you're patient enough, this technique will eventually work.

Edited to add -- the ideal way for this to work is to do so many at the lower level that you're not even really thinking about it and honestly, you're getting bored with the entire exercise. Eventually it will become so habitual and so easy that you might feel a little tickle in the back of your head telling you that you WANT to try something more challenging and you're excited to move it up. It's more or less a cognitively based approach where you step away from the fear and anxiety associated with putting the series on the high beam and reprogram your brain to anticipate success.

@profmom, I want to like this a thousand times! I wholeheartedly support and endorse your campaign.

This is undoubtedly the best way to go when dealing with this touchy situation. It works so well because it allows the gymnast to continually work towards the ultimate goal, with every training session being composed largely of successful repetitions; when you've worked on back handspring step-outs for ten minutes straight and 90% of your reps were successful, even if they were all done on just a low beam, it's hard to feel upset, unproductive, or stuck when it's time to move on to the next part of the workout. If a gymnast's practices are based largely on successes, it can really do wonders for their psyche. As a coach, I sometimes stand back and observe my girls training and ask myself, "are these girls successful on a majority of their turns? Is it 50/50? Is a good, clean rep the exception rather than the norm?" If the success rate is not comfortably above 50%, the particular progressions/drills/stations may be too hard for them at the moment. Often, there is a bit of a learning curve with each new drill, so that has to be taken into account also since it can take a good amount of tries before they start to "get" it and then the good turns start happening. There is a difference between not being ready, and just needing a bit more practice to understand what is being asked or what the goal is.

Some other things to do as a coach that can really help:

• Reduce all sources of stress as much as possible.
• Tell all your gymnasts that the event of losing an existing skill or feeling fear learning a new one is simply a part of gymnastics, and happens very frequently to almost every gymnast.
• Set some very reasonable guidelines, yet firmly enforce them, like setting a maximum number of attempts of a certain skill, or warm up effectively every day with some simple drills before getting started on the skill in question.
• Be understanding, and don't hesitate to move the gymnast on to some other work if it just isn't happening that day.

I'll tell you all a quick, personal, and very recent story.

All the Level 5s had back handspring step-outs when I started working at my new gym at the start of May. However, they were butt ugly. Like, ew. They weren't very consistent with staying on the beam, and if they did manage to stay on, the horrible form would have them lose the same as a fall anyway. I brought them all back to basics (on a lot of their other skills, too) and really worked with them on how to correctly jump into their back handspring, how to visually spot the beam longer to prevent head throwing, how to squeeze their glutes to produce a nice hip lift during the jump, how to place their feet and hands, etc. Once their tech started looking better, I slowly started moving them to floor beams with panel mats stacked up and set specific numbers they had to hit successfully in a row to move some more of the mats away. This continued for a little more then two months, with some girls moving to the high beam with different mat settings underneath, until the first girl finally made it back up onto the competition setting beam. Shortly after, because the energy level between the girls was high, three others made it, too. And this time, they actually looked pretty clean. It was a great day!

Now, one of the 5s, Cameron, did two handsprings that day, but when she got up to do the third, she put her arms up, ready to go, then stopped, turned to me and looked nervous. I told her to jump down and not to worry about it, and we then moved on to the next event. The following day, we went back to beam and Cameron looked nervous when she was working her way up higher. There were extra amounts of fidgeting, rubbing off sweaty hands, etc. In my head, it seemed like she felt some perceived pressure from her teammates to do the handspring the day prior, and even though she did actually do it twice on the high beam, she possibly realized what she was doing and perhaps pushed herself a little too quickly. I told her not to worry about it, and to keep working at her own pace. I was always around giving corrections and gently pushing all the girls, including her.

A month later, Cameron hadn't really progressed too much further, and I scratched her from beam for the first three meets. I explained to her it was not a punishment, but simply a matter of my philosophy and team/gym image, etc. She understood, and quietly kept working towards getting it up on the high beam. We had our Christmas break, and the first day back in the gym we were all headed to vault, but I pulled her aside and said, "if you want, I will let you head to beam by yourself if you think working entirely independently will be helpful to you." She thought for a second, and said she wanted to try working on her own. I went to vault with the rest of the 5s, and about halfway through the rotation I hear my name, along with "I did it!" I look over and she's on the high beam in lunge position with nice presentation and a huge smile. There were hugs everywhere and happiness in the air.

That happened last week. She is slated to compete beam, and therefore all around, this weekend at her fourth meet.


I'm not sure if the Christmas break away from the gym helped, or the independence I gave her, or a combination of both, or other things. She never looked sad, stressed, or depressed, though. Cameron kept her head up and just kept plugging away. I tried various different things with her too, but the fact is, ultimately it was always up to her. The back handspring came back, and I knew it would, so really there was nothing to stress about anyway. @lindsaygymnast7, I hope my long winded story helped you! It can be very helpful to hear the experiences of others. You mentioned that your coach is open to if you have ideas. Perhaps you should share this method with her and try it. It certainly can't hurt!

 

[LindyHopper]

How many teammates, and how many available beams... I will ask Short Stack, because I know, recently, the whole training group was all on beam at the same time doing something... unfortunately, I can't remember what it was.

 

[lindsaygymnast7]

How many teammates, and how many available beams... I will ask Short Stack, because I know, recently, the whole training group was all on beam at the same time doing something... unfortunately, I can't remember what it was.

There are nine girls in my training group currently. We have three high beams, two low beams, and two floor beams.

 

[LindyHopper]

There are nine girls in my training group currently. We have three high beams, two low beams, and two floor beams.

Short Stack was already in bed when I saw this, so I will try to ask her tomorrow. Her gym has an insane amount of beams, so whatever it was may not even be possible for you, but I will check anyway.

 

[profmom]

I have a feeling that there will come a day when Aero turns up at P&Gs or whatever it will be called then with a group of young women who are strong, amazingly good, sane, and weirdly happy. The Flogymnastics people and bloggers will all be like, "who the heck is this guy and where did he come from?" But everyone on CB will just be hanging out here grinning smugly because we saw this whole thing coming miles away.

 

[Aero]

I have a feeling that there will come a day when Aero turns up at P&Gs or whatever it will be called then with a group of young women who are strong, amazingly good, sane, and weirdly happy. The Flogymnastics people and bloggers will all be like, "who the heck is this guy and where did he come from?" But everyone on CB will just be hanging out here grinning smugly because we saw this whole thing coming miles away.

Thanks, @profmom. Very kind of you.

But for real, that's the goal! I will have elites one day; nothing will stand in the way of that. I want to achieve that personal goal, of course, but I also want to change the sport for the better in any way I can, too.

I owe a lot already to the support system I have here on this website.

 

[LindyHopper]

Short Stack was already in bed when I saw this, so I will try to ask her tomorrow. Her gym has an insane amount of beams, so whatever it was may not even be possible for you, but I will check anyway.

Okay... nevermind. Once I heard more, I'm not so thrilled.

The whole training group was on the beams at once, and they all had to do their skill(s) simultaneously . If it wasn't done sucessfully, they all had to attempt again. Coach was trying to capitalize on peer pressure. This went on for 5-7 minutes. Coach has only tried this strategy once (thank heavens). I guess it wasn't effective.

Sorry the idea wasn't as good as I originally thought.

 

[profmom]

I am SO surprised that didn't work!

 

[LindyHopper]

I am SO surprised that didn't work!

At least coach had sense to stop after less than 10 min and not try it again.

I'm all for trying new things, but happy coach moved on quickly when it was obvious the strategy wasn't garnering the desired results.