Stupid Back Tumbling Mind Blocks

[slkbeambabe07]

Mind blocks are the death of any gymnast, and it seems to happen to the best. Last year, one of our gymnasts won Level 5 AA at state, so it would seem smart to move her up to 6: strong gymnast, good basics. Then over summer, she just decided to give up on back tumbling: WILL NOT do Round off BHS Back tuck, but has done them before, and they were fine! She will sometimes do ROff BHS, usually with spot, rarely without. A lot of roundoff stopping.. and she likes to ROff BHS onto a thick mat, usually a dead one, maybe for comfort? This has happened for about a year now. When the other girls are doing warm up before practice for 10 min, she is drilling her ROff BHS, usually with a coach to lightly touch her back in her BHS, but we are trying to ween away from that. Mom is a crazy person, having her do them at home on COUCH CUSHIONS and putting a lot of pressure on her to do them. We know as coaches that this does NOT help, and have asked mom to stop. Mom now leaves the gym when her dd is doing/drilling her ROff BHS. We have tried mental choreography, we have tried positive mind training. WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO!!!!!?!?!?!? We'd love to move her to 7 and just push front tumble, because that is possible, but I think it is best to force yourself to back tumble for one year... Other girls have done it, why not her? Does anyone have a similar situation or a possible solution?! ANYTHING will help!

 

[gymnasticslvr21]

Try giving her a week or two break from back tumbling. That has worked for me before. Sometimes thats all you need.

 

[Bobby]

.... Mom is a crazy person, having her do them at home on COUCH CUSHIONS and putting a lot of pressure on her to do them....

OMG!! This post made me remember stuff I had completely forgotten. I couldn't remember why I suddenly stopped BWOs on beam ... (but happily carried on with BHSs, korbuts, etc) ...
Won't bore you with the whole story but in a school gym with a wobbly, slippery high beam with NO mats on the basketball floor ... or warm up for that matter ... she SCREAMED at me to perform OR ELSE. I'd never had any prob with BWO before, but sure did from then on ... Also just remembered a bunch of similar incidents and outcomes.
There should be a law against parents treating unwilling kids as show ponies.
I can't believe I forgot that!!
I know this may sound insane - but I had a phase of refusing RO BHS on floor, but would happily do it on beam. Is she at a level to try that?
Honestly, I suspect the only 'cure' may be banning the mother from ever seeing or speaking about tumbling again. If only ...

 

[slkbeambabe07]

Try giving her a week or two break from back tumbling. That has worked for me before. Sometimes thats all you need.

Unfortunately, I don't know if that would be best for her. She enjoys NOT back tumbling, and I think it would take away from the progress that has been made?? I don't know. :/

 

[Deleted member D3987]

again, this parent that makes them tumble at home is just as stupid as a coach that berates the athlete. both methods DON'T work, have NEVER worked, and WON'T work in the future.

the athlete with a backwards problem needs to be treated with just a bit of empathy, a bit of respect, and a bit of patience. then...they need to be given the space and time to work it out.

problem? the coach feels pressure from the parent because the coach thinks that the parent thinks that they don't know what they're doing. the inexperienced coach also gets anxious because they don't recognize, and can't control, the ritual that you see these children go thru with this problem. so...they shut down. the parent interprets this as the coach shunning their child.

problem 2? the parent gets angry that the daughter/son is falling behind the rest of the group, that they feel embarrased because they think that something is "wrong" with their daughter/son, and finally, they don't like paying money for something when they see no end in sight. and it never occurs to the parent that this problem is overwhelming for their child and scares the s#&% out of them. adults can rationalize fear. they can also quantify it. CHILDREN CAN NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN IS TERRIFYING FOR THE CHILD. and as i've stated before, this problem/issue is of human biology. it is vestibular. if you still don't know what it is then look it up. i'm tired of posting it. and it is the same human biology condition that knocks/fails pilots out of the nasa program. and fighter pilots out of the fighter jets. and regular folks that want to be pilots.

now, put the 2 problems together and you get 1 nervous, jittery, and neurotic gymnast on your hands. both the parent and coach are only thinking about what the other thinks of EACH OTHER and not how the kid must feel.

someone in the other post wished i would have elaborated more. consider it done. and this is not an opinion. it is factual experience over 40 years.

as i said, several will outgrow and move on from the problem. and there is a direct reason that they move on. the rest quit because either the coach or the parent or both drives the kid crazy....so much so that these kids have stated that they "didn't feel like they were loved".

now decide how you think this problem should be handled...

 

[taximom]

My daughter also has this struggle. I do not stay and watch because she perceives it as pressure. We don't talk about it all unless she brings it up, and then I encourage her that it will come back and direct her back to her coaches. My daughter prefers to do round-off back tuck. She is recently working FT-RO-BT on floor so she has a series with 3 elements. This struggle causes both her and her coaches frustration as they have tried everything they know to help. The gymnast isn't choosing to act this way, there is a physiological reaction happening. My daughter wants to go and tumble but goes and stops. Hang in there with your gymnast and it will get better in time.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

My daughter also has this struggle. I do not stay and watch because she perceives it as pressure. We don't talk about it all unless she brings it up, and then I encourage her that it will come back and direct her back to her coaches. My daughter prefers to do round-off back tuck. She is recently working FT-RO-BT on floor so she has a series with 3 elements. This struggle causes both her and her coaches frustration as they have tried everything they know to help. The gymnast isn't choosing to act this way, there is a physiological reaction happening. My daughter wants to go and tumble but goes and stops. Hang in there with your gymnast and it will get better in time.

finally, someone has it right. "physiological" is close enough.

 

[slkbeambabe07]

As a gymnast, I also have experienced a mind block of my own, so I slightly understand what my gymnast is going through, even though everyone's experience is different. We have been sympathetic, but we don't let her NOT do the skill. We've given her time off from tumbling, I could see with summer coming up that we could take a week off, but I just don't want to take backwards steps when she'll do 5 in a row, rest. 5 in a row, rest.. for 10 min with about 4-5 balks in there the whole 10 min (Round off only). I believe the fear is real, I believe the gymnast has no idea what to do being 12 years old. I believe in her mind she just CAN NOT AT ALL do this skill for the life of her, but her body wants to go. I believe in true mind blocks, but I can still hate them as frustrating as they are. I also will say "dunno", that we don't "berate" our athlete. If she is not going for them in her 10 min warmup, I just let it be and let her join her teammates. she gets 3 chances in a row to go, and if she's not going continuously, then we stop. I'm not going to waste my time on something when her mind isn't in the right game for the day. Some days she's solid and will do them, a lot without spot, other days it's such a sloppy round off, you know in her mind that she's already made up that she's not going to do any for the day. I also understand it's a psychological problem, hence the mental choreography we have used with her, and past athletes, but it just doesn't seem to be working for her like it has past athletes, hence why I have posted a forum on it here.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i was by no means suggesting that you were the coach berating the athlete. i am admonishing the parent for what they are doing at home. i brought this up because that is what has been brought up at this site before in other like and similiar threads.

keep doing what you are doing though. doing something, doing something that is productive, doing anything at all is far better than nothing at all. and the 'structure' of your plan teaches the athlete about the plan. athletes work best with structure. you may not think what you are doing is helping this child as others in the past that you have coached. i beg to differ.