Women Another fearful gymnast

[Abeautifulsport]

I see there are a lot of threads on fears out there, I have read a lot of them and they do apply to some of my fears however not all of them.

I'm genreally a very fearful gymnast, I'm on the older side of gymnastics and keep wanting to tell myself it's because of that but I guess I'm just a scared thing, afraid of getting hurt.

At the moment, my biggest fear is the dreaded back walkover on beam. I've been doing it for several months, started on the padded low been, low beam, padded medium/high beam, high beam, no problem got there within a month. Then one day I fell on low beam, missed one hand and hurt my elbow hitting the floor. Of course I was afaraid, but somehow I got myself back up with a lot of spots until out of nowhere it happens again. This time my coach took me back to floor working on controlling my back walkover and keeping my hands together until I felt safe to do it on beam. Got up to high beam until yesterday my arms just collaps and I hit my head on the beam (let me tell you it hurts quite a bit) Now I'm back to being terrified and just so tired of the skill, I just don't have any more fire for getting back up once again, fighting through fear once again, getting convident once again and then out of nowhere hurting myself once again. I know it's a bad attitude and I know that might just be what causes the accidents but I just can't help it.

And then the other, seemingly rather unsual fear I have is falling of the tumble track. It has never happend, but I've been close, especially when rebounding a lot out of back handspring back tucks or front handspring front tucks. There is a solid wall on one side, and the vault runaway on the other. I tend to stumble towards the vault, which probably wouldn't kill me, but I don't like the idea either.

And last but not least slipping of the bars when going backwards in tap swings. It happens from time to time and I'm not legally afraid of it, because I haven't hurt myself, but a lot of scary falls, I can see the accident waiting. So how do I prevent loosing my grip?

Thanks in advance for any useful advice, which could help me.
Greetings, another fearful gymnast

 

[Aussie_coach]

First off, fear is not bad, fear is good. There is a reason why we as humans have fear. It keeps us alive, if you had no fear you might run in the gym and chuck a skill you are not ready to do and hurt yourself.

In gymnastics fear can be very useful because it is our minds communicating to us that there is a problem with the skill. It happens when you are not 100% confident in a skill and it is usually your body telling you that you need to do more drills and work so it can feel the skill better before you do it.

For your back walkover, take a pen and paper and write every step you can think of from the easiest - doing a back walkover on the floor up to the hardest which would be doing it on high beam with no spot and write every step in between. from doing it on a line, a foam beam, a low beam, a medium beam and a high beam, along every step doing it with mats stacked up to beam height or just below, mats over the beam and with or without spot. You should be able to come up with many, many stages, each which is only very slightly more difficult than the last. Now identify where on the list you feel safe and work on that, do as many as you need until you feel like taking the next step. But make sure each step is just a little harder than the last. If you get to a step where it feels uncomfortable take it back to the last step.

At the same time while you are working on your back walkovers also work on an alternative skill which you could do if the back walkovers just don't come. I don't know what the rules are in your country but in mine you could do a cartwheel, front walkover or tic roc instead of a back walkover and it would be worth the same. To be working an alternative skills helps to take a little pressure off.

With your tumble track fear it sounds like you are worried about hitting the wall so your body is automatically trying to tumble the other way. Doing lots of drills with straight tumbling helps, like practising on lines and reaching your hurdles out nice a long will help. But the wall next to the tumble track is a bit of a safety hazard. Ideally it should be padded, or the tumble track should be kept somewhere else, or at the very least there should be a decent amount of space between the tumble track and the wall. Perhaps this is one to discuss with your coach.

For your bars issue, do you wear grips?

 

[Becauseisaid]

First, let me just say how impressed I am that you are facing your fear and getting back out there doing what scares you. It would be so easy to freeze and never attempt the skill again or quit gymnastics entirely. Your perseverance in the face of fear is a truly remarkable testament to you personally and will help you throughout your life. So good on you!

Second, I love Aussie_coach's suggestion to write down the steps. I have had my DD write down the individual steps to the skill that scares her. That has been something that has helped my DD with her fear issues. Fear is not rational. Writing down the steps to the skill will actively remind your brain that you DO know how to do this and perhaps allow your rational brain to push past the fear.

I am also a fan of visualization. Picturing yourself doing the skill perfectly can help cement the steps in your mind and give you confidence.

Good luck!

 

[Abeautifulsport]

Thank you both, you've been helping a lot!

Aussie Coachs idea with writing every step down is great. I've been sitting and thinking about every possible step and came up with almost 30 I'm currently stuck at step 5, transitioning the backwalkover from the padded low beam to low beam with mats stacked up. Right now nothing in the world - not even a spot- can get me to go backwards where I could possibly hit my head again. And as hard as I think I can't come up with another step inbetween thos two. What could help? More control in the arching action?

Thanks for the compliments Becauseisaid. Sometimes, when you're all wraped up in your fear and just tired of fighting it, that is all what you need. I love the sport with all my heart and would never let one or two or even more skills keep me from doing what I love.

I can comfortably do a frontwalkover as well as a tic toc, because if you don't land your feet on those, it hurts but at least it doesn't smash your brain. Which gets me thinkin whether a tic toc is a forwards or a backwards skill?
Unfortunatly as Mexico follows the USAG program we have to do the backwalkover whether we want or not. Or are there options in the USA below the free routines?

I do wear rehular buckle grips.

 

[Abeautifulsport]

Which gets me thinkin whether a tic toc is a forwards or a backwards skill?

I really would be interested in this one. Does anybody know?