Asking for a different coach?

[jenniffir]

As I have posted before I am having trouble with a certain coach which coaches tumbling, vault, and bar. I hadn't actually vaulted for what seemed like months (I think it was close to 5 weeks without vaulting over the real vault but I did vault into the pit over a trainer) so this mental issue was killing me and the coach didn't seem to care and would ignore me completely and then become jekyll and yell, call me names, say I was giving attitude (because almost in tears I was so sassy), and basically tell me to quit. I was actually considering quitting and my mom forced to take a week off for different reasons, I grabbed my grips and spent that week debating whether or not to ever go back.

I went back. I realized I absolutely loved gymnastics and couldn't live without it, the issue was the coach. This previous Thursday after the aforementioned coach had given up on me and all the girls went to break I was left to vault with the dance and beam coach, whom is great, but I couldn't make myself vault because I didn't feel safe. So she gets fed up and calls the guy coach over saying something about "maybe you can fix her" 2 minutes in and I do my first vault over the real vault in months.

The boy team coach just found a way to click with me, or got what would help me, he could see when I got frustrated and say the right things that just made sense. Maybe it was just that he was a different coach, I don't know but it was a very good idea to call him over.

So my question is do you think it would be inappropriate to ask to be coached by him or ask to maybe workout with the boys team since that's what he coaches? I still need floor and beam obviously but the aspects that I was ignored upon by the other coach (vault, tumbling, and bars) could be interchangeable with the guy events, is this unreasonable? What action should I take? Advice would be lovely.

Thank you in advance.

 

[lhmom]

Not sure how your gym is set up, but at DD's gym, I know they wouldn't let girls train with the boys' team (nor would they let the boys train with the girls). If it's possible, maybe you could see if you could take some privates with the boys' coach? Help you get a handle on the vault and the tumbling?

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Our gym has the boys are girls training seperately. Maybe you could ask this coach if he does private lessons? This way you could work with him on your vault and not interrupt your regular training.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

become jekyll and yell.

For future reference, Hyde is the evil one and Jekyll is the nice one, though that was a cool way of putting it. ;-)

But this coach sounds like a real sour apple! S/he is obviously not jiving with your personality and fears, maybe doesn't have a lot of experience or something. If this coach is new to coaching, I might stick it out. I had one coach who would always yell and give punishments during the first couple of months, but she became more comfortable in her position and wound up being one of the best coaches I had.

Asking the boys' coach to coach you regularly isn't really a solution, except maybe a private lesson to get over your fear. But fear isn't a one-time thing.

I had a very poor coach on bars and sometimes floor for a couple months. She was very unenthusiastic and you had to really prompt her to help you - really the only thing she succeeded at was spotting. My standing back tuck still suffers from her training. I didn't have any fear issues at the time, but I bet if I had, she would have been entirely useless. The way I got through this time was relying on teammates for advice and help (other than spotting) and thinking of my gymnastics as mine, not dependent on a good coach or a bad one. Obviously I might have done a lot better with a different coach, but you just have to do the best with what you've got. Since you like the coach you have on the other events, I'd advise you to stick it out and try different things to get over your fear without relying on a specific coach. More advanced teammates often have helpful advice, and sometimes can spot you as well.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

whoever they can call over, and of course i'm pleased to hear it was a boys coach, and can get it done.

 

[jenniffir]

Darn I wasn't thinking about who was who in jekyll and Hyde.

The gym i go to i am the highest USAg Level, so i Cant really ask a higher gymnast for advice, I was thinking it would be weird to ask to train with the boys buys but we really don't have a strong boys team and they are all you minus one older looking boy. Our gym if very unorthodox and over the summer there was a level 4 who trained with the higher levels and went 16 hours but was only 6, this was simply because of attitude problems in her level 4 group.

My mom isn't big on privates either, she doesn't understand my difficulties with the coach who caused many of the fears to grow.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Maybe you could vault with the boys, but it doesn't make sense to me for you to train with them all the time. Obviously you're not going to be working high bar, rings, p-bars, or pommel horse. Men's floor is pretty different from women's, although I'm not sure if the technique in tumbling is different at the lower levels. What level are you training? I'm guessing 5 since you are scared of the horse.

Just one private to vault might work, if you could sell her on that. Do you have other fears? Even gymnasts with excellent coaches develop mental coping strategies to ignore fear. I feel like at the higher levels, conquering many skills are 80% fear and 20% timing.

 

[jenniffir]

Maybe you could vault with the boys, but it doesn't make sense to me for you to train with them all the time. Obviously you're not going to be working high bar, rings, p-bars, or pommel horse. Men's floor is pretty different from women's, although I'm not sure if the technique in tumbling is different at the lower levels. What level are you training? I'm guessing 5 since you are scared of the horse.

Just one private to vault might work, if you could sell her on that. Do you have other fears? Even gymnasts with excellent coaches
develop mental coping strategies to ignore fear. I feel like at the higher levels, conquering many skills are 80% fear and 20% timing.

I'm actually level 7, there is at least one skill on each event that is kicking my butt, unfortunately vault just had the one skill and it was particularly frustrating because I had done that same vault my entire gym career (I started as a level five). I wasnt planning on regularly practicing with the guys, I just needed some solutions.