Fear about injuries

[MamaofEnS]

Hi Coaches,

You may remember my earlier posts. My DD injured her wrist the first week of August. She just got back, and was really excited about being able to do her flick on beam when she broke her finger doing that skill. She has not been able to do much gym, other than conditioning for almost all of August (maybe 2-3 days w/out injury), and all of September so far. Now her coach is concerned that the flick will become fearful for her. My DD hasn't said anything about it, but hasn't tried it either. She also broke two bones in her hand doing that same skill last spring, and was slowly getting it back after she healed, before the wrist injury. So, any advice for her, since she should start tumbling again this week or next week? I don't want her to be afraid of the flick, but two major injuries from one skill could do it.

MamaofEnS

P.S. She is 14 years old, L7.

 

[MamaofEnS]

Update

I'm disappointed that so far no coaches responded, but I do have good news to report. After the doctor cleared her to return, my DD did flicks on the beam her first day back. She is still doing them on the floor beam, and she has lost a lot of strength in her arms, but I am so proud of her attempting them, and not expressing any fear.

Any advice still would be encouraging.

Thanks,
MamaofEnS

 

[emandelsmom]

Awesome!!! Way to go!!!!

 

[Aussie_coach]

Its wonderful that your daughter has done the skills again without fear. However, I think as coaches and parents we need to remember not to transfer our own fear or worry to our gymnasts.

If your daughter senses that you are worried she might be afraid to do the skill or if she senses that you feel she should be afraid to do the skill then she will often pick on this and respond accordingly. At your daughters age this is less of an issue as it would be when she was younger but it is still a possibility.

One thing about problems is that its best not to anticipate them before they happen.

If we had a child who was scared to flic on beam we would do two main things. First of all we would break the skill down to all the small steps ie
flic on floor
flic on a line on floor
flic on low beam with mat over beam and stacked up to beam height and spot
same without spot
same without mat over beam
then onto medium beam and so on.

The skill can be broken down to about 30 stages between a flic on the floor and a flic on her own on the high beam. We would start from the most basic skill on the list and work through until we got to the point where her fear would stop her moving further on the list. Then we would do lots of the hardest one she could do until she was ready to go for the next step and so on.

There is a lot you can do with beam skills from using foam beams, low beams, medium beams, lowering high beams, spotting, stacking mats up to the height of the beam, a little below the height of the beam, high enough so if she split the beam she wouldn't hurt herself, put mats over the beam and so on.

The second thing we would do is work on an alternative skill as well. If the flic on beam scared her we would then also work a different skill like a round off, front handspring or back tuck (some girls find the tuck easier that the handspring because they don't have to get their hands on).

By working the alternative skill it takes the pressure off, sometimes pressure causes more anxiety about the skill and makes problems worse. We don't really intend to compete the other skill but have it there as a back up.

 

[gym law mom]

If she doesn't talk about having fear doing the bhs, then I wouldn't worry right now. I think if she's asked about being afraid, then she might sit down and think she should be. Since has to work on building strength in her arm, then its a great way to go through the progressions that Aussie coach talks about.

Congrats to her for getting back to the skill and hope for a injury free season!

 

[MamaofEnS]

Wow, thank you so much for your great advice.

You are absolutely right about not projecting my fears onto her. I have been very careful about what I say and act around her, to make sure that I don't do that. It just so happens that fear is a big issue going on in her group right now, and her beam coach offered a "fear clinic" for those struggeling with it. My DD asked to go to the clinic, while she was still injured. I spoke to the coach about it, and she said the clinic was more about specific skills, and not a fear of injuries, which my DD expressed she had. The coach said she would talk to her if needed.

Anyway, I feel my DD is progressing nicely, and I continue to hope for an injury free season.

Thanks,
MamaofEnS

 

[Aussie_coach]

It's actually much more of an issue that fear is going around her team. Fear is catching, and can spread through a whole team like wildfire.

 

[Tuduri]

Fear

I think Aussie coach nails it with regards to fear projection and the steps to learn or re-lean a skill while, at the same time, minimizing the fear of the skill.

I rarely talk gymnastics with my daughter for fear, no pun intended, that I will project my own anxiety on to her. But I do joke with her, talk about inane things and try to distract her from the tension of an upcoming meet or her fear of planting her nose on a full-in or some other skill at practice.

But in terms of getting back a skill or re-learning a skill after an injury, the process described by Aussie coach is a great approach and is exactly what we do in our gym. Breaking down a skill into its indiviual components allows the gymnasts to learn the skill well and increases her confidence in throwing the skill. Then approaching the skill by doing it in progressive phases: on the floor, then the line, then baby beam, then higher beam with mats, etc., will increasingly build up the gymnast's confidence to the point the fear is non-existent or is simply overcome by the confidence incrementally re-built in the process Aussie coach describes. It doesn't happen over night, but it is effective.

That being said, I think that sometimes some mental gymnastics can help. I know my daughter's coach occasionally has the girls listen to some inspirational tapes which address, fear and the ability to focus. One's ability to focus can shut out the fear and isolate the gymnast in a pure moment of concentration. One of the few times I've talked to my daughter in connection to competition or overcoming the fear of throwing a skill was when I described to her a science fiction novel favorite of mine, the book Dune. In that novel one of the protagonists overcomes moments of fear by repeating a mantra called the "Litiny of fear". It goes like this:


"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Now, this may sound silly to some. But this simply describes a form of concentration or a trick to help focus which can allow the gymnast to perform without distractions. It was my way of distracting my daughter and trying to show her that fear is a thing which she can control through focusing to achieve the state where 'only she will remain, never mind the Sci-Fi.

Mental gymnastics alone is not sufficient, of course. You have to follow the steps Aussie coach outlines above.

Julio Garcia,
Jamy's dad