Women Fear and Memory Issues

[alongfortheride]

My daughter who is 8 is training for level 3. She had the entire bar routine down and is now afraid to do a back hip circle. I literally have no idea why other than it's this weird mental block. It's not logical at all. She also still has trouble remembering the order of the floor and beam routines. Is this normal? My son had some fears early on, but it was of things that actually were more dangerous. He also remembered his routines (though to be fair, boys routines don't have all the dance moves)

 

[CLgym]

Regarding fear -- I don't think there is any "normal" -- Mine is still afraid of doing a BWO on beam, but is catching bails (not to handstand, so probably more like overshoots) and working her double-back dismounts on bars with no problem.

Regarding memory -- I wouldn't necessarily worry unless your daughter is showing memory issues (or issues following multi-step directions) in other areas. An 8 year old should probably be able to remember the L3 routines -- but there really are a lot of moving parts. And if you add fear or stress into the dynamic, then maybe it creates something that looks like a memory issue.

Good luck to your kiddo! Will this be her first season competing?

 

[alongfortheride]

Regarding fear -- I don't think there is any "normal" -- Mine is still afraid of doing a BWO on beam, but is catching bails (not to handstand, so probably more like overshoots) and working her double-back dismounts on bars with no problem.

Regarding memory -- I wouldn't necessarily worry unless your daughter is showing memory issues (or issues following multi-step directions) in other areas. An 8 year old should probably be able to remember the L3 routines -- but there really are a lot of moving parts. And if you add fear or stress into the dynamic, then maybe it creates something that looks like a memory issue.

Good luck to your kiddo! Will this be her first season competing?

Yes. Although sometimes I worry that if she's actually that stressed maybe I should have her do another year of preteam.

 

[Gymnast734]

I’m not much help for the fear issues, but for the memory issues I would suggest walk throughs at home. That’s what helped me with learning new routines. Don’t necessarily do the actual skills, just mark them and just know that they’re there. Also to make sure she is doing them right look up level 3 beam or floor routines on YouTube, there is hundreds on YouTube. Also you could have her watch them on YouTube also because maybe visually seeing the routines a few times will help her learn better. If possible, maybe like one private with her coach to focus solely on the dance part of routines would be beneficial because the coach can focus on all the details.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

Yes. Although sometimes I worry that if she's actually that stressed maybe I should have her do another year of preteam.

The first couple of competitions are stressful. Keeping her in preteam another year won't change that.

Many of my daughter's teammates seemed to be struggling to remember their level 3 routines last year. However, come competition time, not 1 girl forgot them. (The coach did give each parent the order of the beam and floor routines so girls could run through them at home if they wanted. That might be helpful for your daughter.)

She may be feeling nervous about competing which might be the reason for the fear. Just keep telling her you're proud of her and to just do her best and have fun at practice. I don't talk about the skills my daughter is struggling with (she has fears sometimes, too.) If she brings them up, I just tell her to talk to her coach about it and see what they say. I try to keep everything very relaxed when it comes to "gym talk." That usually helps my daughter worry less about getting a skill or competing.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Run through routines at home (the non tumbling parts) and video.

Regarding fear. Let it go. Tell her not to worry, she’ll get it.

 

[MUTigerMom]

My daughter always had trouble learning her routines because she is a lefty and almost all her teammates were righties. She would have it down, then watch them and get all confused. She always had it set by meet season. Could it be something like that.
Don't sweat the fear issue. Don't make a big deal about it and it should disappear given a little time. Until then, I have found it helpful to not ask.