WAG Fear of BWO on beam.

[wh/gh]

Re: the elaborate set-up. This can work short-term but be wary of it becoming a crutch. Something that often helps is having the gymnast set it up on their own (or with a little help if that is too difficult) because eventually they will get bored or tired of setting it up and just go for the skill in a normal environment. Or if they need a fake spot and the coach is busy, sometimes they will just get bored of waiting and go for it. using laziness to our advantage

 

[cbifoja]

People may think I'm crazy but I swear that the way my DD gets over her fears on a skill is to start training the next progressive skill. She was afraid her HS-BHS until she started working BHS BHS. Then she was afraid of that until she started working BTs.

 

[cbifoja]

Re: the elaborate set-up. This can work short-term but be wary of it becoming a crutch. Something that often helps is having the gymnast set it up on their own (or with a little help if that is too difficult) because eventually they will get bored or tired of setting it up and just go for the skill in a normal environment. Or if they need a fake spot and the coach is busy, sometimes they will just get bored of waiting and go for it. using laziness to our advantage

Yes to this! We had a gymnast who had this weird little ritual for one of her beam skills. We went to a training camp where Li Li was coaching beam and it was obvious that she didn't like this idea. She wasn't mean but she sort of teased the gymnast about how she didn't need her silly little ritual. But in a very nice way.

 

[Teezi]

Trust me I had the absolute worst mental block on back walkovers on beam. I had it for 7 months! I just recently over came it and it was the best feeling in the world. What I did is once I got on the beam I would look and my hands and slowly go backwards, finally I managed to put my hands down. It was really weird but it was what worked for me.

 

[Goldmedalgirl]

It's CRAZY that her coach won't spot her on this, she may not ever be able to preform this if her teacher won't help.
I got mine by having a spot the first few times and then after that having my coach stand next to me with her hand out (but not touching me) and then after I completed that I knew I could do that be myself, and then I had it. If all coaches there continue to do this I would have a talk with them.

 

[sce]

Update: Her new coach allowed a spot and she got the BWO really quickly so now we can move over to a fear of the bars dismount .

Just for the record I love, love , lover her old coach and can't wait to have her again. I didn't want to come off as complaining about her because she is awesome.

Hooray for getting past the BWO fear. Too funny about moving on to the next one. There's always something next right?

 

[lovemygymnast]

I completely agree with this spotting problem!! My dd was doing them on high beam, no problem with old coach (who would make them do it on line on floor repeatedly and they gradually went to floor beam, low beam, etc). She didn't spot. She felt the same way, once you spot, they depend on it. Well, she left & another coach took her place & she didn't know where the girls were in their skills, so she spotted my dd repeatedly. Now at new gym, she won't do them except on low beam. I'm frustrated to say the least!! But I know new gym has great coaches & they'll get this sorted out. Still, I agree that spotting sets them back!

 

[Aussie_coach]

It's actually quite a common policy for coaches not to spot on high beam. The idea is that by the time a gymnast takes a skill to high beam they should be competent and confident enough to do it by themselves or they are not really ready to do it. And there is the belief that it will make it difficult for them t then cope without spot.

That is not my policy though, I do not have kids try new skills on the high beam unless I am spotting them. Each one of us has a slightly different view.

There are things she can do to ease it even if the coach does not spot like stack mats under the beam to reduce the height and then progressively take them away, put a mat over the beam to soften a fall, use a beam extender.

 

[Tigtimes]

D gym makes them stack mats, which they must do themselves, then peel away mats till there are none. Noticed since gym has shifted a bit away from spotting once they leave floor beam things actually started progressing a bit faster. Think they get tired of pulling mats around !