Coaches Fearful gymnast

[gymnastike30]

I have a gymnast that is afraid of everything. She's not excited about learning new level 4 skills. I have to ride her to get anything done. There is always an excuse. I'll give her a correction that needs to be made....there is absolutely no change. Help??!!!

 

[Gymsanity]

Not sure if it's fear or dedication. Dedicated kids will work hard with you to get through their fears, but they have to want it. Not really getting that feeling here. It's the old story of leading the horse to water, but you can't make it drink. I would talk to her and ask her what she feels is holding her back from challenging herself and making corrections. Otherwise you could guess yourself to death, not to mention drive you crazy!

 

[Bumblebee462]

I have a gymnast that is afraid of everything. She's not excited about learning new level 4 skills. I have to ride her to get anything done. There is always an excuse. I'll give her a correction that needs to be made....there is absolutely no change. Help??!!!

I feel for you on this ... all my level 9's are like that. It drives me crazy. Sadly I got them later so I'm dealing with a lot of stuff I didn't create. Maybe suggesting her maturity level isn't ready for level 4 and she may need to repeat level 3 ... We also have a lot of kids like that in our gym. Kids talented in gymnastics but their maturity doesn't match the growth of their talent (if I said it right) because of this we can't push kids forward. I'm telling you my 9's are seriously stressing me out because of the same thing smh.

 

[gymnastike30]

I really think she's the type of kid that needs to be disciplined sternly. She works very well under pressure. And I feel as if I'm not getting any support from the other coaches. I feel like they don't push her as hard as she needs to be pushed. And that's where the dedication comes in?! It's driving my crazy!

 

[gymnastike30]

Or fear..whatever the case may be.

 

[gymdog]

How old? Can't do level 4 skills, don't do level 4 skills. Doesn't really matter the reason.

 

[Aussie_coach]

The key to getting past fear is two things.

1. Their desire to get the skill needs to be stronger than the fear.
2. They need to actually feel that they are capable of doing the skill

Being harder on her may make her chuck the skill in the short term but it won't help her work through this problem in the long term. She needs to learn to work through the fear.

I suggest you sit down with her and pick a skill she is scared off, and have her write a list of every single step she can think of to lead up to that skill.

Eg say the skill is a back handspring on beam. You could start as simple as a back handspring on trampoline, then on floor, then on a line on the floor. And work through steps using foams beams, low beams, medium beams, high beams, mats under beams, boxes next the beam, mats on the beam and spots. She should easily be able to break it down to at least 20 steps.

Then she needs to at the list and see where she is on the list. It is important to start with a really easy step. That way the gymnast does not feel to defeated if they have to start quite low on the list (at least they aren't on the bottom) and if the fear gets worse they have a point to work from.

Then she works on that step on the list until she feels ready to take the next step. She may decide herself later to skip some steps, but it has to be her choice. If fear sets in again then she takes a step back to where she feels comfortable.

The step system allows the gymnast to feel ready to do the skill and learn in graduated steps. All new skills appear hard and a bit scary to a gymnast when they don't know how to do them. But if they gradually work through the steps they see that each skill is very achievable.

This also takes the onus off you as a coach. When she fusses about not wanting to do a skill she is rewarded with attention and focus from you and your effort to solve the problem. For some kids not doing skills from fear is actually very rewarding as it gets them lots of attention. This way they just go to their list and work it.

 

[gymnastike30]

That is some really great advice...thank you. I will definitely try these steps for her. She is 9.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

you can lead them to water...

 

[Deleted member 14190]

And,,,, here is another option.
Sometimes these kids just want attention, so try putting her on her own until she does it. Yelling may get her to do it because she is getting all that extra attention that she thrives for, perhaps the other coaches have already caught onto this.. Typically kids who really have fear issues respond to yelling with even more fear issues, by losing other skills etc (you can get them to go, but eventually is backfires)... I am not saying don't work with her, but mind the amount of attention she gets and direct more of it towards the kids who are succeeding. This may actually help her. In other words, attention seekers can be fixed, fear issues are case by case and usually end up stopping a gymnast in level 8 or 9.

 

[gymdog]

Are you in the US? She can always compete Xcel.

 

[gymnastike30]

Yes...we are in Texas. Are you referring to TAAF?

 

[sevenatenine2]

Excel differs from TAAF in that it's part of USAG, but it more laid back and all the kids do optional routines at various skill levels. I'd compare it more to AGA than TAAF.