Freaking Out ?!

[emilee572]

Hi, so this is my first year competing and i'm really nervous. I have a mock meet next Sunday and a competition in London next month. I'm reeeaally nervous. Is there anyway to get over these fears? Thanks

 

[Aussie_coach]

Fear is not such a bad thing. It means you care about what you are doing. The keys to preventing fear are as follows.
1. Make sure you are well prepared. Compete skills that you are solid with, not ones you miss frequently in training. Attend all your training sessions and work hard on your weak areas.
2. Visualize yourself doing the perfect routines at home every night before you go to sleep and when you wake up each morning and before you compete.
3. Set realistic goals. If its your first comp don't set the goal to win, that is unrealistic. Set the goal to get through all your apparatus and then aim to beat your scores next time.
4. Use it as a learning tool. Comps should not be about winning at this stage but about building your confidence and learning. The best gymnasts in the future make lots of mistakes early on and learn from them, those that win it all straight away often drop out as soon as it gets hard.

 

[emilee572]

Thanks! This really helped!

 

[wallinbl]

It's natural to be nervous, especially before something you've never done or a place you've never done it. In many ways, being nervous is better than being overconfident. Relax, focus, do what you practiced, and have fun. Don't worry about making mistakes - everyone makes them. Just learn from them - that's the important part.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i'm nervous just reading your post. what now? calm down. the worst you can do is fail. you'll survive. your coach will still like you. your parents will still love you and provide food, clothes and shelter. what's to lose?

 

[gymgurl]

While that is all well and good to say dunno, it is a whole other story putting it into action, One of my biggest fears is failing so when ever there is any competition test or anything of that variety I freak out and everything goes haywire.

So I am more than experienced with anxiety before anything and the best thing I can do i sit down close my eyes and focus on my breathing I do not think of anything else, if need be I don't watch my teammates if I need to calm down. What you also need to understand that nerves and worry and anxiety all come from negative thoughts so what you do is you take every thought and turn it into a positive comment e.g. "What if I fall off the beam?" you then think "I have done everything I can to prepare for this I just need to trust myself" and so on. It is all about finding what works for you.

 

[iwannacoach]

Pick Your best skill on each event prior to the competition and make it your focus. Put yourself through each routine as Aussie_coach suggests, and while imaging, consider the skills before and after your "Marquee" skill as the introduction and curtain call for that "one" skill you do best. It really doesn't matter if it's a forward roll or a full twisting from lay out, just do that one skill better than anybody else, make that you entire focus. At that point your nerves are channeled into a positive purpose, because this is your opportunity to show how your best skill should be done, and the rest of the routine is there to make that presentation a success.

I know it's just your first competition, but you are going either because you deserve it, or your coach is an idiot. So unless you think your coach is...............

Go have fun, and be proud of what you can do!

 

[jsfofec]

You may go out and have a great meet or you may go out and have slip here an there and that's ok. This is the beginning of a long exciting road. Just enjoy it all, the good and the bad. Somewhere down the road, you will fall, they all do, but you learn from that and you go on. The only bad thing that can happen is you don't give it your best shot.

This all reminds of a Michael Jordan Nike commercial about failure:

Michael Jordan - "Failure" Nike Commercial - YouTube