Coaches high bar nerves (L4)

[GymMom&Coach]

A L4 of mine who has all of her bar skills, recently is terrified of jumping to the high bar. (after a stand in coach dident catch her when she clearly dident have the time to catch the bar (she had her shoulders way to far over in her squat on) every time she comes to my bar to practice routines, she cries before her squat on because she knows she needs to jump. I stand there and give her 100% spot and sometimes even let her step on the bar and hold her hands to jump, but she still wont do it!
Any good tips for me?????
I'll also add, once she is on the high bar she completes the routine, its just the jump that scares her!

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Have her jump from a block to the high bar as a permanent station for months, also have her squat on the low bar and jump to a block under the high bar, blocking the high bar with her hands. Now she is working both ends of the sequence.
Then put it all together at the end of each workout. Also teach her how to fall and put a big mat under her, so you can get her off of the spotting.

 

[raenndrops]

I can empathize. We had a gymnast on our team in a similar situation a few years ago. Sometimes, she would just freeze. There were a few times when she was literally carried from low bar to high bar.

coachp is right. We ended up doing all of what he is suggesting. We also, until she was more confident, changed her bar settings to closer together. She could lean to the high bar (instead of jumping). This was not ideal because of the pike needed on her swings, but it allowed her to transition safely.

Good luck.

 

[krc]

Coachp is right. She is afraid of missing and then crashing...so teach her splat safely. This may sound absurd - but give it a try. Start with a front drop on trampoline. Then front drop on a resi. Progressively increase the height until she is comfortable splatting from a squat on. Now boys will do this all of the time, but as we all know they are cerebrally-challenged If she can become less fearful of falling, she can then concentrate on the skill at hand.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Coachp is right. She is afraid of missing and then crashing...so teach her splat safely. This may sound absurd - but give it a try. Start with a front drop on trampoline. Then front drop on a resi. Progressively increase the height until she is comfortable splatting from a squat on. Now boys will do this all of the time, but as we all know they are cerebrally-challenged If she can become less fearful of falling, she can then concentrate on the skill at hand.

=
Also, with all my babies (pre team and level 3) we cradle them and drop them on their backs at the end of each turn on bars, (on a really soft mat obviously). But I start with holding them about 1 foot off the ground, tell them to hug themselves and drop them to their backs. Then higher and higher, until eventually (weeks or months later) I am tossing them a few feet over onto an 8 inch mat. They absolutely love it, beg for it, can't get enough and it really teaches them that they can safely land without putting those little hands back. Over the years I have seen this simple fun drill save arms during front peels , over rotated dismounts and that famous under rotated mill circle with reverse hands to splat.
Hope that helps.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

(she had her shoulders way to far over in her squat on)

When she is just practicing the squad on, get her to squat on, stand up and say her full name before she jumps down to the floor.

I also agree with CoachP progressions for the skill

 

[iwannacoach]

I love the progressions and teaching to fall, as well as dropping them in the controlled context coachp uses. Likely going about it this way will work, but there are kids will still go nuts as soon as they know they're working on the skill that has scared them so much in the past. I'll add this advice..... if you get a hint that this is taking place. Sit the kid down and tell her in no uncertain terms she's going to learn the skill, and just as certain is that you will spot her as needed and let her decide when to advance through every step of the progression the two of you feel best suits her. Some coaches will feel this amounts to letting the tail wag the dog because it takes some of the process out of the coach's hands. I don't agree with that notion, because what I really want is to get kids to the point where they will take the process out of my hands and leave me free to teach.

The best of our gymnasts learn how to solve problems, but can't learn how to do that if we simply throw down firm edicts about how a problem's to be solved what's going to happen and how it will take place.