HI, I have posted before about this struggle but each meet this season has gotten progressively worse. My DD is 8 and this is her first season to compete. She had some sort of mental block coming off of CHristmas break and went from doing level 6 tumbling skills to barely being able to do level 4. Some days she can do a backhand spring others she can't. She has no consistency anymore. Originally, the problem was just with tumbling but now it has spread to trampoline and double mini. She just gets so nervous that she literally can't complete passes in competition. She'll do a roundoff and stop. Or on double mini, she'll jump on the tramp and then just jump off without completing any skills. At practice, she can do her passes beautifully. In competition, she's so nervous she can't do them. Another issue is she seems to be afraid of one of her coaches. If she has this particular coach at practice (who is pretty hard nosed and old school and sometimes yells at the kids and makes them do conditioning exercises when they're not performing up to par) she completely flakes out at practice, too. If she has a coach she likes, she does OK. But when she has a bad day at practice, it takes her days to recover and get back to where she was. So it's constantly one step forward, two steps back. She fears one of the coaches, but I believe it's because she is very thin skinned and very very sensitive. This is a kid who would throw up before a field trip at school because she's so nervous. So I'm not necessarily criticizing that coach--who is very successful and experienced, by the way. It's just so frustrating because they say she has real talent. And obviously we know she is capable of doing much bigger things than she is currently doing because she has done them in the past.
I also think that while nerves are a problem, she is VERY negative. She constantly says she can't do something. Or, for example, at the last meet, before her comp time, she was saying how she didn't like the double mini trampoline they had at the meet. She said it wasn't as "bouncy" as what she's used to so she wouldn't be able to do well. I pointed out that I had been watching all morning and the majority of those who I had seen comepete on it had stuck their landings. It appeared to me that they were all doing really well on this particular tramp. But she wouldn't hear it. She went into that competition with it in her head that she couldn't do well because she didn't like that trampoline. I think she sabotaged herself. I don't think she purposefully went out and intended to do poorly. But I think her attitude played a HUGE role in psyching herself out of doing well.
We dropped her down a few levels on tramp and tumbling for this last competition to take some pressure off and this was probably her worst meet yet. She can now only qualify for JO on double mini. She wants us to take her out of tramp and tumbling for the regional meet so she can just focus on double mini since it's her only opportunity to qualify. Should I let her do that? Would that be a bad thing to do?
What do I do about her being scared of a coach? Is this normal? Is this coach's style bad or wrong? She is scared of this coach, yet I've seen her take advantage of "nicer" coaches at the gym.
Am I doing enough to support my child? I don't feel like I pressure her. I just want her to be successful because she says this is what SHE wants. And I believe she does. She cried for hours after the last meet and i just felt so bad for her and so disappointed for her. But I do not know how to help her.
I should also say that while I know it's taboo to gym hop, we don't really have any other gyms in our community, so we couldn't if we wanted to.
Please help. I'm just at my wits end. Thanks in advance!
I also think that while nerves are a problem, she is VERY negative. She constantly says she can't do something. Or, for example, at the last meet, before her comp time, she was saying how she didn't like the double mini trampoline they had at the meet. She said it wasn't as "bouncy" as what she's used to so she wouldn't be able to do well. I pointed out that I had been watching all morning and the majority of those who I had seen comepete on it had stuck their landings. It appeared to me that they were all doing really well on this particular tramp. But she wouldn't hear it. She went into that competition with it in her head that she couldn't do well because she didn't like that trampoline. I think she sabotaged herself. I don't think she purposefully went out and intended to do poorly. But I think her attitude played a HUGE role in psyching herself out of doing well.
We dropped her down a few levels on tramp and tumbling for this last competition to take some pressure off and this was probably her worst meet yet. She can now only qualify for JO on double mini. She wants us to take her out of tramp and tumbling for the regional meet so she can just focus on double mini since it's her only opportunity to qualify. Should I let her do that? Would that be a bad thing to do?
What do I do about her being scared of a coach? Is this normal? Is this coach's style bad or wrong? She is scared of this coach, yet I've seen her take advantage of "nicer" coaches at the gym.
Am I doing enough to support my child? I don't feel like I pressure her. I just want her to be successful because she says this is what SHE wants. And I believe she does. She cried for hours after the last meet and i just felt so bad for her and so disappointed for her. But I do not know how to help her.
I should also say that while I know it's taboo to gym hop, we don't really have any other gyms in our community, so we couldn't if we wanted to.
Please help. I'm just at my wits end. Thanks in advance!