Parents Mental block/fear of jumping to high bar

[NP73]

My daughter fell off the bars during a squat on last April and dislocated and fractured her elbow. Despite this she moved up to excel gold and has gained new skills but is still unable to jump to high bar. Private lessons didn’t help. She says in her head the bar is farther away than it really is. She can hit it with her hands but can’t/wont grab it. She is having to scratch on bars with every meet currently. Her coach won’t let her compete until she can jump to high bar. I want to help but don’t know what else to do.

 

[NP73]

I have considered mental performance coaching but it’s expensive for 1:1. Has anyone used Perform Happy with Rebecca Smith?

 

[Coach Kate]

A couple things, mostly highlighted by the fact that it sounds like her coach is either unsupportive, unwilling, and or has given up.

First off, gold only requires a high bar dismount. I have seen athletes mount directly to the high bar and do their entire routine there. It's possible. Not common, but possible.

Secondly, there are a number of things that can be done. The bars can be brought closer together to make it more of a lean than a jump. We've done this for different reasons for different athletes. Mats can be stacked all the way under the bars and then one removed at a time until that confidence is built. I have had athletes jump down onto the mats, grab the high bar and just lift their legs to hang in quick succession just to get used to it. It can be spotted. Does she wear grips? I've even don toe tape grips for athletes who just needed to feel more comfortable.

When she had privates what did they look like? I have done privates for this and typically do the mat stack set up and spotting and every three catches we take a mat off the stack.

This is almost impossible to get over without the support of the coach.

 

[NP73]

A couple things, mostly highlighted by the fact that it sounds like her coach is either unsupportive, unwilling, and or has given up.

First off, gold only requires a high bar dismount. I have seen athletes mount directly to the high bar and do their entire routine there. It's possible. Not common, but possible.

Secondly, there are a number of things that can be done. The bars can be brought closer together to make it more of a lean than a jump. We've done this for different reasons for different athletes. Mats can be stacked all the way under the bars and then one removed at a time until that confidence is built. I have had athletes jump down onto the mats, grab the high bar and just lift their legs to hang in quick succession just to get used to it. It can be spotted. Does she wear grips? I've even don toe tape grips for athletes who just needed to feel more comfortable.

When she had privates what did they look like? I have done privates for this and typically do the mat stack set up and spotting and every three catches we take a mat off the stack.

This is almost impossible to get over without the support of the coach.

They have stacked mats and she has jumped from there and grabbed the bar. I’ll ask about moving the bars closer together. She actually has asked about that. Grips seemed to make things worse and she was peeling off the bar. She’s always done well so this is hard for her.

 

[NP73]

A couple things, mostly highlighted by the fact that it sounds like her coach is either unsupportive, unwilling, and or has given up.

First off, gold only requires a high bar dismount. I have seen athletes mount directly to the high bar and do their entire routine there. It's possible. Not common, but possible.

Secondly, there are a number of things that can be done. The bars can be brought closer together to make it more of a lean than a jump. We've done this for different reasons for different athletes. Mats can be stacked all the way under the bars and then one removed at a time until that confidence is built. I have had athletes jump down onto the mats, grab the high bar and just lift their legs to hang in quick succession just to get used to it. It can be spotted. Does she wear grips? I've even don toe tape grips for athletes who just needed to feel more comfortable.

When she had privates what did they look like? I have done privates for this and typically do the mat stack set up and spotting and every three catches we take a mat off the stack.

This is almost impossible to get over without the support of the coach.

Her routine is a glide kip on low bar, 2 back hip circles, squat on , jump to high bar, swing and turn facing the opposite way and release. Only one hand comes off the bar with that.

 

[raenndrops]

Her routine is a glide kip on low bar, 2 back hip circles, squat on , jump to high bar, swing and turn facing the opposite way and release. Only one hand comes off the bar with that.

There is a deduction for it, but we have had girls in Gold who put their hands on the high bar before leaving the low bar, so there is no jump or even a feeling of falling.
Most of the time, they jump to front support on the high bar, do a back hip circle, and do an underswing dismount, but we do have a couple that just swing and do the 1/2 turn tap dismount. The ones who do the high bar back hip circle don't have a good double back hip circle.

 

[Pricess_leia]

There is a deduction for it, but we have had girls in Gold who put their hands on the high bar before leaving the low bar, so there is no jump or even a feeling of falling.

I didn’t know that was a deduction, do you know how much? I am taller so I just lean to catch the bar, but I guess I should work on that

 

[ginnastix]

We brought the bars extra close for one athlete and then we let another just compete her whole routine on the high bar.

For working through the mental block, we brought the bars very close and then gradually separated them.

 

[AlexandraU16]

I don’t have a ton to offer except hugs and encouragement as my daughter has just mostly come through this exact fear after months of being terrified. She too had a bad fall (no injury, just scared), saw a teammate fall, and is young and small so the jump feels enormous. It spread to where she became terrified of her squat on too, knowing it was the moment before the dreaded jump.
The biggest thing that helped her was time and removing pressure. Not being told “if you don’t get over this you can’t compete bars” or being given a deadline to get through it etc was critical to her brain having the space to work through her fear. I also became very good at not mentioning it or asking about it and waiting for her to bring it up herself.
A few privates helped. They moved the bars much closer together, built up mats underneath, and even did a few sessions where the placed a large block under the low bar for her to jump from vs jumping from the rail. For a brief period of time her coach allowed her to climb up vs squat on to the low bar and kept a hand on her for stabilization.

I don’t think there was one thing that “fixed” it for her; I think it was a combination of time, patience, an understanding coach, and home being a safe place to not think about it. I had open communication with her coach about how my daughter was doing with it and we worked together to address her needs as well as my daughter started to learn to advocate for herself (“I need to climb up for the first rep today”, etc).

Best of luck! I am sure given time she will come through it.