Parents Mental block/growth spurt

[Jbaines29]

My 7 yr old daughter is competing Xcel Silver and has had her ROBHS for almost a year and mastered the ROBHSBHSBHS until recently. We have even been working on back tucks. She has a lot of power so her coaches have been working on her slowing down for more control on her tumbling.

For the past 2-3 weeks she hasn’t been connecting her ROBHS in practice. She will do her round off and then stop/balk and just do BHS. At first I thought it might be a growth spurt because she also complained that her legs/knees hurt at night. I also think her slowing down her running into the ROBHS has caused her to think about it more and has caused some kind of mental block. Has anyone else’s gymnasts preciously mastered a skill, lost it and was able to get it back? I haven’t made a big deal about it, just trying to support and encourage her and focus on her other strengths, but I’m also worried she will lose her confidence and never get it back. Any advice is helpful!

 

[AlexandraU16]

I have a kid the same age who is also a powerful tumbler (has a ROBHBT) and sometimes the speed she tumbles with makes things bigger, scarier, and harder to control than for her less powerful teammates. A few months ago she really refined her BHS to be even more stretched out and powerful and when she did that she temporarily couldn’t connect to her tuck any more because she was having to recalibrate her set with the greater horizontal momentum coming out of her BHS. That wasn’t so much fear but definitely an adjustment due to a change. Maybe slowing down her approach is causing your daughter to have to go through a recalibration period. Will she still connect it on tumble track? It sounds more like some sort of physical transition than a fear.
As far as fears go, my daughter has been jumping to high bar for over a year and all the sudden developed a huge fear about that and months later she is still working through it. But with patience and removing the pressure it is slowly coming back. I really doubt your kiddo who is capable of connecting multiple BHS won’t get this skill back given enough time to adjust and work through it!

 

[Jbaines29]

I have a kid the same age who is also a powerful tumbler (has a ROBHBT) and sometimes the speed she tumbles with makes things bigger, scarier, and harder to control than for her less powerful teammates. A few months ago she really refined her BHS to be even more stretched out and powerful and when she did that she temporarily couldn’t connect to her tuck any more because she was having to recalibrate her set with the greater horizontal momentum coming out of her BHS. That wasn’t so much fear but definitely an adjustment due to a change. Maybe slowing down her approach is causing your daughter to have to go through a recalibration period. Will she still connect it on tumble track? It sounds more like some sort of physical transition than a fear.
As far as fears go, my daughter has been jumping to high bar for over a year and all the sudden developed a huge fear about that and months later she is still working through it. But with patience and removing the pressure it is slowly coming back. I really doubt your kiddo who is capable of connecting multiple BHS won’t get this skill back given enough time to adjust and work through it!

This reassuring! She will connect it with a spot, but the spot is so minimal, she doesn’t even need it, but more mental. She will also connect it on the trampoline but not sure about a tumble track. We have 2 more in house competitions before the actual season starts in February so I’m hoping she gets it back by then. They removed it from her floor routine and she’s doing a standing round off to a BHS with a spot, but not sure if a spot is allowed in actual competitions.

 

[Lynn08]

AFAIK in XS a spot is technically allowed and there's no deduction (for the spot specifically) unless the coach actually touches the gymnast. I could absolutely be wrong on it, but we definitely had coaches spotting girls on a BHS or ROBHS when I competed silver 5 years ago, and their scores were similar to those of the girls without spots or with different skills not requiring a spot.