Mental Block

[JakesMom]

Hello My son, 9 P1 had a mental block on HB and PB. He is afraid of heights. The coaches have been fantastic working with him. Every Tues and Thurs He fights coming to gym b/c of those 2 events. I have been giving the tough Love.. Telling him it's ok to have a fear and yo communicate with his coaches. I'm telling him that they won't let him do more then he is able to and he has to trust their coaching ability. Anything else I can try??

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Mental blocks Will come and go. Leave gymnastics in the gym, don't talk about that too much and try to distract him a bit at home (i would keep thinking over and over about how scary it was, which only made it worse)

 

[JakesMom]

Thanks for the input. I don't usually talk about it at home unless he brings it up.

 

[skschlag]

My ds has been scared of bailing from handstand on rings for about a year and a half. To the point that he took a neutral deduction all season ebcause he could not do it. He would not talk about it, and neither would I. Eventually when he brought it up, my answer was along the lines of "that sure is tough. I can see why that would be hard. Have you talked to your coach about it?"

He finally did. Still scared..refused to do it..absolutely refused. Coach had him bail from shoulder stand repeatedly, and told him to push up before he did. He came running out of the gym that he had bailed from handstand!

I think that just having some empathy if he brings it up, switching topics, and letting them be in a safe space is important. It only gets tougher each day. As ds' tshirt from nationals says.."it doesn't get easier, we just get stronger." And they do, in so many ways!