WAG Mental Toughness???

[txgal]

DD is 9 (she turns 10 next week). She's L5 training L7 (coach is planning on her scoring out of 5 in May, competing L7 in Jan). DD has been very frustrated of late, not with gymnastics or skills per se, but with the coach. Because she doesn't always have the same coach and one coach drifts in and out of practice without much regularity, she has been getting conflicting instructions on how to fix her skills so she'll score really well in May.

Example: On vault today she got frustrated because coach #2 drifted in for vault practice because HC had a tiny tot class. DD's highest score on vault last year was 9.6, so she has this vault down and only needs minor tweaking to make it better (she WAS consistent--highest score was 9.6, lowest score was 9.4). Today, coach #2 completely changes what she's doing and, predictably, her vault fell apart. Coach #2 told her that her vault would score maybe in the 8s. She's NEVER, at any level, seen an 8 on vault. Again, predictably, this sent her into a mental tailspin.

Fast forward. Practice is over and she comes to work with coach #3 for an extra hour. Coach #3 has been her coach, well, forever (okay, not forever, but since she was 5). She tells coach #3, whose girls practice in the afternoon/evening, about today's vault practice. Coach #3 was livid. DD is the best vaulter in the gym, and she's HER gymnast (she was vault and bars coach). After a 5 minute or so chat, coach #3 figures out what coach #2 was telling DD. She gets her whiteboard, diagrams it out for her, and DD understood what coach #2 was telling her (of course, this explanation was not given during practice--just change it). She runs DD through a couple of vaults, holding her in the different body positions so she can feel the change. Sets her down and tells her that she doesn't need to change anything--as she gets stronger on vault, the change will be automatic.

I explain the whole morning situation to HC (before the one-on-one with coach #3) and her response is that DD needs to learn to work with different coaches. Fair enough. I told HC that was understood, but that DD is still 9 (sometimes I think she forgets because DD trains with 12-14 year old girls) and that she doesn't quite have the maturity (or versatility) to be expected to simply change something because a coach said to change it, especially when it's on an event that 1) has been her best event, 2) has been her most consistent event, and 3) has not been an event that coach #3 (her coach until February) has been worried about. Her response? She needs more mental toughness. (???)

So, my question is this: 1) Is this a mental toughness issue? (I always thought mental toughness meant having one disastrous event at a meet and coming back stronger than ever on the next event, but maybe I'm wrong?) and 2) can mental toughness be taught? (Or is it a maturity issue, a personality issue (because HC did say DD is much too moody, but that's just who she is), or something else?)

Any advice is appreciated...DD is about to completely go off the rails because she feels like the rug has been pulled out from under her...

 

[bandgeek802]

I was once in a similar situation. I don't believe this is mental toughness. I think that HC is wrong. Perhaps DD should tell a coach flat out,"Everyone is telling me different ways to do _____ skill. Can we just try and see which one is the best for me?"

 

[Deleted member 14190]

It is normal to get different corrections, people see different things. Now when it comes to a handspring,,,, different techniques are required if your child has aspirations of using the handspring in upper level optionals, (handspring front etc.) . In other words a 9.6 handspring could be completely useless in upper levels if it is not the correct technique. Not that it really matter because most kids do a round off entry, just saying.

 

[CAGymmie]

In response to the coaches telling her different things, when my coaches are telling me two different things, I say, "Coach X just told me to do this this way, and you are telling me the opposite. What do you mean?" Sometimes, the coaches are saying the same thing two different ways, which can be confusing.

 

[my4buffaloes]

I think sometimes hearing things differently from different coaches can be a real help when a child struggles with a skill.

 

[motigymnasticsmom]

I don't think it's a mental "toughness", but a mental flexibility that you are talking about. Your dd along with most gymnast already have a mental "toughness". Mental flexibility is about a persons nature(personality). Now, not all of us have mental flexibility. Sometimes, with maturity, a person can develop it. Hang in there!!!! She's just a little girl and maybe the coaches are doing this just to "toughen" her up.

 

[iwannacoach]

Sure mental toughness is a great asset that comes, to some degree, packaged with other characteristics like desire and determination. I've had kids who I felt were mentally tough tell me where to get off if I insisted they do something they thought completely wrong. No worries for me because I had to respond to them and help them make sense of it. I feel they did me a favor and either helped or forced me to be a better coach.

I don't understand coach #2 in this example because it's pretty easy to notice when a skill is getting worse with a correction, instead of better. I figure when I see a change after giving a correction to a kid, they're doing their part by trying what they understand I want done, and they're buying what I'm selling, period. More importantly, change is what I need from a kid who wants to learn and improve. If you ask me, it takes a bit of mental toughness to make a change in how you do a skill, and even more when you don't understand the logic, purpose, of need for the change.

My role as a coach is to take what a kid gives me and make that work, or work with them so they can give the kind of effort and result I hope to see. I think the coach just didn't know that he had to find another way to explain his work to your daughter, and made the mistake of regarding the degeneration of the skill as a symptom of a kid who wasn't tying. If you ask me the coach could benefit from the medicine the h/c tried peddling to you. Really, is there a reason a coach can't be as mentally tough as they want their gymnasts to be, and force themselves to change their correction until they find one that still gets from point a to point b.