Parents Not-so-great days at practice

[Deleted member 26368]

My DD was a bit "off her game" today at practice, per her coach (and the look on DD's face after practice, LOL) . Kind of sluggish and not putting in 100% effort, which is unusual for her. However, I know that DD was tired and probably didn't eat as much as I would like before practice. I'm not concerned at all, but I'm curious how other parents help their kids bounce back from less-than-stellar days at the gym?

 

[Aussie_coach]

It's not a bad thing to have good days and bad days. It helps develop resilience, of course too many bad days can have a negative compounding effect, but every now and again its great to just be able to be okay with not being as good as we had hoped.

Keeping a training journal can help, and when there is a bad day it can help identify what might have caused it being hungry, tired, frustrated about not getting a skill etc. So she can identify things to do in the future to reduce these bad days,

As a coach, sometimes the team has a bad day, because it can be catching. In these circumstances I try to make sure we end on a high note. Perhaps by doing something fun, or I teach them, new skill not a hard one but just one they don't usually do as its not what we focus on in the curriculum.

 

[Tigtimes]

Ice cream, it always fixes things

 

[Deleted member 26368]

Ice cream, it always fixes things

Can confirm, with statistical reliability

 

[ReluctantGymMom]

It usually goes like this:

- I ask her if she wants to talk about it
- she gets mad, huffs and says no
- I ask her if she’d like something to eat (since she’s always hungry, and now I’ve made her hangry)
- she says yes and begrudgingly asks for some junk food id usually nix
- I remind her that not every day needs to go great, good or even remotely decent. Sometimes even your best event can Have an off day. It’s cool, you’re there 5 days a week, every day is just a new chance to try again
- she grumbles that she knows
- if she’s not mad at herself but is actually physically hurt or emotionally upset, she’ll usually bring it up at this point
- if she’s just mad at herself, I Google some really stupid fun fact to tell, like about Horse zebra donkey hybrids. She’s 9 so this seems like a suitable distraction

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I let her know this is normal. Fix what she has control over, example better food choices and move on.

 

[ReluctantGymMom]

I let her know this is normal. Fix what she has control over, example better food choices and move on.

Ahahaha, somehow the words “normal” and “fine” are like some massive triggers to a perfectionist.

“NORMAL? Normal??? nOrMaL?!?!?” And lots of hand waiving. And then I inevitably laugh because of how over dramatic that is.

 

[raenndrops]

I Google some really stupid fun fact to tell, like about Horse zebra donkey hybrids. She’s 9 so this seems like a suitable distraction

We go to a private (Company Owned) lake a few times every year. There is this one farm along the way that had both a zorse and a zonkey ... and they are half-siblings (same zebra daddy). We stopped at the farm once when OG was 9 and YG was 6. We got to talk to the family that lived there. It was interesting.

 

[txgymfan]

Totally off topic but I have never heard of a zorse or a zonkey. Too funny!

 

[raenndrops]

Totally off topic but I have never heard of a zorse or a zonkey. Too funny!

I hadn't either until we stopped and talked to the farm family. We just thought they had funny looking zebras

 

[Deleted member 26368]

I hadn't either until we stopped and talked to the farm family. We just thought they had funny looking zebras

All those National Geographic and PBS nature shows did not prepare me for this. Mind blown!

 

[ReluctantGymMom]

We go to a private (Company Owned) lake a few times every year. There is this one farm along the way that had both a zorse and a zonkey ... and they are half-siblings (same zebra daddy). We stopped at the farm once when OG was 9 and YG was 6. We got to talk to the family that lived there. It was interesting.

I love Zonkeys lol - there’s also Zonys (zebra pony). We were at a zoo that had all 3!

 

[rlm's mom]

Had plenty of these days! Usually just mad at themselves, maybe they didn't make a skill today they found easy yesterday or something. Depends on the kid but usually watching something funny on TV, calling a friend or some extra mum-time does the trick. If there is any concrete reason for them to have a bad day they would tell me.