WAG Overcoming Fear of Giants and Flyaways on the real bars.

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Well the title basically speaks for itself. DD is working on these skills and has become dead afraid and will not even attempt them on the real bars. She can do giants like mad on the single pit bar. She has done a few flyaways on the pit bar as well, but then hit her toes on the bar and won't even try them with spot any more.

She is so frustrated and is being sent off bars because she is getting to the point of crying. Crying was an issue in the past, mostly on beam, but she had overcome it and has been doing so awesome.

I found out yesterday about this crying on bars and she just tells me she is scared and can't do it. She is afraid of hitting the other bar on giants and afraid of hitting the high bar on the flyaway.

Any advice?

TIA

 

[sglemon]

Thanks for posting, but sorry I can't help. I have a similar problem and will be eager to read your responses. My DD coach wants her to start working her flyaways and she is like "no way, what if I hit my foot" She won't even try. She has super strong tap swings, a tuck flyaway, should be easy. She is working giants on the pit bar with no problem, but won't even try a flyaway into the pit.

 

[DND]

My DD had the same fears and really it was just stepping back and taking time and progressions that eventually worked. We don;t use the pit bar for the pre-novice routine training and from what I have seen they went from a fully raised low bar (all the kids are small enough to still be able to do giants straight on it) and had them do a release onto their backs on the mats. From there it was just letting go on the high bar where the coach caught them and turned them over so to speak until they are being cued with the coach there to doing it themselves.


On another note if she is so scared of hitting her toes I have seen girls using elbow pads on their toes for protection when learning the "bigger" skills. Maybe that will be all it takes to take her mind off of hitting her toes and let her do her thing.

I empathize with you though; it is so hard to watch them struggle and be frustrated when to them it seems like they will never get passed it. All you can do it let her know this is normal and she will get passed it and a year from now will most likely laugh about this fear as she will have moved on to bigger and better challenges.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Ha ha! Thanks to Margg and sglemom for replying. When I look at the "related threads" at the bottom I posted a very similar post back in November of last year. I guess it's a bigger issue than I thought. At least she is doing her giants really well on the pit bar now. I guess it's just a matter of time time time.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

I think flyaways are one of the most common (and worst) fears in all of women's gymnastics. My coach used to have me go back to where I felt comfortable doing them because my form was terrible on the actual bar, due to fear. First I did tap swings on a single rail, let go to land on a wedge mat about a foot lower than the bar. Then I did swings to flyaway on the low bar (with a spot because it was so low). I had to bend my legs to a tuck because of the height of the bar. After about a billion of these, I was confident enough to try it on high bar with a spot, then eventually no spot. It took a long time for me to get over my fears enough to not let go early, though.

As for giants...we put a string of pre-wrap behind the single rail, where the low bar would be. Usually two people hold it. Then she can do giants seeing the pre-wrap like she would the low bar. Honestly, I never do giants on the pit bar. I don't want to get in bad habits like extending too much.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

tell her to put a stinger mat over the low bar and go again. when you spend to much time on a single bar without a fake bar, the gymnast loses where the low bar actually is.

edited to add: forgot this part. when there is no low bar, or fake bar, the gymnasts swing a heckuva lot faster than if the bar was there. consequently, the ensuing swing and tap both happen faster and later giving them the sensation that they will hit the bar on the flyaway.

there has to be a balance of fake bar and real bars.

 

[dmytv]

My dd had a real issue with this and I thought, until recently this would be the end of her. She has a level 9 dismount but couldn't get this level 7 dismount to save her life. She would not connect the giant to the flyaway and it was very hard to watch her struggle. There were 2 things that got her over this. 1 was doing the routine giant giant kip cast handstand(really concentrating on the cast handstand)flyaway, and working with a spotting belt on the connection with a coach who was really patient. She got over it so, don't loose hope. Competition season is all too far away.