Preventing Fear after Injury

[Scream4IceCream]

My DD (11yo, L6) is out for 6 weeks with Sever’s, Achilles Tendinitis, and inflammation/widening of the growth plates in her wrists. She is basically only supposed to condition and do her PT exercises - no training on events, etc. These are overuse injuries, so there was no fall or specific thing that happened to cause them. However, she is worried that she will be scared of her skills when she gets cleared (beam BHS, KCH to layout flyaway, Yurchenko timer, RO-BHS-LO, etc.).

I’ve suggested the following:

-keep walking on high beam and stay used to being up there
-picture what the skills feel like in your body when you see your teammates do them
-visualization yourself doing the skills before you fall asleep at night
-watch videos of yourself doing the skills

However, I’m not a coach. Does anyone else have any advice on things we can do to head off fear once she gets cleared? Most of these skills were gained this summer so they are still newish. Also, we’ve heard her coaches don’t have much patience for overuse injuries, so I think those things are adding to her stress.

Thank you!

 

[HopefulGymnast]

What stands out to me is that it sounds like she may be very hard on herself. Already being worried that she may have fears later. I don't know how you can prevent fears from develloping, but I expect her putting pressure on herself to not devellop fears could just make it worse when the time comes. It may help to let her know that if she does devellop fears like that, its okay. That its okay if she needs a bit of time to get back to where she was after healing. I think feeling confident that she can get over fear if it does devellop, will take the pressure off the skills and that will make them less scary too.

 

[Scream4IceCream]

What stands out to me is that it sounds like she may be very hard on herself. Already being worried that she may have fears later. I don't know how you can prevent fears from develloping, but I expect her putting pressure on herself to not devellop fears could just make it worse when the time comes. It may help to let her know that if she does devellop fears like that, its okay. That its okay if she needs a bit of time to get back to where she was after healing. I think feeling confident that she can get over fear if it does devellop, will take the pressure off the skills and that will make them less scary too.

Thank you! That’s not an angle I had really considered, but it makes sense. I do try to tell her those things and she is hard on herself, but mainly I think that she’s scared that the coaches will put pressure on her right away. They were pretty down on her right before we went to the doctor telling her she was regressing and not keeping up with the group, etc. They kept telling her that every gymnast has wrist and ankle pain and that she just had to push through. Well, she pushed through as much as she could and ended up with growth plate damage. So basically she’s scared of the coaches’ expectations once she’s cleared.

 

[rd7]

"Well, she pushed through as much as she could and ended up with growth plate damage. So basically she’s scared of the coaches’ expectations once she’s cleared."

I'm not sure I'd be sending my daughter back to this gym. At the very least a conversation is needed with the gym before she returns.

It's understandable being worried about keeping her skills, she has been injured and needs to work back up to her previous level for her own safety. Remind her that most gymnasts had months off during covid and then regained their skills very quickly, it's in the muscle memory.