WAG Putting the pressure on

[BarCoach]

I have a few girls who can show beautiful routines in practice, but then crumble as soon as they feel any kind of pressure or nerves. What do you do to practice performing well under pressure?

 

[tumble&turn]

You could run through their routines one by one with the rest of the team watching and if someone falls then everyone has to do their routine again. Continue this until everyone completes their routine without falling. (This is especially good for beam)

Another thing we do is line work on beam where everyone takes it in turns to do a skill ie a full turn, down the beam or using multiple beams depending on how many gymnasts. If someone falls you start again. When the whole team can complete the skill without falling move to another skill like walkovers.

 

[pt coach]

we have a few tricks we use:

pressure game: pair up first person goes, if they stick and then the 2nd person falls zero points; if both stick three points, only second person sticks 1 point - then switch order. pressure is always on the 2nd person.

cold set: one line thru on the floor and then full routine on the beam.

mock meet...everyone watches. As get closer to state, regionals, have whole gym watch..or invite rec parents out to be audience.

meet scenarios...have as many beams running at once talk thru various meet scenarios...i.e. judges taking a long time, last up, 1st up, late for meet, just fell 3 times on previous event, just nailed previous event etc...then everyone presents and goes (those waiting do arm thrus)...

 

[Aussie_coach]

Go in lots of competitions. The more often they perform in front of the judges and the audience the easier it will become.

Build confidence by making sure when they perform in front of peers it is always positive. A lot of kids think everyone is watching their mistakes and judging them negatively. If you want to build confidence have them perform for the group but don't give any negative feedback when they do, save this for another moment. Otherwise they associate performing with people watching their mistakes. Instead give positive feedback or ask peers to do the same. Get the team to each find something the person they are watching does very well and tell them. This helps them, associate people seeing the good things they do rather than the bad when they are being watched.

 

[Moxiegrl83]

Close to the meets, our HC will sometimes call whoever she can find around the gym (gymnasts/parents/coach's), to come watch routines. It's all fun, they get cheer's afterwards. Sometimes if their parents happens to be in the gym, they look more nervous then the gymnast, watching everyone gather around their kid for the show. It's cute.