Parents Sensitive child

[Gym_momma]

Looking for advice from others who may have a sensitive child. My 8 year daughter is a very good gymnast, but she needs a fair amount of validation from her coaches. She often comes out of practice with concerns the coach is frustrated with her for asking to watch her skills and feels like the other gymnasts are being favored.

I can't comment on the validity of her concerns because I haven't observed them directly. What I do want is to help my daughter develop self confidence and resiliency so these types of things don't bother her. Any advice? Suggestions? Success stories?

 

[For Flip Sake]

My daughter is very sensitive too and it can be a challenge, I feel your pain. I try to always remind her that her coaches give her corrections because they want to help her be the best gymnast she can be, and that if they didn’t believe that she could improve they wouldn’t bother. I also remind her that she is only trying to be the best version of herself, and that she needs to focus on her own goals and progress without comparing herself to others.

Her coach knows that she is sensitive and gives her praise when she notices her working hard, but I know my daughter would love a constant stream of praise. As she’s gotten older and matured she realizes that the coaches are hard on her because they see her potential and want to help her reach it, not because they don’t like her or think she isn’t a good gymnast. Emphasize hard work and a good attitude, everything else will follow. Maybe drop in to a practice and see how the coaches interact with your daughter to get a better idea of what is actually going on and what is bothering her. Good luck!

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Maybe drop in to a practice and see how the coaches interact with your daughter to get a better idea of what is actually going on and what is bothering her.

I agree with this. It's good to have an idea of how much of this is your daughter being sensitive and how much is coaches maybe being too strict.

Also, one thing that's always helped me is. "If it's always easy and you do everything right, you're in the wrong place. Corrections and mistakes just show you're challenging yourself. Everyone can stay in a class where they can already do everything and they're the best at everything. Going to a harder class is the big challenge".
This was mostly also for school stuff for me, but it feels like it fits kind of everywhere. I hope I phrased it right, I tried to phrase it a bit more so a kid would understand but I found that really hard.