Coaches Student refuses to do pullover, need advice

[emyn0]

I am a rec gymnastics coach and I have a 5 year old student who refuses to do her pullover or pretty much anything on the bar, and I'm just not really sure what to do about it. I've talked to her and i'm not really sure what she is afraid of? She said it was the flipping over part, but when I try to hold her in a candlestick on the bar she freaks out even tho she knows I am not going to flip her and have never once forced her to. Mind you I am heavily spotting her the entire time and she knows that I have her. There's also instances where she is afraid of going up on the wall bars to do leg lifts, and I've instead made her do those on a lower bar which she is fine with. I have tried to do a sitting pullover drill with her too, she watched all the other students do it and then when it was her turn she seemed excited to do it but then refused to flip, and once again when I held her there in a candle stick (her back was touching the ground) she freaked out still. i'm just kind of lost and ive had students be really scared of flipping over before but they are usually receptive to a sitting pullover and holding a candlestick on it with me spotting. And no, she is not scared of doing backward rolls on the floor so I just don't know. Any advice would be really great and appreciated and I'm sorry if this is all over the place!

 

[sun]

Maybe forward roll on a very low bar is possible? playing skills in reverse can sometimes be helpful.

Can she backward roll down a cheese mat or anywhere? can build awareness here.

Putting a bar near a wall or using a spotting block near the bar, walking up the wall into pullover maybe? sounds like more of a "I don't want to go upside down" sort of thing though.

If it were me, I'd keep spotting her like you said and also talk her through it "is this part scary? is it too scary to lift another inch? oh it is? okay, we can go lower. can you hold this? oooo, good, now touch your legs to the bar". stuff like that - engage her while she's upside down (or however close you can get to upside down) and build trust.

 

[emyn0]

Maybe forward roll on a very low bar is possible? playing skills in reverse can sometimes be helpful.

Can she backward roll down a cheese mat or anywhere? can build awareness here.

Putting a bar near a wall or using a spotting block near the bar, walking up the wall into pullover maybe? sounds like more of a "I don't want to go upside down" sort of thing though.

If it were me, I'd keep spotting her like you said and also talk her through it "is this part scary? is it too scary to lift another inch? oh it is? okay, we can go lower. can you hold this? oooo, good, now touch your legs to the bar". stuff like that - engage her while she's upside down (or however close you can get to upside down) and build trust.

Thank you! She can backward roll on the wedge without error. She refuses to forward roll on the bar and won't walk up the wall into it either which makes trying to get her to do it really difficult. It's a good idea to talk her through and I'll try that next time i teach her. she is one of those kids that drives me crazy in the sense that if she can't do something by herself she will just cry or she can do it but with incorrect form and if I try to fix it she'll freak out and refuse my help (for example, having her arms in the correct position on beam). I've been trying to build her confidence every chance i get but she is one of my harder students to work with

 

[sun]

It might help your sanity to shift from the goal of making her do a pullover to the goal of helping her -safely- "be in the fear" on a regular basis.

I do this with fearful squat-on's all the time for example - "you're scared of squat-ons? no problem - I'm just going to spot you on a squat-on and we're just going to hang out up here on top of the bar for a while... ok, now squat down, stand up, squat down, stand up - now squat off, cast squat on, repeat" etc.

For the wall and with it in mind that she likes doing stuff by herself - maybe she can't walk up into pullover... can she take one step up the wall? two steps? maybe you can find her limit when it comes to number of steps, or a target on the wall and you can challenge her to hold at her limit for 10 sec? Just thinking of ways to break it down

 

[Gymgirl84]

It's pretty common, I think most rec groups I've had, have had a couple of kids like that. I just stay patient, trying to go to the point the kid is comfortable and trying to build little by little.
Ie. One day, do a chin up lift the legs a little bit up then down, and get down. Next day try to put legs up and lean back a little bit, and so on.

 

[estamey21]

In my experience, pull-overs are a common fear for kids in the 4-6 year-old range. Their bodies are top-heavy, so circling around the bar makes them feel very imbalanced. As kids grow, their center of mass moves closer to their hips—at which point, circling skills become less scary due to teeter-totter mechanics.

For young rec kids who are struggling with intense fears, there’s nothing you can do other than encourage them to try their best. Either they “grow out” of the fear, or they quit. You should keep teaching the skill like you ordinarily do. Definitely don’t spot a kid who does not want a spot.