As a parent IF I ever heard my DD's coach say she "sucked" was a "wimp" etc there would be a meeting big time with coach and owner discussing why belittleing my DD was the method they though was best way to coach to get results. There are alot more positive approaches that work just as well if not better than name calling.
How about encouraging, letting you know what to fix, helping you to recognize what it is that is making you fearful, etc. That works too. Just because the method works doesn't mean its right to use.
Ok off my soap box now.
In most situations the approach your coach took would aggrivate the situation and only lead a gymnast to further fear troubles. Just in case you ever coach don't name call. Just work positively with your gymnasts, especially when they are having issues with fear.
I'll go along with the notion that wholesale criticism and belittlement is wrong, but I'm falling short of believing that's the case in this situation. The coach in any situation knows what works for each individual child, and sometimes that requires letting a child know they have to carry their own "baggage" until they can get rid of it.
Gymnastics, and other sports are filled with such nuances, that it's often just as destructive to "skirt the issue" with positive solutions, as it is to pressure with negative innuendo. It turns out that gymgurl has turned a crisis into a success that is likely noticed and appreciated by all around her, even her coach. It's entirely possible she would be dealing with this crisis for the next week, and not accomplished anything but reinforcing in her own mind, with nobody telling her, that she's a wimp, and does suck.
Now that really would suck!!...... I wouldn't have gone that route, and I would have been uncomfortable listening to it, but with the results as they are, I would have to guess that the coach's efforts were well intentioned, thought out, and understood by gymgurl for what they were...a challenge.
As coaches and parents, we usually, as a majority, motivate our children with positive reinforcement, but what do we do when that fails? Do we pile on more positives on top of previous positives, while we watch our children flounder, or do we find some "fall back" method to salvage the situation for the child. If we continue on with positives that don't work, we're really just allowing space for the kids to conclude they're not up to the demands of the sport, and are incapable of surviving in a challenging atmosphere.
This may, by some definitions been a quick fix, but it's possible, perhaps with better verbage, that it was the best fix for gymgurl. So gymgurl?.... are you better off for the experience, and do you realize that you truly don't "suck", and are not a whimp? And by the way....how did you figure out to use the tramp and the air floor to get yourself back to the skill?
