Sudden Fear! Need to fix quick!

[gymgurl]

Okay, we were tumbling on saturday and I was doing a handspring front and landed on my neck (I am totally fine i was just shocked) despite having this skill for ages. I have a comp in about a week and handspring front is in my routine and i went to do handspring front in my routine last night but I just wouldn't do it, not even on the air floor. So what is the best way for me to get past this fear quick?

 

[pattymello]

Just drop back to the steps you have already mastered and work your way up. Eg. Handspring, handspring roll, handspring dive roll with punch takeoff, handspring front sault onto crash mat, sting mat then floor.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

First and most important piece of advice: don't look for a quick fix. Take it at whatever pace you're comfortable taking it. Trying to fix it too fast is a recipe for making your fear worse.

One drill I've found to be extremely helpful is what I call the pop and flop. It's an intermediate step between a dive roll and a front tuck. Basically, it's a front salto to your back on an 8-inch mat. You want to be looking up when you take off, then spot the floor, then duck your head under and flop on your back on the mat.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

good one, Geoff. ^^^

 

[rd7]

All top advice above, especially about the rushing because if you're not ready to go for it you'll only teach yourself how not to go for it.

You're mind has gone into temporary self protection mode from the shock and it will pass as quickly as it came, could be tomorrow or could be longer but you will be able to perform the handspring front again just as you were before.

If you don't get it back in time for the competition is there something else you can substitute to keep your start value?

 

[Aussie_coach]

I was also concerned when you said you wanted a quick fix, you want a fix that works not a quick fix. Adding time pressure when you are dealing with fear can equal disaster. This is just one competition it doesn't matter if you have some tumbling issue's it is your long term development and safety that is important.

I would also reccomend do the handspring and then dive roll onto crash mats, you can make the dive roll go higher as you gain confidence. You can put the mat at the end of the tumble trek if it helps. Use the equipment you have such as trampolines, tumble trak, double mini etc to create drills and get 100% confident on there before taking it back to the air floor and eventually the floor.

 

[gymgurl]

Okay guys turns out, a quick fix has worked, I basically went back to tramp and did it on there for a bit and then struggled on air floor but eventually got it, struggled even more on floor but in the end I got it, still not as good as it was but i have it. What ended up working was my coach yelling at me 'you suck!' 'wimp' 'come on you can do better than that' etc but it works for me because i'm a people pleaser so if they aren't happy I will keep on working until they are. It was a weird approach my coach took but it worked, I guess she sees that when I'm angry I do awesome vaults so she tried the same with floor

 

[GymBee97]

What ended up working was my coach yelling at me 'you suck!' 'wimp' 'come on you can do better than that' etc but it works for me

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.

 

[pattymello]

Okay guys turns out, a quick fix has worked, I basically went back to tramp and did it on there for a bit and then struggled on air floor but eventually got it, struggled even more on floor but in the end I got it, still not as good as it was but i have it. What ended up working was my coach yelling at me 'you suck!' 'wimp' 'come on you can do better than that' etc but it works for me because i'm a people pleaser so if they aren't happy I will keep on working until they are. It was a weird approach my coach took but it worked, I guess she sees that when I'm angry I do awesome vaults so she tried the same with floor

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.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Okay guys turns out, a quick fix has worked, I basically went back to tramp and did it on there for a bit and then struggled on air floor but eventually got it, struggled even more on floor but in the end I got it, still not as good as it was but i have it. What ended up working was my coach yelling at me 'you suck!' 'wimp' 'come on you can do better than that' etc but it works for me because i'm a people pleaser so if they aren't happy I will keep on working until they are. It was a weird approach my coach took but it worked, I guess she sees that when I'm angry I do awesome vaults so she tried the same with floor

Well.... I'm glad it worked in your case, but generally tactics like this are not worth it in my opinion. The risk of aggravating the problem rather than solving it is extremely high, not to mention the EVEN WORSE affect of destroying the positive and nurturing atmosphere that gyms should have.

 

[iwannacoach]

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?

 

[GymBee97]

Well Iwanna I guess we have to agree to disagree here. The ends don't justify the means for me and just because it worked doesn't mean its the "best fix" for any child. So if it took longer with positive reinforcements so be it. I don't think name calling and belittleing should ever be a choice.

Would you still agree if some teacher at school started calling kids morons, and stupid because it might make them do their school work better? Or if corporal punishment in schools were used to get kids to behave? Of course not. A coach is a teacher and as such should never go down that road. I know for some coaches and kids it may "work" but My kid won't be subjected to a coach/teacher like that ever even for a "quick fix". There are plenty of ways to motivate kids without using negative tactics - yes they may take longer and require more patients but in the end have a more lasting effect without tearing down the selfesteem of a child. We are the adults that are supposed to set the examples and using that type of tactic is not what I want my child to learn.

So we can agree to disagree here.

 

[iwannacoach]

I guess our disagreement centers around my observation that there can be positive intentions behind a poor choice of words, and your concern that I endorse negativity as a coaching tool. I do not!!

I was only trying to make the obsevation that the coach in this case, while not as evolved as some of us would like, was trying to find a way to help gymgurl through the situation, that it worked, and quite possibly left gymgurl in a very positive place.

And please consider the context of the post. I feel there are positives that can function as negatives, and there are genuine risks in letting a problem exist in a positive atmosphere where a child is left to wonder....if all this help isn't working, am I a failure. Of course they aren't a failure, but children can get to some pretty dark places as a result of a problem lingering, and positives can make that situation worse, and in that context the positives become more negative than many of us would imagine.

You can disagree all you want, but when you are responding to a post, I think I'd rather you did not up the ante from verbal to physical with refernces, hypothetical as they are, to corporal punishment with me and other coaches as the contextual recipients of that concern. If you've seen anybody hit or physically abuse anybody....call the police!!

I just want to make it perfectly clear. I coach in a positive and caring manner. I believe that children should feel safe and cared for in every respect when they're at their activities, and it is absolutuley my mission to leave them feeling great about the time they've spent in the gym as they pursue their dreams.

I hope you at least understand my attempt to point out the "quirky" nature of the positive/negative conundrum is more an observation of the compexities of human nature, than it is a sanction for negatives to be used as positives.

 

[GymBee97]

Guess we are just going to disagree on this.

 

[gymgurl]

I think I need to clarify the type of yelling it was, for me it wasn't belittling and didn't put me down or anything for me it was encouragement.

I think what made it okay was that deep down I know she was joking and just trying to get me to do it, she has coached me for a while now and knows that nurturing encouragement doesn't work for me and I need someone to yell at me sometimes I work well with it, there are some gymnasts in my squad who would have burst into tears but its that kind of tough love that I need, I work harder when someone is disappointed in me (or i see it that way).

As for coaching i would never use this approach unless i knew 100% that it worked for that particular gymnast and at the moment it wouldn't work for any of them and 99% of the time it won't my coach has just picked up that since coaching me my best gymnastics comes when I am mad, especially on vault and floor, so that's the approach she uses for me. I know that she doesn't truly mean it and I can go to her about anything if I need to without her belittling me.

For me, I think that the context of the yelling is important to whether or not it is justified or productive. My coach knows me and what works and I work with being pushed and not nurtured, for me that confirms my fear is justified I need someone to tell me that its stupid for me to get over it.

And for the record, my coach was really happy after i did it again and I don't feel like I suck at all, I feel over the moon to be honest and I don't think the fear will be back anytime soon!

 

[iwannacoach]

Well......I sorta figured that to be the situation.