The fearless type?

[gymgurl]

Ok, so another thread got me thinking, I am pretty much a fearless gymnast and i know my limits very well and will go for anything i.e. never got a spot on the middle or high beam for back walkovers, will go for pretty much anything my coach sets up and just won't feel scared at all, I have always been like this and in Dunno's post in the stick about back tumbling fear he mentions its vestibular but if that is related to growth and change then why haven't i experienced could it be that my vestibular system matured quickly? or that i didn't do gymnastics during the main growing years? so it had time to adjust itself, Also do you think some people can cope with the feeling of lots of power better than others?

I have friends that are constantly scared of something though some due to a bad fall but i have had several scary falls and haven't been scared of what caused the fall at all (touch wood) so another question are certain personality types more prone to developing fear?

 

[aerialriver]

I don't know. Maybe you have just been lucky. I never had fear as a kid and I didn't until this year. I have had many scary falls and nothing bothered me until I did a barani into a back full and fell completly off the trampoline onto the concrete, luckily I actually did not get hurt but it scared the poo out of me and in reality it was not the back full but the barani that caused it but to this day I am deathly afraid of back fulls. In addition it caused me to be fearful in general, my heart races before any skill. ( It is getting better now) but it was a combo of that mishap and uptraining new scary skills and a new level all at once, it was just too much. I think people develope fears for many reasons not just growth. I have also seen fearless kids become extermly fearful after some dumb little incident, also for no reason and I have seen kids majorly hurt themselves and come back with no fears. I think it has more root mentally than physically.

 

[jenniffir]

Well, kids that start gymnastics at a young age often do not understand what they are doing and this lack of acknowledgement of what truly may happen if a certain skill or drill is to go wrong. Gymnastics is a scary sport and there are many dangers, however, that being said, a little rationality about your abilities is always a welcomed trait. Gymnasts shouldnt back down from a task if it is well within their capabilities. For me i experience mental blocks with a skill that was difficult for me to perform, i.e. many drills and spotting before attemptiing it. This is usually something backwards, as i rarely have a fear of moving in a forward skill, but once i am able to overcome my fear i wont usually have a problem with that skill. For example, even after crashing into and onto the low bar twice in a straddle back i am still able to attempt it. I believe fear developes when there is a lack of confidence in the gymnast to the point that they doubt their abilities, of course there are gyms that would push the gymnast past their skill set and the gymnast fails at the attempt, this may cause a future mantal block. The pint is, if a gymnast is confident, aware of their abilities, and trust their coaches to asses their ability to perform new skill, there shouldnt be any fear.

 

[SuperGirlmlm]

I used to be a fearless beam worker, I still am, but I broke my wrist doing a back hand spring on it and fell off. Now, I'm scared to do them.