Parents Words of wisdom?

[Amanda]

Hi all. My daughter has been struggling a bit preparing for her Level 6 season for a number of reasons- primarily mental blocks with back tumbling. She has also had some medical stuff to deal with and a lot of change at the gym- and did I mention she's 13?! She's handled it pretty well. She puts a lot of of pressure on herself and she doesn't do well with the stress of a time table but mostly she has managed. She has had a very patient coach. She still really likes gym and at this point says she doesn't want to quit after the season but is really looking forward to working on skills without pressure. Anyway she was in a pretty good place for her mock meet tomorrow- taking a spot on her back tumbling (which is actually just her coach standing on the floor) and went ahead and switched to CW-CW for beam. But today she couldn't do her back pass at all and didn't finish the routine. Saturday mornings are always hard for her for tumbling- our gym is COLD and i think she is stiff. She came home a wreck. I mostly just let her cry and told her I loved her and am proud of her no matter what. Any words of wisdom for the morning? I have a feeling she is going to be very anxious. I was thinking about telling her that one of two good things could happen- either it comes together and she realizes she can do it even after a hard practice the day before (which would be great) or she isn't able to go for it, and she learns it's OK- that while disappointing, it isn't the end of the world, and she can go back to work on it! Thoughts? I hate the mental aspect of gym.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Don’t say anything and when you drop her off tell you love her, do her best and have fun.

she has a mental injury it heals when it heals..... less said the better.

 

[kendo348]

I think your plan sounds good. Turns it into a win-win!

 

[Getoutyall]

My daughter did level six last year and she has always had a mental thing about back tumbling If the floor is to hard. Well in her routine at one of her meets she only did the round off she balked on the back handspring. Finished the routine and scored an 8! I was surprised I mean she still scored like the lowest score of the meet but was surprised at the 8. So no the world shouldn’t end if she doesn’t do the tumbling.

 

[raenndrops]

It's OPTIONALS ... IF she leaves out a special requirement, she only loses the 0.5 Start Value. A coach standing on the floor would also cost 0.5 (bt/dt with 2 different gymnasts in Level 6 over the years). If there is a chance she won't throw it anyways, leave it out. Substitute a front pass - in Level 6, you can do that. In Level 5, they do FHS-stepout -FHS (to 2 feet) ... she could do FHS Stepout-FHS Stepout-Roundoff and not lose the SR.

Have her talk to the coach about alternatives. She can continue working the skills as her mental block allows, but no need to put pressure on herself to compete them until she is READY.

And lots of hugs.

 

[Amanda]

It's OPTIONALS ... IF she leaves out a special requirement, she only loses the 0.5 Start Value. A coach standing on the floor would also cost 0.5 (bt/dt with 2 different gymnasts in Level 6 over the years). If there is a chance she won't throw it anyways, leave it out. Substitute a front pass - in Level 6, you can do that. In Level 5, they do FHS-stepout -FHS (to 2 feet) ... she could do FHS Stepout-FHS Stepout-Roundoff and not lose the SR.

Have her talk to the coach about alternatives. She can continue working the skills as her mental block allows, but no need to put pressure on herself to compete them until she is READY.

And lots of hugs.

Really? I thought she had to do a back pass. (Obviously new to optionals as a Level 6) I think she might be able to do the pass you are suggesting- although she was planning to do FHS FT and the coach pulled the FHS because she was landing on her butt a bit and she was already stressing about the back pass. The level 5 pass FHS-stepout-FHS was good for her- although she also did RO BHS BT without too much trouble at the time.

Maybe I will have her ask after tomorrow's mock meet.

And thanks for the hugs!

 

[raenndrops]

Really? I thought she had to do a back pass. (Obviously new to optionals as a Level 6) I think she might be able to do the pass you are suggesting- although she was planning to do FHS FT and the coach pulled the FHS because she was landing on her butt a bit and she was already stressing about the back pass. The level 5 pass FHS-stepout-FHS was good for her- although she also did RO BHS BT without too much trouble at the time.

Maybe I will have her ask after tomorrow's mock meet.

And thanks for the hugs!

You are quite welcome. We have a lot of girls who have dealt with blocks and I became really good at coming up with alternatives that meet the requirements.

People tend to THINK a back pass is required in L6 because of the L5 ROBHSBT and the Level 7 Back layout requirement ... but they would be wrong ... and the Back Layout in Level 7 doesn't have to come out of a back handspring - I have seen Front tuck-Roundoff-Back layout and FHS Stepout-RO-BLO.

 

[Amanda]

For what it's worth, she went for it! I would have been proud of her either way!