WAG Anyone use any of the Dr. Ali materials?

[kayjaybe]

Dd, age 12, has been struggling with fear issues. She is trying to get to L7 (competed old L5 2 years ago, old L6 a year ago, and new L5 this past year, mostly due to fear of giant and BWO-BHS beam combo, which is required at our gym to go to L7.)

She is still having fear on these 2 skills. I've seen her do them with a very minimal spot, so it isn't an ability thing....it is completely fear. She says she is afraid she will fall and never get back up.

I was looking at the Dr. Ali materials that I accessed from a link on this site. Have any of you used them and were they helpful? Which ones did you use? What did you like/not like about them? How old was your gymnast when she used them?

My dd really loves gym and wants to succed, but she is so frustrated with her lack of progress and fear issues. I think her coaches are excellent in training her body, but not sure they focus as much as she needs on training the mind.

Any experience with this or any other program would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[profmom]

I think Dr. Ali's program is great and DD benefited from it, but I gotta tell you that if it's vestibular, she's just going to have to outgrow it. There is no magic bullet for the BWO-BHS thing, so the best thing to do is dial down the stakes and encourage her to stick with it and do them where and how she can until she's ready to get them up on the high beam. You have my complete and utter sympathy. DD is now 13 and not quite out on the other side of this one.

 

[kayjaybe]

Thanks, profmom.

Not sure if it is vestibular or not. She does the BWO on high beam - competed it all last year. I've seen her do the BHS on high beam a few times and does it pretty comfortably on a cranked down beam. It is putting the 2 of them together.

She has not "developed" at all yet. Not sure if the vestibular relates to that.

What product(s) from Dr. Ali did you use? I'm thinking the video series with workbook rather than the online "camp." That way she'd have the stuff and could look back at it in the future if she wanted to.

 

[LizzieLac]

The one thing that I would say about the Doc Ali material is the gymnast has to be "open" to this kind of exploration. My DD read several of the articles and I got her the audio series "train your mind" (although might be called something else I can't remember. And, honestly, she was just not that bought in (you know the phrase "psycho-babble"). She didn't say that, but I could tell she was not convinced that visualizing, counting, or trigger words really had merit.

My son, on the other hand listened to the audio and was able to successfully use some for batting. His mechanics were/are excellent but he went through a small slump, that you know how it starts out as one bad game and who knows where it will head...? Well, he was able to come out of that slump pretty quickly and went on to a fantastic batting average. He was more "open" to the possibility that he needed to get him mind to contribute to his success, it wasn't all physical.

Anyway, the other thing one of our coaches has been able to to do successful, is bring things down and ask for parts of skills. And when DD was struggling with BHS on beam (and our gym does not believe in spotting) she eventually gave her a spot for two weeks and it helped tremendously. Sometimes, the coaches need approach their coaching differently to help a kid with fears. I believe this wholeheartedly.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Doc Ali is here on CB. Several of my kids use her, yes.

 

[profmom]

DD used the web camp, which was a very nice program. I agree with LizzieLac; for this to work, the motivation and investment should be coming from the child, not from a parent who is trying to push the child to solve the problem.

I am pretty sure my DD's issue was/is vestibular. She was the first one in her group to get a handstand-BHS on beam (after learning to do both independently plus the BWO independently), but then she lost it and nearly drove herself, her coaches, and her mother crazy by not being able to do it on the high beam. For almost.two.solid.freaking.years. She competed BWO-BWO for two years without a hitch, but could not throw the BHS connected to a HS before it to save her life on the high beam. She finally moved on from the skill this summer and is still having some trouble with the BWO-BHS on the high beam, but I am feeling like she's just over the hump on this and the trouble she's having now is more related to her having grown 1 1/4" since the end of June. (And puberty is still off in the distance somewhere for her.)

Patience, patience, patience, and as much disinvestment in her getting or not getting this skill as you can humanly muster. If she is looking for tools to solve the problem, your job is just to make them available, not to use them for her. So if she thinks that trying some psychological techniques will help her, there's no real down side except the money, but be aware that it may not solve the issue for her. It may help her to cope with her frustration though.

 

[kayjaybe]

Yes, I totally get what you are both saying, Lizze & prof. I was looking for tools to offer her, if she wants, because she would never think that something like that was available.

I mentioned them to her this AM and said we could take a look at the website in the next few days or so to see if she might like to try it. She seemed very interested in checking them out.

I'm very low pressure with her. I've told her I want gymnastics to be fun for her and that it is HER sport and HER journey, not mine. If she wants to take a break, quit, whatever. That is up to her and I support her. She's my kid - I love watching her whatever she does, whether it is gymnastics or playing an instrument or just goofing around in the pool with friends.

But I know she wants so badly to get past this and is just feeling so lost. We'll see if any of these tools might help her, if she likes the look/sound of them from the website.

 

[gasrgoose]

Patience, patience, patience, and as much disinvestment in her getting or not getting this skill as you can humanly muster. If she is looking for tools to solve the problem, your job is just to make them available, not to use them for her. So if she thinks that trying some psychological techniques will help her, there's no real down side except the money, but be aware that it may not solve the issue for her. It may help her to cope with her frustration though.

^^^^^ This, especially the part in bold. It's so hard when you want your kid to get past this. But it has to come from the kid.
The good news is it can be overcome and conquered. But the key is to let it happen at her pace. You don't want to push her and have her completely stop going backwards. Once a kid completely stops going backwards it is generally time for a new sport.