DD's BHS fear

[Kiwi]

DD (8) is now training step 4 and they are learning RO-BHS (called round-off flic-flac over here). Recently I noticed she seemed to be having problems and even avoiding practicing them at training. She keeps bending her arms, even when she is trying to keep them straight. After talking about it with her, it seems the problem may be because one time when she was practising BHS off the end of the tumble-track onto a mat, she scraped her face on the end of the tumble-track. She now has fears about falling on her face.

My theory is that she is bending her arms because, subconsiously, she is trying to protect her face (even though, logically, keeping arms straight would protect your face better). Think about what you do if you suddenly need to protect your face - you throw up an arm across your face - I believe this is what is happening when she tries BHS. She is consciously telling herself to keep her arms straight, but another part of her brain is overriding the message. To DD, it feels like her body is not doing what she is telling it to do, as if it has a mind of its own. She is getting very frustrated and the continual failure is getting her down.

I am going to discuss this with her coaches, but just wondering if anyone here has ever experienced anything like this - as gymnast, coach or parent - and could share their insights.

 

[mustlovejumping]

This is actually almost exactly what I do. I have never hurt myself trying a bhs, but for some reason I always feel like I'm going to fall on my face so I bend my arms to "protect" it. It is extremely frustrating because, as you said, you keep thinking about keeping your arms straight, but your body won't do it. I know I always avoid working on bhs for this reason, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would also love to hear them.

 

[gymgal]

dd had a fear of BHS for a very long time. Any back tumbling frightens her. The only think that helped was having a coach work one-on-one with her spotting her until she was comfortable doing it alone. It was a long time at each spotting level (full support, light support, touch, no support but right there, 1 ft away.... you get the idea). And for a long time after she got it, she had to have the coach spot the first few she did then she was fine the rest of the rotation. Same happened with her back tuck and now with layout. Definitely talk with the coach. I am sure she/he will have ideas.

 

[mayestra12]

Funny. I was about to post a similar question. My dd does the same thing. I watched her do one with a light spot and it looked good. The coach let her go on her own and she immediately bent her arms. She landed on her head / face. It seems as soon as the coach stops spotting she bends her arms. Ugh. She really wants to get this skill so she can move up to L4 at the end of the season.

 

[Kiwi]

Yes, she seems to be okay doing it when the coach is there virtually holding her up! It helps to know this has happened to others.

 

[Danica76]

My DD also has a fear of the BHS - she scraped her face on the floor over the summer after having it pretty solidly on her own. She is still trying to get the confidence to throw it herself. The interesting thing is that when she does it onto the resi, it looks beautiful, but the minute she takes it to the floor, she bends her arms (sometimes, it all depends on the day). I had never thought that she was trying to protect herself! Great insight on your part. She has her second meet tomorrow and will probably need to have a spot on the RO-BHS in her floor routine (kills her score completely). She has also told me that she tells her body to keep her arms straight and by her ears, but that it doesn't "listen to her". I wonder if this is vestibular (thanks CB community for teaching me about this)? She will be 8 in ten days.

 

[2gymbratz]

Sometimes they bend their arms out of fear or habit. But, sometimes it's lack of upper body strength. I know we had a couple girls this year that were doing the same thing but it was because they were not finishing their round off and then trying to go into the BHS. We always stress that a good round off = a good BHS. If she has the strength and good round off, I would say it is all fear. It is something that the coach and her will just have to keep working on. She will get it! Just remind her that bending her arms is going to make it a lot easier to hit her head or face on the floor. Keeping a nice tight body is going to make the skill so much easier for her. Good Luck!!

 

[Kiwi]

I thought I would update this. It took a long time, but a few weeks ago she finally got her BHS on the tumble-track without a spot and had been working on improving those for the past few weeks. Once they can do that, the coach gets them doing it on the floor onto the pit mat. Again DD would just collapse in a heap through fear, so her coach worked with her spotting with a gradually lighter spot. I think it is a combination of the subconcious fear and the brain having to get used to doing them and learn that it is okay, and also how and when to push into your arms so that they don't bend. She also recently started working on connecting RO to BHS on the tumble-track. It was really bothering her that she was the only one in her group who still couldn't do the RO-BHS onto the pit mat.

Yesterday her coach told her to try a RO-BHS onto the pit mat by herself and she did it!!!! She did about six of them! They weren't pretty but she did them with straight arms and landing on her feet. I was sitting with two other gym mums in the corner and we all got excited for her! Of course there is still a way to go until she is doing them nicely on the floor, but I'm so proud of the progress she has made.

 

[cazoon]

I used to be scared of them. Just have a coach spot her until she is comfortable and then have her try it herself on a soft surface.