Coaches Fear of backhandspring-back tuck

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Mirrored from: http://www.chalkbucket.com/forums/parent-forum/29701-scared-dd.html

Recently, Liv has started a fear of RO BHS backtuck. She has had it for a little over 3 months now, and it is one of the skills she has for level 6. When she first got it, she was not scared of it...not even a tiny bit. Now all of a sudden, she is scared of them...a reason even she does not know of. I know I should stay out of this kind of stuff, and just let her coach see what the problem is, but its hard to when she comes home really frusterated, and sometimes even cries. She tells me that a voice in her head says dont do it! and she ends up not doing it. She also waits a long time before she goes. To help boost her confidence, I told her to write all positive stuff on a page, and how she can do it. She reads it alot, but it still dosnt help...
She has also told me that this little fear thing is not only with that, but with flyaways, and other skills. She is just so frusterated..I dont want her to end up quiting gym because of that little voice in her head!
Has your DD been in the same situation? What did she do to help boost her confidence?

We've all seen this happen to a number of girls. What methods have you used to combat this very common issue?

 

[gymdog]

Working on timing in both parts - RO BHS set and back tucks separately (preferably from a bounce so there is height).

Also for some kids they can get some confidence doing just the BHS BT - ideally on tumble track, but with a spot elsewhere. It is not quite the same with speed and height of course but I've found for some it helps them just get comfortable with the connection, then we can move to standing two BHS BT, then standing RO BHS BT, then go from the run.

They can also come up with a timing trick. I think the simple one is just one, two, three, four for the rhythm of the RO BHS (hands one, feet two, hands three, feet four) then "stretch" "look" "land". If they always think the same things for every drill and turn, it keeps them from thinking different things and going out of control.

When I start to see a kid waiting a long time, even if they are still eventually going, I tend to move them back to drills or broken down parts. I think a lot of fear management is intervening early before it gets out of control. And when a kid is overthinking they may balk which can lead to injuries and pretty much be the nail in the coffin. I try to make it pretty much clear to the kids that I need to see confidence in any skill or they won't be attempting it or moving on. Of course some need those little pushes and obviously you use your discretion there. But I think there's a lot of motivation in itself because I will move them on when I see confidence so they all want to move on.