WAG Back Tuck Mental Block

[everydaygymnastics]

Hi

I am working on my back tuck and I have a mental block. My coaches told me to do a standing tuck into the pit, and they spotted me, but I am scared to do it because I am scared I will hit my head, even though I have done a back tuck into the pit before. Any tips?

 

[ProudGymnast]

I too was scared of those at one point. Confidence will come with experience which helps with knowing where you are in space, giving you assurance you won't hit your head. Take it slow. I like to use numbers, I tell my gymnasts with bad mental blocks to warm up where you have a 10 confidence level, do most reps where you are a 7 or 8, and briefly touch at the end your 5 or 6.

Example: 3 back tuck set to your back on a resi for your 10, 5 backtucks with a spot for 7, and 2 backtucks by yourself for your 6, for 10 in total. Tack on more to the 5 or 6 if you are feeling confident that day, and move up as your 6s become 7s or 8s.

I find by focusing on your more confident zones first you build confidence and trust in your abilities for the harder tasks later. This seems really slow progression wise, but I have just found for myself and others it creates rock-solid, confident skills. It sure fares better than the bail-go-bail-bail-go approach where you are throwing yourself into skills you aren't ready for and rushing the process.

 

[superNova08]

Without knowing more, it's hard to give solid advice. Some questions I ask are:
- Have you had a bad experience with a back tuck before?
- What lead-up drills have you done?
- What scares you the most?

Once I know these things, it's easier to help. Using what I know about your situation, it sounds like you may just be getting too into your head. I have a trick that I've used since, like, forever that my old coach taught me. I ask whoever is spotting and/or watching me to give me a number, I count upwards in multiples using that number. If it's too easy, only to every other multiple.

If you want to share more about your situation, I might be able to help more.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Can you do a back tuck on trampoline? If not, can you do a back drop pullover on trampoline? If not, can you do a back drop? Can you do a backward roll of the edge of a mat into a pit?

In general terms here's what's happening with a mental block:

Your brain has something called the limbic system which deals with basic survival drives. The limbic system's main purpose is to take control when your immediate survival is threatened. A mental block occurs when -- for whatever reason -- your limbic system decides that a particular skill or category of skills is a survival threat. The rest of your brain might reasonably and logically know that you'll probably be fine, but the limbic system doesn't deal in reason or logic.

So how do you deal with this? Patience. Break the skill down into components, try to find the component that scares you, and work that component in the safest manner you can.

Is it the going backwards part that scares you, or is it the inversion? Do some backward rolls and see how you feel. Then backward rolls off the edge of a block into the pit. Then pullovers to front drop on trampoline. Then Back drops into the pit. Then back drops onto a wedge mat and immediate backward roll. etc, etc, etc.

The idea is to break the skill down into parts as small as possible until you find the smallest possible part that you're blocked on, and then work on that in an absurdly easy and non-threatening way, and work your way back up from there.

Try your best to avoid situations which make you feel stressed or afraid about the skill; stress and fear are what feed the limbic system.

 

[estamey21]

So how do you deal with this? Patience. Break the skill down into components, try to find the component that scares you, and work that component in the safest manner you can.

Just to add: the strategies recommended by @Geoffrey Taucer follow the principals of "exposure therapy," which is a kind of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The goal of CBT is to dismantle thought patterns that are irrational, disturbing, and nonproductive.

 

[everydaygymnastics]

Without knowing more, it's hard to give solid advice. Some questions I ask are:
- Have you had a bad experience with a back tuck before?
- What lead-up drills have you done?
- What scares you the most?

Once I know these things, it's easier to help. Using what I know about your situation, it sounds like you may just be getting too into your head. I have a trick that I've used since, like, forever that my old coach taught me. I ask whoever is spotting and/or watching me to give me a number, I count upwards in multiples using that number. If it's too easy, only to every other multiple.

If you want to share more about your situation, I might be able to help more.

I didn’t have a bad experience before, and I have done back tucks with a spot back tucks sets onto the resi, and i have done a few back tucks before, but it was a long time ago. When I do a standing tuck into the pit, I fell like I am going to hit my head, but when I do a round off back tuck, or a round off back handspring back tuck, I don’t do for it. I have tried doing a round off back tuck into the pit, but I end up just flying backwards and i forget what to do after setting. I know I need to rotate, but my brain won’t let me do it.

 

[everydaygymnastics]

Can you do a back tuck on trampoline? If not, can you do a back drop pullover on trampoline? If not, can you do a back drop? Can you do a backward roll of the edge of a mat into a pit?

In general terms here's what's happening with a mental block:

Your brain has something called the limbic system which deals with basic survival drives. The limbic system's main purpose is to take control when your immediate survival is threatened. A mental block occurs when -- for whatever reason -- your limbic system decides that a particular skill or category of skills is a survival threat. The rest of your brain might reasonably and logically know that you'll probably be fine, but the limbic system doesn't deal in reason or logic.

So how do you deal with this? Patience. Break the skill down into components, try to find the component that scares you, and work that component in the safest manner you can.

Is it the going backwards part that scares you, or is it the inversion? Do some backward rolls and see how you feel. Then backward rolls off the edge of a block into the pit. Then pullovers to front drop on trampoline. Then Back drops into the pit. Then back drops onto a wedge mat and immediate backward roll. etc, etc, etc.

The idea is to break the skill down into parts as small as possible until you find the smallest possible part that you're blocked on, and then work on that in an absurdly easy and non-threatening way, and work your way back up from there.

Try your best to avoid situations which make you feel stressed or afraid about the skill; stress and fear are what feed the limbic system.

I am not scared to go backwards that much, and I know I probably won’t hit my head, but that is what I am scared of. Also, when I am going to go for my back tuck, my body forgets what to do and I don’t rotate.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I am not scared to go backwards that much, and I know I probably won’t hit my head, but that is what I am scared of. Also, when I am going to go for my back tuck, my body forgets what to do and I don’t rotate.

If you have access to a trampoline, I would work 3/4 back progressions. Here's a rough outline (note that wherever I have skills marked with letters, those are to be trained in parallel):

1) BWD roll on floor
2) BWD extension roll on floor
3a) BWD extension roll on a soft mat, fall to front drop
3b) Back drop on trampoline
4a) Back drop on trampoline, flip over to front drop
4b) Standing BHS to flat belly on soft mat
5) 3/4 back salto to front drop on soft mat
6) 3/4 back salto to front drop on trampoline
7) Back tuck on trampoline

Odds are you'll run into your mental block on one of these; see which one, and that will inform us how to break it down further.

 

[everydaygymnastics]

If you have access to a trampoline, I would work 3/4 back progressions. Here's a rough outline (note that wherever I have skills marked with letters, those are to be trained in parallel):

1) BWD roll on floor
2) BWD extension roll on floor
3a) BWD extension roll on a soft mat, fall to front drop
3b) Back drop on trampoline
4a) Back drop on trampoline, flip over to front drop
4b) Standing BHS to flat belly on soft mat
5) 3/4 back salto to front drop on soft mat
6) 3/4 back salto to front drop on trampoline
7) Back tuck on trampoline

Odds are you'll run into your mental block on one of these; see which one, and that will inform us how to break it down further.

Ok thank you! I will do these on the trampoline