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Anonymous (506c)
DD (training L5) has been working on her beam BWO, but is scared to move it to the high beam. When she goes for it, she does it very solidly on the low and medium beams. She says she’s not scared of it per se, but that her body just won’t go. Her beam coach has put a lot of direct pressure on her to do it, which DD hates. The coach would also never stand close or spot her and threatened to keep her at L4. This coach just got moved to coach optionals and at her last practice with DD’s group DD ended up crying because she was scared to move it to the high beam and wasn’t allowed to work on anything else. Now this week the new beam coach started. First practice DD did it on the low beam once and then asked to do it on low beam again and the new coach said “No, you did it once on low beam, you need to move it up.” DD tried to advocate for herself and tell the coach that she does better when she can work at her own pace, but the coach said no. DD was told the only thing she was allowed to work on was the BWO on the medium beam so she spent the rest of the rotation crying. DD hates crying in front of anyone and has never cried at practice before these two recent practices. She also is neurodivergent and her particular neurotype has a tendency to react to demands with a “flight or fight” type response. She has dealt with minor fears on a few skills before (with different coaches) and she was allowed to go at her own pace with support from the coach and once she got them they were never a problem again. I understand she needs the BWO for L5, but we still have three months before our first competition so it seems like they could back off the pressure a bit. Then again, I’m not a coach. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!