Scared that she will be scared

[kasmom]

My daughter has been doing a back tuck for quite a while now. She has been going through periods of fear. One day she may have no trouble at all. The next day she may freak out after her back handspring and not do her tuck. So, now she is constantly worried about what will happen the next time she goes to gym. She doesn't know if she will be scared or not until she does it. I told her she is wasting too much time worrying about the what-ifs. She worries even more if they do not work on tumbling one night at gym. What can I say to her to calm her nerves? I think her worrying is only making matters worse.

 

[Shane]

Worrying does make it worse on her part, I think. She has more of a chance of getting hurt if she "freaks out" or stalls during the back tuck, instead of going for it all the way. What you and her need to do is trust the coaches at the gym. And it doesn't hurt to let the coaches know about this issue, if they don't know already.

The best way to get over this fear is to just keep doing them. The more she does correctly, the more comfortable she will feel doing them. The coaches should be able to tailor her training to make it less scary for her (i.e. by spotting her, doing them into a pit, etc.).

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Okay take my opinion with a grain of salt please I'm just a fairly new gym mom, lol. DDs coach told me at one point when dd was having fear issues around her back walkover (they switched her leg when she moved to this gym) that when fear is an issue they back up and have them do it on an easier piece of equipment. So when it;s beam they move to the lowest beam or the gymnova, on tumbling they move to the tumble track or rod floor, etc. So maybe if she could practice the back hand spring back tuck on the tumble track and when the fear is no longer an issue, move to the floor.

Good luck to your dd!

 

[kasmom]

The problem is that she doesn't know if she has fear or not, until she runs and does her roundoff back handspring. Some days she has no issues at all. Other days, she freaks out. When she freaks out she can't do it anywhere. She will do it with a spot, but that's it. She has been doing her tuck for over 2 years now so it's not a new skill. She even had her layout really good at one time. She thought she was over all of her fear issues this past summer but a couple of months ago it came back. It's not always there though. One day last week she did around 15 tumbling passes and did her back tuck everytime. Another day, she couldn't make herself do it no matter what. She did it last night with no issues, but she is still nervous about what will happen the next time she tries. She knows that she can get hurt if she freaks out. I just don't know what I can say to make her quit worrying about this.

 

[PureTalent]

Oh man, that's a tough one. It's so hard when they get this fear in their head and if it comes and goes too, no less. So it seems as if she has this fear on the floor we're talking about right? (not the beam?). So what if she does it on the tumble track too.....same fear? Or is the fear only when it's time to do it on the floor?

All I can say is patience. However you say she does it a bunch of times, then fear, and back and forth. I know this sounds silly but would you consider taking her to a sports psycologist? I'm only asking....cuz a girl at our gym had this fear of the vault. It was only level 5 but she started having this fear. But it was inconsistent. The parents took her to one, to get into her mental mind and it seemed to work. I have no experience with that, but just heard about it and wanted to ask.

Good luck and hope she gets through it. They usually all do. It's just a matter of time and patience.

P.S. I just thought of something else too. Would you ever consider taking her to a different gym to see if she has those same fears? I ask cuz another higher level girl started getting scared doing alot of things that she normally would do with no problems. She was at this gym for a LOOONG time. Parents decided the only thing to try and do was to switch the environment....meaning see how she does at a new gym with new coaches. She is now doing better and don't have those fears at all. For this girl, she maybe needed a change of things for whatever reason....? But just thought of that too and wanted to mention it.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

coincidence.^^^ the issue is vestibular.

 

[PureTalent]

coincidence.^^^ the issue is vestibular.

ah, that's interesting. My one other DD had/has SID and she had alot of problems doing certain things (not gym related) and her OT therapists said it had to do with vestibular / body awareness . OT helped her in lots of ways but still has some issues/fear in doing certain things. Hmn....very interesting......

 

[kasmom]

Dunno--Is this something that will get better over time? She is 8 years old.

PureTalent-- When she has fear, it doesn't matter what surface she is doing it on, floor or tumble track. I don't know of a sports psychologist in our area and there is no other gym. She would never leave her gym anyway.

 

[bogwoppit]

Kasmom, here is a link to a post that sums up the vestibular thing.

http://www.chalkbucket.com/forums/question-answer/33931-what-vestibular-talk.html

 

[Deleted member D3987]

if it is handled appropriately by the coaches, yes, she can outgrow it. and she is 8, you more likely than not will have a long and frustrating road ahead. patience is key. and letting her know that this issue is just 1 of many that divers and gymnasts encounter. that it is PERFECTLY NORMAL. and she understands that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HER.

and forget the sports psycho, hypnotism, taro cards, etc; it's vestibular. a part of the body. it must mature more in others. comes with time.

 

[CoachGoofy]

8 year olds are growing. When you're growing your body feels like it's in the wrong place (which is more proprioception) and then you move it around and it's like OMG WHERE IN THE AIR AM I! I CAN'T FIND MY FEET ACK!

(inside view of vestibular issues!)

 

[sleeping judy]

This happened to my daughter with the back handspring. It started just after she started doing them with nice form. She had a growth spurt and because her form had gotten better she had more power and speed. She also watched a friend go through this issue all last year and it was debilitating to this other girl. My dd started freaking out and stopping right after her roundoff or landing on her butt. The girls would then try to get her to do it by all cheering. This resulted in lots of fears and tears for a couple of weeks.

I'm glad I came here to research because I found it was vestibular and very common. I had a talk with her coaches and we took her back a couple of steps. We told my dd that it happens to lots of people and that it wasn't a big deal. I said she would get it back and gymnastics was about getting skills and losing skills and it would come back eventually. We completely took the pressure off of her by not focusing on it and if she wanted a spot she got a spot. If she wanted the coach to stand there, the coach stood there. I also stopped watching for a while because it was stressing me out. I swear taking that pressure off of her really eased her mind and even if she wasn't doing the back handspring she was doing much better in the gym mentally.

So, time and patience.

 

[kasmom]

One thing that I'm glad I did is I finally allowed her to begin piano lessons this year. It gives her something to do to get her mind off of gymnastics. I think it has been a good diversion.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

what a great gift! ^^^