Training through Fear

Gymnastics is a funny sport.  Like most sports your training time struggle is finding a balance of endurance training, strength training, mental training, and actual skill building.  It’s the vicious cycle of getting strong enough to do the skills, having enough endurance to maintain those skills, while making sure you are mentally prepared to attempt those skills and if any of those don’t align, there is a good chance that you will not be successful.

One of the biggest obstacles we face as gymnastics coaches is helping the athlete that is afraid, let’s face it gymnastics is a scary sport and definitely not for the faint of heart.  Fear comes from all sorts of places, sometimes the athlete has been pushed too soon, sometimes it’s due to an injury that occurred or they have fear of a new skill, and every now and then fear just shows up for what seems like no reason at all, even in skills that the gymnast has done hundreds of times previously.  
 

Personally my biggest struggle is helping the athlete that was forced through fear or told to “just do it” without ever actually addressing their fear.  I’m talking about the kid that was told to ignore their fear and do the skill because coach said so, a parent said so, or they were simply being threatened, all of which were likely before the athlete was mentally ready.  Maybe they successfully practiced or even compete that skill under those circumstances, but I have found that’s a short term effect that eventually we have to go back and re-learn.
 

So, how do we battle fear?  Sometimes this seems impossible especially when you are the parent or coach trying to help the athlete.  Often we can grow frustrated and sometimes think that the athlete just doesn’t want to get over it; sometimes that is the case, but there are some things we can do to get through this together.
 

Address the fear.  We all have fear, it’s part of life, and everyone faces fear differently, but what if we vocalized it when we were afraid rather than try to hide it?   If we had a process for dealing with our fear rather than shutting down or hiding from it, we might all be more successful.  A lot of kids won’t tell you when they are afraid, they will go to the bathroom when it’s time for that skill or have an injury that stops them from participating, both of which are easier for them than actually saying the words “I’m scared”.  I sat through a psychology session  not that long ago where the doctor gave us a great coaching tip for working with fearful kids.  Kids with fear will often tell us “I want to do it, but I am afraid” what if we change that?  What if we tell them to say “I want to do it and I am afraid”, that brings a new outlook on that sentence.  We have taken the excuse out, fear is part of the skill and just like correcting physical form; like pointing toes and squeezing legs, we have to correct the mental state of the athlete.  

Imagine if in your regular adult day when faced with a tough problem someone stood next to you and scolded you for being stressed or frustrated, told you to get over it and got mad at you when you didn’t or worse, threatened you if you didn’t deal with it, I’m guessing not many of us would put up with that for very long nor would we be able to handle the issue productively.   
 

Confidence is fears biggest enemy.  Confident people do not let fear control them, think about famous confident people we know, for example Simone Biles, think she gets afraid?  She certainly does things that warrant fear; being on a stage in front of millions and doing skills that have never been done before, yet you never see her fears.  Confidence is key.  She is so secure in what she is doing, and trusts her training so much that she doesn’t have time for fear to control her or her actions.

So how do we create confidence?
 

Success builds confidence.  If we continue to stand in fear waiting for the courage to do a skill the only thing that we have practiced is not doing the skill.  It is our responsibility as coaches and parents to help our children be successful and sometimes that means taking them back to the last place that they felt success, back to a different mat, a different platform, or maybe even just back to a drill, something they can do without feeling that fear.  If they do not feel success they will never feel confident.
 

Make a plan that the athlete has control over.  Everyone’s fear has it’s own timeline just like every skill has it’s own magic number; the number of times you try it before you get it, so we; coach, mom, teammate, can’t make a plan for our athlete and expect it to work, it has to be their plan and they have to have ownership over it.  We can help guide, we can provide reason and realism; especially since most of our kids have never had to do this before, but they have to be the one that comes up with what they are doing.  Have them build a timeline, “when do you want to have this skill by?” and make sure it’s a realistic answer, you probably both want it right now, but that’s just setting everyone up for failure.  Fear takes time to conquer so be patient.  Once you have a timeline in place they need to fill in the weeks/days/practices in between with work; i/e. Week 1 - I will do 10 backbend double leg kick overs at every practice to prepare for my back handspring, Week 2 - I will do 15 back handsprings over the octagon at every practice to prepare for my back handspring, etc. until you reach that final week where they are doing that back handspring.   It is very important that they know their plan and that they believe in their plan, they have to hold themselves accountable for the work that they have mapped out.  And when they finally get that skill, no matter how big or small, CELEBRATE!!