Eliminating fear in gymnasts

Hi All,

Today I’m going to talk a little bit about fear. Well, mostly about fear coming from never “felt” something before. Have you ever had a kid say “that feels weird!” to you? Or been afraid of something because it feels a little too different? My general philosophy is to get kids used to the way TONS of different things feel. That way it may not totally eliminate the fear factor, but it definitely helps mitigate it.

This first video is of jump 1/4 turns on beam. I love this skill. And 1/2 turns and 1/1 turns. I know several gyms who make their gymnasts do all of these during warm-up both ways (sometimes on low beam). But I think its fantastic. You don’t have the pressure of adding a shape to the jump. But you are getting your gymnasts used to landing a bunch of different ways from two different directions. It builds their confidence and their awareness. Even though it “feels weird” it will be good for them in the long run.

This second video is of a lovely pirouette drill. I find that a lot of gymnasts feel that pirouettes especially coming from giants feel weird even more so when you take away the spot. This drill may feel weird at first but it helps your kids 1) fix their shapes and 2) know that they are really doing the majority of the skill.

train hard!

Eliminating fear in gymnasts

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