Overcoming Fears and Mental Blocks

Fears and metal blocks are very common in gymnastics. Every gymnast gets scared to do something at some point in time, but it's the way that the gymnast handles her fears that determines whether or not she will overcome the mental challenge. There are a few things that I have come up with that had helped me with my fears in the past. 


1. The People You Surround Yourself With

Take a look at your surroundings. Do you feel that everyone around you is fearful or anxious? Do many of your teammates have fears or mental blocks? This may be a factor that is contributing to your fears or mental blocks. 

In my gymnastics career, I have been at five different gyms, and I have noticed that the number of gymnasts who have fears or mental blocks varies. For example, at my previous gym, there was only one gymnast who had fear problems in my group. In the gym I go to now, ninety-percent of the gymnasts in my group has a fear problem. It makes me wonder if fears and mental blocks come not because of the gymnast's personality, like many believe, rather because of the gymnast's surroundings the people that the gymnast is surrounded by, such as coaches, teammates, parents, friends, etc. 


2. Your Mindset

Contemplate your mindset. Do you look at every new skill as something you've never done before? Or do you relate previous experiences and skills that you already have to a new skill? 

One trick I use to get myself to do virtually any new skill is relate the new thing I'm about to do with a past experience I have already done. For example, when I first attempted a straddled Jaeger on Bars, I told myself it's like a straddle back, but I wait longer on the bar and flip all the way around. Before I realized this connection, I was very nervous to attempt the skill. After having this realization, I got up on the bar and was very confident in my ability to attempt the straddled Jaeger, and my first try was better than I expected!

I find making connections like this helps me a lot when it comes to going for and being confident about trying new skills.


3. Your Thought Process

Think about what you're afraid of in your thought process before going for the skill. Is there a valid reason to be afraid? Or are you over thinking? 

If you believe that your fear is valid, you should talk to someone. I find talking to people that listen help me think, and I think having someone like that will help you as well. Talking will help you come up with a solution. 

If you don't want to talk to someone, try journaling. Start with, "I am afraid of [this skill] because..." Then go on to, "I can come up with a solution by..." And try to come up with more than one solution. 

If you believe that your fear is due to over thinking, then try changing the way you think about the skill like I talked about in Tip 2. 


4. Visualization

Visualization is a way for you to practice skills mentally. If you're able to visualize the skill that you're afraid of doing in your mind, you are definitely capable of doing it in real life. Visualization has helped me tremendously with overcoming fears, and I've written an entire blog post about it here. 


5. Your Feelings

Think about how you feel. Having a fear or mental block can be quite frustrating mentally taxing at times. Now think about a time where you overcame your fear. How did that feel like? 

I get nervous to do a skill that I have never done before, but I always go for it. For me, the feeling of overcoming my nervousness feels much better than giving in to it. I also like to think about how good I will feel to overcome a skill that I am scared to do. 



My old teammates and I at a meet a few years ago.


Hopefully this helps you in overcoming your fears. If you're looking for more resources, this blog post for overcoming mental blocks is really good: http://tumblingcoach.com/blog/mental-blocks-formula/. 

Comment below a time when you were able to overcome a fear and how you did it. Thanks for reading!

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