Mental Gymnastics

As I am progressing to more difficult exercises and variations I am becoming increasingly aware of the mental part of gymnastics training. The mind is a powerful thing and can be a major help or hindrance in achieving physical goals. Watching gymnasts preform at the very highest level of physical strength and in such a calm and collected manner is truly a sight to behold. In static held positions I am much better at keeping myself calm and focused but when I do more dynamic exercises I have a real problem. I have been doing all kinds of flips for almost a year now and have gotten good at them but it still scares the shit out of me. It is the same for back handsprings, I can drop backwards into a bridge then into a handstand moving slowly with control but I still hate doing back handsprings. It is not from lack of traning because I do these even though I do not like to. There is some mental barier that I need to break and it is just not happening. I would love to hear from coaches experience with his athletes and anyone else who went through something like this.

Andrew

An interesting post. I don't know why it hasn't got a single answer. I would love to hear others experiences too especially on the back handspring topic.

norbeex3 said:

An interesting post. I don't know why it hasn't got a single answer. I would love to hear others experiences too especially on the back handspring topic.

Because there has been at least 2 similar threads to this previously posted

You need to learn to love what you do. Think of the exhiliration you feel when you do one of your favorite flips, one of the ones that makes you feel great. Get to know the back handspring, back flip, everything else you do in the same way. Actively practise the stuff you love and remember those feelings. Then try to put those feelings into the back handspring. Focus on loving the perfect flow of motion, the bending, use those good feelings as proof that your body knows what to do, and focus purely on the joy of the movement.

This doesn't happen quickly, it takes constant work, but this is how you do it. This is how I learned to weave between punches as the gloves brushed my ears or the tips of my buzz cut, to be as close as possible, to have no wasted movement. At first it was scary but through slow and consistent practice I learned to love the feeling of doing it just right, and I became almost unhittable. You can use the same kind of mental training for anything. Even learning to love homework

Sorry I didn't find a thread similar to this, that's why I wrote here.

I think you're right slizzard. I'll try and do it more often to condition my mind to the flips. It's not the motion of the flip what scares me(I love the motion), it's the surface, that I might make a mistake and fall down. Thank you for responding.