Helping your gymnasts deal with the fear of falling in a meet.
Channel: Gymnastics Mindset Academy
Date: 2023-02-16

Most gymnasts we talk to say things like

“I just want to compete how I practice”
“I always make it in practice and I can’t in a meet”
“I use the same cue words and it just doesn’t work”

What it really comes down to, is at practice, Falling is Fine.

They don’t want to fall, they still try not to fall… but in the end, if they do fall it is ok.

At a meet, falling is NOT fine. They believe that falling is bad and they shouldn’t ever fall.

Realistically, we know that you are going to fall sometimes at meets, even the highest level of athletes fall sometimes.

But our brain likes to believe that everyone else can, but WE can’t.

So what ends up happening is the gymnast is just focused on NOT falling the entire time. This creates a lot of internal pressure.

When they feel that pressure, they end up not being able to focus on their skills and what they actually need to do in order to do them well.

They are focused only on the outcome and “not falling”.

Therefore, in the end the gymnastics they do is not as good as they do in practice.

So try on the thought “falling is fine”. See if it allows you to release some of that internal pressure, and actually focus on your gymnastics.

Believing that falling is fine, is going to be what actually allows you to NOT fall in a meet :)