Despite having a program that uses solid progressions, pays attention to fine details, has a strong grasp of technique, and teaches skills that the athletes are properly conditioned for, mental blocks will inevitably still occur. They can be extremely frustrating for both the athlete and the coach and can sometimes lead to the end of a talented athlete’s career. And while mental blocks are almost always a specific fear that isn’t easily identifiable, an athlete will rarely be able to self-diagnose what will help them regain their confidence to be able to go for the skill again.
The saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is certainly valid when dealing with mental blocks and its true the best way to handle them is to prevent them by having a solid program that uses skill specific conditioning and employs coaches who understand and use proper progressions. However, this is not a fool proof method of preventing mental blocks. When they inevitably occur, the following tips are to help the athlete and coach maintain a working relationship while navigating through the mental block.
1. Be Patient
As soon as it becomes evident that the mental block will take some time to overcome, a patient attitude should be adopted by the coach. The athlete should be made aware that the coach is going to consistently stay patient and hopefully adopt the same attitude and have patience with themselves as well. This aims to lower the anxiety that fuels the mental block. The lower the anxiety, the more likely the athlete will be able to overcome the mental block more quickly.
2. Communicate
Communication with the parents should be made as soon as a mental block begins to impede an athlete’s progress. If the parents are heavily involved with their athlete’s sport, they will need to know that their patience (and not pressure) is needed. Many well-meaning parents will offer some type of reward or incentive to encourage their child to overcome the mental block. This is not recommended. It is important for the athlete to decide to do the skill when they feel ready and not before. The athlete will then have the confidence to know they are capable of doing the skill on their own without an extra incentive that will likely not be repeated should they lose their confidence again.
3. Be ready to adjust expectations
The path the athlete was on may be interrupted and that’s ok. The mental block may take less than a week, but it also could take months. Most coaches and athletes begin to fixate on the mental block and the pressure they feel from any upcoming deadlines. Instead, they should take a step back and adjust their expectations and their focus to what can be done today to get closer to their goals and not the pressure they may feel from a deadline in the future.
4. Analyze/diagnose
Since an attitude of patience has been implemented and expectations have been adjusted, it is time to systematically overcome the mental block. This is where having proper progressions for a program become extremely important. If an athlete is willing to do the first, second and third progression for a skill but not the fourth, they should work their way through the progressions they are willing to do on a day-to-day basis with a pre-set number of repetitions. It’s important to let them feel progress each day instead of what they are likely to feel, which is the despair of their peers moving on without them or the disappointment of their parents and coaches, real or imagined. While moving through these progressions, the coach should be trying to discern what changes, if any, have occurred to hurt the gymnast’s confidence. Perhaps, the athlete has grown recently, which can change their timing and make things feel different. Or maybe they stopped using their visual cues and that is what makes performing the skill uncomfortable. Conversely, if an athlete starts using visual cues when they previously did not, that can also make performing the skill undesirable for them. Even subtle changes in head position during skills can be hard to detect as a coach but make a big difference in how a skill feels to an athlete. It’s also important to remember that mental blocks may not be technical at all. It could be the athlete is dealing with pressure from home or school. After all, pressure to perform well in gymnastics is not the only thing these athletes deal with.
5. Maintain perspective
Ultimately, when dealing with mental blocks it’s important to realize that it’s just gymnastics, and attempting to get a gymnast to complete a skill with negative coaching techniques such as shaming or bullying will have long term negative consequences for both the gymnast and the program. A coach should remain calm and show the athlete and parents that they care and have confidence in their gymnast’s abilities. The athlete should remain patient with themselves, knowing that they will complete the skill again when they regain their confidence and decide they are ready to take the risk. Parents should offer support and encouragement in the form of positive affirmations when their child feels discouraged. While it may seem like a big deal at the time, if handled correctly, most mental blocks can be overcome with the right perspective.
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