All-Star Beating Mental Blocks!

[emmabug95]

I finally got over mine tonight after two and a half years and it was the best feeling in the whole entire world! <3 I was crying hahah :)

How about you? What's the biggest thing you've ever conquered in cheer? :)

 

[Brooks44]

sixth grade i was working doubles, got diabetes and had to start from ground zero because I lost all my strength. got it all back. In ninth grade I got dropped from stunting on the gym floor. Broke my back, fractured my sacral and have a heriated disk. COULD NOT TUMBLE! Tonight I did a backhandspring and started doing running tumbling, best feeling. I cried to. My back was soo messed up my dr. told me I wouldn't do it again...and i did!

 

[Alexandria_1025]

A BHS! Ugh I couldn't not do two in a row to save my life for like 3 months. It got to the point where I couldnt do running tumbling with a bhs so I would do a round off tuck, layout, full, etc but no bhs in between. It was so frustrating. I thought I was going to end up quitting cheerleading because my gym needed me to do a bhs but I couldn't.

 

[srt418]

The year I quit cheering I was going through a mental block. I coach now, and I tumbled during Christmas break at my old gym. I did (almost) all my old tumbling without any signs of a mental block! The only reason why I didn't do all my old skills is that I lost a lot of the technique to do them. It felt SO good to say that I tumbled without any issues again!

 

[flyer4life]

When I finally got my BHS in May after working on it for a year and a half.

 

[SamanthaFoor]

sixth grade i was working doubles, got diabetes and had to start from ground zero because I lost all my strength. got it all back. In ninth grade I got dropped from stunting on the gym floor. Broke my back, fractured my sacral and have a heriated disk. COULD NOT TUMBLE! Tonight I did a backhandspring and started doing running tumbling, best feeling. I cried to. My back was soo messed up my dr. told me I wouldn't do it again...and i did!

end of 2009 (freshman year), i was working doubles, and i almost had it! then i got diabetes and lost all my strength too, i had to build from the ground up, it sucked. but im finally back where i was, (im a sophmore now) and still improving!

 

[star1998]

There are actual psychologist's who deal with mental blocks. Gymnast's use them when they suffer from complete mental career ending blocks. It doesn't happen in gymnastics as much as cheerleading however. Gymnasts train at a much slower rate and concentrate on perfecting one skill before advancing to another. Cheerleaders however do not train that way and mental blocks are caused by fast progression and doing skills before you are ready. Tumbling is 80% mental and 20% physical. To all those suffering from blocks or feeling the beginning of one coming on, stop what your doing and go back to a lessor skill until the confidence returns so you can move forward again. I believe in the 100 spot rule. If you take someone with a block on a bhs...tell them they can have 100 spots before they have to try it on their own. It works in 95% of cases. Mostly the child is over the block after about 60 spots due to the stress and pressure being released from their brain. Oh...and no extra tumbling or privates during this time period, that makes it worse. Take the pressure off!