Overcoming Fear In Sports Leads To Trust and Respect Part 1
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Sometimes we have already figured out as young athletes, especially in a sport like gymnastics,
where you look at the skills we are performing and there is an element of risk involved when
you are going upside down and flipping and twisting.
Yet there is nothing wrong with fear.
When an athlete is afraid of something or they have that fear that means they respect
what they are doing.
It is okay to have that fear.
The question is how to do you handle that fear.
What do you do with the fear?
Sometimes kids don't have fear then they become reckless because they think nothing can happen
to them.
They take chances when they shouldn't be taking chances.
When you have that well-founded fear of something, I think it shows that you treat that skill
with respect.
What I learned is to trust my coach.
I realized, and I will probably go back into this more at other times in other questions,
but my coach would never ask me to do something or try something unless deep down inside he
knew I could do it.
So I learned to have that level of trust.
When he asked me to go for that double back flip off the landing bar, I went for it because
I knew that he knew I could make it.
That is important to have that level of trust with a coach.
Fear is normal.
It happens to everyone.
It is just a question of how do you handle it.
I learned in gymnastics, of course, that when the time comes to go for a new skill to try
it, don't hold back.
Go all out.You give it your all.
It is when we hesitate in the middle of a skill or hesitate that we tend to have problems
or get injured and things like that, so you have to be very careful.
I would certainly review the skill mentally.
I would in my mind, close my eyes, imagine myself doing it, and get the feel for it before
I actually attempted it.
But once the time comes to go for it, you just buckle down and say here we go.
In my sport, we have lots of safety measures and safety devices we can take advantage of,
whether it is the spotting belt or it is the coach that is spotting you.
There is always that moment of truth where you are on your own.Hopefully, you have taken
the proper progressions to be able to do the skill on your own.
You don't want to go from step number one to step number nine.
You have got to make sure you do all the steps in between.
Once those steps have been followed, then you have earned the confidence to say, "I
am ready to go for this.
I am ready now because I have followed all the steps."
Then hopefully things turn out well.
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