Expert: James - 11/30/2009

Question
Well hello. Well im in 9th grade on a JV Cheerleading team. We are preparing for competition in about 3 weeks. I have all my stunts perfect but my twist downs are not. I had them PERFECT until about 2 days ago. I dont know what happened but i cant twist! What im doing wrong is that im getting nervous that im not going to make it all the way around and when they pop i twist early and they dont even get to pop me fully and i end up kicking them. I cant seem to fix it even though i try hard. Any tips or tricks? It would make me feel so much better! Thanks!

Answer
Well actually this is going to sound callous (and I am very sorry for the length in reply) but you already know the answer. Those who are great at tumbling can "lose it" if they get enough fear in them. If you KNOW you can do them and you're not, then it's simply a mental block. You just need to have more faith in yourself and your teammates.