Expert: Pamela Enders - 12/13/2010

Question
I have a 14 year old daughter who has been cheering for many years. She learned her back tuck when she was 9.  It is incredibly high and beautiful, she receives many compliments on it.  Problem is she won't perform it unless a coach is standing near her. Once in a while she will perform it, but 99% of the time she will not. We have tried everything we can think of to help.  We have tried to get her to visualize, relax, we didn't talk about it, offered rewards to take her mind of of it etc.. She has an amazing private coach who is willing to do anything to help.  My daughter is somewhat shy and very academically inclined. She could be very successful in this sport if she would throw her running back tuck, but she has been sequestered to the beginning team, to "help" take off the pressure.  This has significantly upset and depressed her,only making matters worse. We have spoken to the gym, but they refuse to move her back up until she proves she can do it. It appears that this fear includes anything in a running pass that involves backwards tumbling.  She  has absolutely no problem with front tumbling, a standing back tuck, and is working on her arabian.  She has mastered all of the required physical skills for tumbling except the mental one for backwards tumbling.  Do you think it is time for a sports psychologist?  We have read many of your articles but she will not practice the visualization on her own, maybe a sports psychologist could help?  Thank you for any advice you may have, we really so very sad for her and are hoping for some help soon.

Answer
Dear Susy,

Your daughter is very lucky to have a mom who cares about her so much!  Mental blocks are indeed frustrating  - especially when all her other skills are so good.

Backward tumbling is the biggest challenge for cheerleaders and gymnasts.  We humans are not designed to go backwards and our brains resist doing it.  Many athletes are able to silence that built-in trigger that says, “No!  I can’t go backwards!” and they manage to execute the backward skills.  Others are not so lucky and so they get stuck.  In other words, to go backwards, a cheerleader needs to learn how to over-ride the built-in resistance to doing so.

But knowing that doesn’t solve the problem, does it!

I will assume that your girl’s coach has helped her with things such as creating a visual focus so she can feel oriented in time and space when she goes backwards.  Has she also given control to your daughter?  Meaning – is your girl in charge as to how much spotting she needs?  Sometimes it  can be helpful for the athlete to be the one to tell the coach – come closer or you can back away now or you can stand here – 1 foot, 2 feet, 6 feet, etc.

A sport psychologist would be a good bet.  He or she would probably suggest many of the ideas I have in my blog there is a big difference between reading about something and having someone work directly with her.

It can be hard for a 14 year old to visualize on her own.  Listening to a recording might help.  I record mp3 files for my clients which they can put on their ipods which they find helpful.
Has she seen good videos of back tucks or back hand springs?  Seeing how others do it might help – it creates some objectivity.  

If she is willing to watch some good videos, I would suggest a particular way to do it.  I would encourage her to focus intently and really notice each detail of what the athlete is doing – posture, facial expression, etc.  Next – imagine how that cheerleader feels both physically and emotionally and finally – imagine how you might feel if you were like that athlete.

You see, at this point, it may be hard for your girl to imagine she could execute the skills on her own so visualizing herself doing it may not work but seeing someone else succeed may ease the way for her to begin to imagine that she could succeed, too.

Since you’ve read my articles I won’t repeat what I’ve written elsewhere.

If you’re in the Boson area, I could meet with you and your daughter.  If not, it would probably be a good idea for her to at least meet with a sport psychologist for a consultation.

Please keep me posted and write again if you have any more questions.

Warm regards,

Pamela Enders ("Dr. Pam")
http://www.confidentcheerleadingblog.com
http://www.facebook.com/confidentcheerleadingcenter