Expert: Kimmi - 9/12/2007

Question
Hey Kimmi,
I Started Cheerleading On A Competition Lvl.2 Squad Last Year I Pretty Much...SUCKED! I Could Barely Even Do A Cartwheel But I Learned REALLY Fast I Had My Handspring By The 2nd Month Of Practice And A Tuck On The Mini. Tramp. By The 5th After That I Started Working on Bunches Of Other Tumbling Passes...My Caoch Said I Was A natural... But Last Year I Had To Fill In For Somebody On Varsity Lvl.4 At The Very Beginning Of Our Routine I Just Had To Throw A Simple Round-off Tuck..Easy Right? I Forgot To Set And All The Skin On My Nose Was Gone... I Can Throw Standing Tucks Now But Everytime I Have To Do A Roundoff Tuck I Freak Out && Start Crying && Feeling Sick To My Stomache! Im Afraid Im Gonna Lose My Spot This Year Which Puts Even MORE Pressure On Me! My Mom && My Coach Suggested Hypnotism... Should I Get Hyponotised Or Is There Another Possibility?Help Me!

Answer
Hi Sydney,
   I am sorry that you have had this happen to you. Accidents like that are so hard to deal with when they cause horrible mental blocks. The best thing for a mental block is to visualize yourself doing the trick and mentally throwing it in your mind over and over. Then trying to force yourself to do it physically. But, what you have seems to be more than a simple mental block. I think that you do need to see a hypnotist or a sports psychologist. Talk to your parents and see what your options are. Your health insurance might cover the psychologist, but might not cover the hypnotist. Good luck to you and I hope that your block is gone very soon! Please keep me updated on what's happening!
Happy Cheering!
Kimmi