All-Star Tumble Block

[BBinNCsMom]

I posted this in the parents area too but felt like maybe there are some coaches that could weigh in here. Sorry in advance. This is long.

My daughter has cheered for 6 years. For 3 of these years she has struggled with a backwards tumbling block off and on. I think what triggered it was a growth spurt at puberty and we changed gyms about the same time to a higher pressure environment. She's 13 now. Done growing for the most part. She went through puberty early.

I've watched her struggle and it's been so heartbreaking. Right now she's having issues connecting round off backhandsprings AGAIN yet over the summer she was working on layouts and was doing them on her own. It's like she takes one step forward and two steps back and there doesn't seem to be any trigger that we can identify.

She had come to the conclusion that she didn't want to try out this coming up season. She wanted to take a year off and just tumble. I've been fully supportive of this and even though I love the sport and part of me would miss her being a part of it, I honestly just don't want to watch her go through this another season.

Well, two days ago she says she's thinking about trying out again and is excited about it. Ugh. I just don't know if I can emotionally do this another season. That's all me, I know. It's just so hard to watch. Her friends advance and she moves backwards. She gets upset but won't do what she capable of to move up.

With that said, she does 2-3 tumble classes a week and sometimes a private. These are at her request.

Have any of you had a kid with a major block just snap out of it?? Is it possible? She's so talented and she just doesn't believe in herself. Her tumble coaches say she's one of the toughest mental block kids they've ever worked with.

Thanks for getting this far!

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Short answer: Yes. Seen it happen. Definitely not with every kid, but there was an athlete who blocked on standing tumbling due to an injury at all stars practice. Took her a few months but it happened.

I would not take on a new season with the idea that this is going to just magically go away, though.

Ask yourself:

Do you honestly think SHE can handle a season?
Does she want to do it or does she just feel like she has to?
What are the next steps if she can't?

 

[BBinNCsMom]

Short answer: Yes. Seen it happen. Definitely not with every kid, but there was an athlete who blocked on standing tumbling due to an injury at all stars practice. Took her a few months but it happened.

I would not take on a new season with the idea that this is going to just magically go away, though.

Ask yourself:

Do you honestly think SHE can handle a season?
Does she want to do it or does she just feel like she has to?
What are the next steps if she can't?

I do not think she will be happy with her placement unless she can get it together big time. And even if she does get it together before tryouts, she's been known to tryout with skills and lose them during the season. I don't think they will chance putting her on a premier higher level team, which is what she wants. I could be wrong.

As far as does she feel like she Has tryout, I've been totally supportive of her taking time off And I have been looking forward to my pay raise! lol. She's wanted to quit multiple times this season and she's stuck it out because we are committed for the season and I won't let her quit this far into it. I'm afraid the same thing would happen next season. It shocked me when she said she was thinking about it. She told me tonight she's Hoping they will put her on a higher level team and she won't have to tumble. I told her that I don't think that would happen or this year they would have moved her up to J4 with all her Y4 friends (they put her on Y4 last year to backspot. She didn't have the tumbling for that team. She and a lot of her Y4 teammates and friends aged out of Youth last season) Her friends moved up and she moved down.

I'm hoping she will change her mind... at least take a few months off and then maybe we can inquire about open positions on teams if she still wants to do it.

 

[Adrirocks]

I'm not a coach or a parent so maybe take this with a grain of salt but I did have a backward tumbling block for most of my cheer career on and off. I had a tuck but there were times when I could not throw my back handspring. Honestly the only thing that really helped was keeping the pressure off and my coaches being patient. I also tried visualization and working on skills I knew I could nail to build confidence but it took time.

Imo I would stick with tumbling classes for now and not let your daughter go to tryouts. If she joins a team now there will be a lot of pressure for her to tumble and in my experience and observation that makes things worse. And if all her friends are on a higher level team she might feel pressure to push herself to catch up and/or could be embarrassed to be on a lower team which would not help her self-confidence

What have you tried so far to get rid of the mental block? You mentioned that she doesn't believe in herself. Is there a way to work on building her self confidence is general? That could possibly help.

 

[Amie815]

No advice, but just wanted to say mental blocks are awful to watch your kiddo go through. Mine has had one for several months. She had all her level two skills and they were gorgeous, then they were gone. She got most of them back, then they were gone again. She is starting to throw in the tumble track again but now we are seeing some hesitation in level 1 stuff. Breaks my heart to watch her struggle. We are taking a year off next year to travel as a family and she will be starting middle school, so she plans to continue to tumble and hopefully the time away will help her regain her confidence and get over this block.

 

[DonnaM]

Does she have any sensory processing issues? My CP similarly struggles with tumbling but in her case, it has everything to do with SPD-she overprocesses, which triggers anxiety and sets her up for blocks. What helps most is being in the gym daily or close to it and to make sure there is some of that practice daily, and to have very consistent coaching and spotting, and to not rush into putting skills in the routine, because changing any element helps trigger that anxiety, and as soon as the fear response is triggered, she’s going to go backwards. She needs a skill to the point that it is automatic and she can’t NOT do it before she can do it in a routine.

 

[CC1107]

My daughter has gone through one major tumbling block in her cheer career. It was one of the worst things to watch and have my daughter experience. The block was on back tucks after an injury. She would psych herself up in the gym and throw them, then next time in the gym it would be back to blocked. We read article after article and found one (which seems to have disappeared from the web) about step by step ways to get over a block. What worked for her though? Visualization and NOT babying her. Babying the block made it worse. No one was mean about it, there was no yelling or taunting or belittling the block but everyone spoke very plainly about what it would mean if she didn't have her back tuck again by placements.

We talked about it a ton...what helped, what hurt, what did she want to try next....and luckily she 1000% conquered the block and has not ever blocked again (unless you count being freaked to throw her double on spring floor although landing it perfectly on rod floor....I call that stubborn, not a block) and this was 3 years ago. And aside an aside, once she unblocked on the back tuck she literally got back every single one of her level three skills and progressed to working level 4 skills within 2 weeks.

I don't think there is a magic cure, I think you have to let your athlete led the way.