When You Can’t Eliminate Fear, Use it
Fear is all around in gymnastics. Truth be told, you will never fully rid yourself of fear in gymnastics and that is a good thing. Despite your preconceived notions, a little bit of fear is normal and useful.
Let’s delve into the topic of fear in greater detail…
Many gymnasts see fear as the enemy, something to be avoided at all costs. Fear is seen as the culprit in falling, failing, stepping out of bounds, slipping off the bars, under-rotating a landing, scoring low and a host of other mistakes, mishaps and missteps.
Fear cannot be fully eliminated. Fear is constantly present to some degree while performing a gymnastics routine no matter if you are a beginner or an Olympic gymnast. Who wouldn’t be afraid of performing a back flip on a four-inch wide beam that is approximately four-feet off the ground? Or executing a release move on the uneven bars 8 feet from the floor? How about running as fast as you can towards a stationary object and vaulting yourself high in the air while doing tricks and sticking a landing? There is not a gymnast in the world that doesn’t have a bit of fear performing these challenging tasks.
Contrary to the belief of many, some amount of fear is healthy and can be an asset to peak performance.
What is Healthy Fear?
Fear gets a bad rap in some instances. Fear can be healthy. Fear can push you to act in a positive manner. If a tornado is about to strike, healthy fear can be the impetus to get out of town before the storm hits.
In gymnastics, healthy fear pushes you towards positive action.
- Healthy fear pushes you to prepare at a high level so you can perform challenging routines.
- Healthy fear can generate a slight bit of nerves that can energize you and improve performance.
- Healthy fear sharpens your focus so you are not distracted by outside noise or errors in past performances.
Fear in Action
UCLA gymnastics provides a great example of how healthy fear can help you bounce back from mistakes, energize a team and improve performance. In a loss against No. 11 Washington, No. 5 UCLA bounced back to perform strong in the floor routine after three falls on the balance beam.
The Bruins could have been swallowed up by fear after their mistakes on the beam. Instead, the team managed their fear to healthy levels and went out with a bang, pulling off solid routines on the final event of the day.
UCLA coach Chris Waller described how a bit of healthy fear helped his team to produce positive results following some mishaps on the beam.
WALLER: “I think, generally, this team thrives off of doing big, bold, audacious things. In the right moments, when they embrace that, to do something unexpected or to come back that big, or just demonstrate that character, they just feed off of that.”
Accepting that some fear is healthy can take your gymnastics to a new level.
Exercise: Re-evaluating and Regulating Fear:
First, you need to re-examine your perceptions about fear: Is fear bad in all situations? Have I ever performed at a high level while experiencing some level of fear?
Next, identify the level of fear that is beneficial for you personally. This can be as simple as a rating system from 1-10 and identifying your ideal range.
Lastly, you should develop some strategies to help you manage fear when it moves into an unhealthy range. One strategy that is highly effective is deep breathing.
Fear can be your friend, if you let it.