Simply because the New 12 months brings in a recent probability to judge your earlier calendar yr and make tweaks to the upcoming yr, so does the top of a gymnastics season.
Though you may be prepared to maneuver onto new expertise and go prepare for a brand new stage, it is extremely essential for you to mirror again in your complete competitors season and search for classes discovered. These classes may also help you have a extra profitable season when subsequent season comes.
I inform my gymnasts on a regular basis to make use of every meet as a studying expertise. What went nicely? What did not go so nicely and why? What are you able to do to enhance for subsequent meet?
Nevertheless it’s equally essential to do an total reflection of your complete season and ask related questions of your season as a complete. These questions will assist to information your subsequent season and make that one much more profitable.
Listed here are some reflection inquiries to ask your self:
1. What went nicely for me this season?
Assume again to your complete season from the start of pre-season coaching via the top of competitors season. What are some issues that went nicely for you? What are issues that you’ll proceed to make use of and do going into subsequent season?
It is a good suggestion to recollect all of the issues that ARE working as a way to preserve utilizing them for subsequent season. However when you do not write them down and pinpoint what they’re precisely, they will not be efficient for you transferring ahead. Or a minimum of you will not have the ability to entry them as simply as when you had them as a reference! So record them out in your journal or a pocket book.
Whenever you consider what labored, bear in mind to contemplate what labored not solely so far as your gymnastics expertise are involved, but additionally relating to your psychological well-being, social interactions, and communication along with your coaches.
For those who stayed mentally robust, ask your self why.
For those who had nice relationships along with your teammates, ask why.
Figuring out why issues went nicely is equally as essential as know why they did not.
2. What didn’t go nicely for me this season?
What are some issues that weren’t nice this season? What would you want to enhance on? The place are you able to make adjustments or tweaks to see enchancment for subsequent yr?
Whereas this could be a robust query to ask your self, it is an essential one. All failure or missed alternatives are probabilities to be taught. It is also essential to grasp why issues could not have gone so nicely.
For those who have been scuffling with a psychological block, why do you assume that’s? Did you expertise a dip in confidence? In that case, why?
Whenever you preserve asking your self “why?” in response to your reply you’ll be able to actually discover the basis of the rationale of no matter may be happening.
For instance:
I struggled on beam this season.
Why?
As a result of I could not do my sequence.
Why?
As a result of I used to be scared.
Why?
As a result of I believed I’d slip and fall on my second again handspring.
Why?
As a result of I used to be off middle on my first again handspring as soon as and I nearly missed my fingers on my second again handspring.
Why?
As a result of I rushed it.
Why?
As a result of we have been out of time and have been going to the following occasion and so I simply threw it with out focusing.
As you retain asking “why” you’ll be able to actually discover the basis of the difficulty. Within the case of the imaginary gymnast above, the basis of what occurred is her speeding via a talent and because of this not being targeted. This in flip brought on an nearly slip which shook her up and created a dip in her confidence.
This gymnast can be taught to take her time and actually focus earlier than doing her sequence (or any talent) sooner or later. If she is out of time, she will be able to be taught to step away from the talent so she would not really feel rushed.
This “work” of actually digging into what is occurring can open your thoughts to stuff you hadn’t realized and provide you with alternative to up stage your gymnastics because of this.
3. Was I blissful this season?
I feel it is a highly effective and essential query for each gymnast to ask herself.
Was I blissful?
The rationale we do gymnastics is as a result of we like it. And a part of that’s as a result of doing flips and twists makes us blissful.
However within the midst of competitors season when the strain is on, it is easy to neglect why you do gymnastics. It may additionally be simple to neglect to really feel blissful and luxuriate in what you are doing. This may be very true when you’re experiencing concern or a psychological block in gymnastics.
So ask your self “Was I blissful this season?” and if the reply isn’t any, ask your self “Why?”
Possibly you have been too targeted on getting a sure rating and received stressed at each meet since you fearful about not assembly that objective.
Or possibly you felt an excessive amount of strain to do nicely and felt the burden of that in your shoulders all season.
No matter it’s, when you weren’t blissful then issues wants to vary. However you first have to acknowledge when you have been blissful or not and why that was.
4. What do I have to work on?
After you determine what wasn’t working for you, you’ll be able to then slender in on areas you might want to work on so you can also make optimistic adjustments for subsequent season.
Use the solutions to the primary three questions above to determine what you might want to deal with for this upcoming season.
For those who handled psychological blocks then build up confidence needs to be your objective for this upcoming season.
Or when you did not compete nicely, studying how one can create good pre-meet and competitors routines that can assist you keep targeted needs to be your focus.
Bear in mind, when you proceed to do the identical factor every season with out reflecting on what you have discovered, you’ll by no means see the success you may hope for. Every season is a brand new alternative to enhance each your bodily and psychological expertise. A end-of-season reflection is an effective way to do that.
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For those who or your gymnast wants assist, along with the sources under I additionally supply one-on-one teaching classes by way of Zoom.
Useful Hyperlinks:
