Self confidence plays a key role in the success of any athlete, especially gymnasts. Since gymnastics consists of high flying, often scary skills, it is so important to possess this vital attribute.
I remember back when I was training, I ran in to a major issue with a skill that I had already acquired and was performing well. It was a dismount off parallel bars that was fairly simple for me. One day during practice, I was just slightly off on it and hit the bar pretty hard.
This is a great post, written by Dr. Patrick Cohn, about why a 'perfectionist' attitude in athletes can be dangerous. As a former elite gymnast, one of the best pieces of advice I received during a competition came from one of my teammates in the meet, 3-time Olympian, John Roethlisberger. As we approached pommel horse, John told the team (slightly paraphrased) "It have to be perfect. You just have to be willing to fight from the beginning to the very end. If you come off that horse, you better be standing there with the pommel in your hand!"
In this article, Dr. Patrick Cohn explains how to keep athletes committed to their training. He lays out 3 ways athletes sabotage their own commitment, and how to recognize these sabotages so the athlete can overcome them.
(Original text slightly adapted to apply specifically to the sport of gymnastics)
I was browsing Facebook yesterday morning and came across a post from 2004 Olympic Champion, Paul Hamm, offering free gymnastics coaching via online video. My first thought was, "Wow ... What a great idea!" My second thought was "Wow, is he crazy? Who wouldn't send him a video!" So, I messaged Paul and asked him if I could promote it for him. I thought of all the aspiring gymnasts out there that could benefit from the insight of one of the greatest gymnasts ever ... and how easy it is now to send someone your gymnastics video.
American Gymnast has offered Gymnastics on Demand as a subscription-based online video training system for coaches, gym owners, and gymnasts for the last several years. Today, I'm excited to announce that all of the videos in that system are being added to YouTube so that the entire gymnastics community can now view them for FREE! There are approximately 1200 videos that are currently being uploaded!
