The end of the competition season is coming into view and the upcoming two months are sure to be exciting, and often a little nerve wracking for our gymnasts. Competitions like States and Regionals come with a different energy. Everyone wants to do their very best and everyone wants to end their season on a high. That ending may look different for each gymnast, just as the idea of success looks different for each gymnast. For your child it may be competing an upgrade or achieving their highest score on an event. For others it may be taking the pressure off of themselves and just having fun! As we navigate this time of year with our athletes, our coaches will be focusing on repeating three key principles that we hope will help our gymnasts get the most out of the meets ahead. We invite you to join us in reinforcing these principles and practicing them with your gymnast at home or on the way to the meet!
#1 - Set Your Playlist. Our thoughts are the playlist that exists in our head. We need to make sure that the thoughts we are thinking are the thoughts we want to think. Thoughts that help us are called “tight mind thoughts”. These can be thoughts like “I can do this”, “Confident & Strong”, or “Beam Queen”. These short, simple phrases when repeated allow our gymnast to zero in on what they want to be thinking and feeling. This also eliminates the chatter of the mind that might not be so helpful. Leading into States, our coaches are challenging our gymnast to pick 3 “tight mind thoughts” to put on repeat during practice and at the competition. They can write these on their mirrors with dry erase markers, put them in their phones to pop up as reminders throughout the day and add them to their agenda books at school so they are continuously reinforced. The more repetition the better. On meet day, our gymnasts will focus on taking deep breaths and repeating their tight mind thoughts as a way to get into the best competitive mindset possible.
#2 - Reinforce The Pyramid. The Thriving Pyramid is a concept that has been shared with our athletes in mental strength training. The bottom of the pyramid consists of their needs such as food, water, sleep and quiet time. This represents the foundation of their well being, and being strong in the foundation allows them to thrive in competition. Coaches are reminding our athletes of the importance of fueling, hydrating and being disciplined about sleep, especially in the 4 days leading into competition. Throughout the year, each gymnast has identified their optimal foods, water intake level, and sleep hours. Ask your gymnast what hers are and see if you can help her be diligent about these in the next couple of weeks.
#3 - We Are A Team. The final principal we are driving home for our gymnasts as the competition season heads into States and Regionals is that they are not alone. They are out there competing for themselves AND they are competing for their team. Each teammate's energy matters. They have the power to lift each other up or bring each other down. We have asked our gymnasts to be cheering on the floor, encouraging teammates and having fun. This is the last time many of these teams will compete together and we want them to celebrate a season well done!
We are looking forward to ending the season with joy, fun and success. Our coaches are proud of the work that all of our kids have put in this season. We are all grateful for the time, energy and effort of our families. This sport takes a village and we are so proud of our village. We are looking forward to Thriving through the end of this competitive season!