Do you have a gymnast who tends to freeze up or "lose" skills right before a gymnastics meet? If so, find out some of the reasons why this happens and what your gymnast can do to get through this frustrating situation.     This time of season when many gymnasts are getting ready to compete, I get very busy as a gymnastics mental coach! It's because gymnasts are gearing up for their meet season but are starting to struggle big time and no one knows what to do about it. Why does my gymnast freeze up on skills right before meets? As we all know, right before competition season begins (o ..read more

  As many gymnasts get ready to start their competitive seasons, there's one thing I hear a lot of from parents and coaches alike. "She's doing great. But if only she had more confidence..." While it's true that confidence is something we all could use a little more of, confidence isn't just about feeling good about yourself. For gymnasts, it's literally the glue that holds them together. It gives them the ability to shine on the meet floor and to show up to competition as the best version of themselves. So how can coaches help gymnasts build confidence leading into gymnastics ..read more

  After working with countless competitive gymnasts who have mental blocks, I've noticed some things that gymnasts do that make their mental blocks worse. As a result I've come up with some mental block rules to help gymnasts move through their mental blocks. Here are Coach Anna's 3 Mental Block Rules for Gymnasts: Rule 1: Never ever push through a mental block. Most gymnasts think that when they get blocked on their skills, they need to push through and keep trying their skills again and again and again. While I'm not suggesting gymnasts give up on their skills, I am recommend ..read more

Injury. It's the dreaded "I" word.  No gymnast wants to get injured, obviously. But in gymnastics it's not so much about the actual injury. We know our gymnasts are tough and that their bodies are incredibly resilient.  Rather, it's about the mental recovery. The road to recovery can be a tough one mentally because there are so many factors involved.  For example, the time of season plays an important factor...and let's face, there's no real good timing for an injury. How long she'll be out of gymnastics and/or how long her recovery will be can also play an emotional facto ..read more

One thing I often communicate to my gymnasts is that their scores are not under their control.  While it seems counterintuitive to most gymnasts, the truth is that while gymnasts can try really hard and even put up their best routine, they don't always receive the scores they think they should get and/or deserve. As a former compulsory judge, I know how subjective scores can be even though they are contained within an objective framework. Judges are indeed humans and thus have their own perspective and biases. While gymnastics scoring was created to eliminate any such subjectivity, the t ..read more

  As gymnasts start putting together routines and fine-tuning their choreography for this upcoming meet season, you can start to feel the tension in the gym. Coaches are saying a pray that their gymnasts are prepared and ready to compete. Gymnasts are feeling the stress of wanting to do well this season. Inevitably, the climate in the gym is starting to feel turbulent. Some gymnasts go into a new meet season hoping they've done enough in the off-season to be successful in competition. But very few gymnasts go into a new meet season with a strong plan for how to feel prepared and ready to ..read more

  I hear this a lot from the gymnasts I work with... There's one piece of equipment they absolutely hate (and therefore can't do their skills on it). Whether it's the high beam that's over in the corner or the set of bars that is extra slippery or the regular floor, there's just that one piece of equipment where your gymnast can't seem to do her skill. Yet, she does it beautifully everywhere else. This is a case of focusing on the uncontrollables. This month in the Stick It Girl Academy we are talking about letting go of the uncontrollables and one of the things we are discussing is equi ..read more

  Being on the other end of a mental block is one of the hardest things any parent can experience. What's worse is when a mental block, one that you thought was gone for good, has suddenly come back and you're none the wiser. There you are thinking things are going alright in the gym only to find out that your gymnast hasn't been doing a certain skill for weeks. She didn't tell you she "lost" her skill again.  Coach also didn't say anything. But when you recently witnessed a practice you saw your gymnast standing around not being able to go for her skill.  And it suddenly becam ..read more

 Note: This article contains a free printable. In the Stick It Girl Mom Squad Facebook group, many of you have shared your gymnast's recent struggles. One of the biggest buzz words that came up was CONFIDENCE. From “her coach believes in her but she doesn't believe in herself” to “my gymnast just needs confidence to do her skills” it's clear that your gymnasts are missing an important element to help them succeed.   But I'd like to set the record straight. I'm going to argue that it's not confidence your gymnast needs right now. It's TRUST. Trust is what allows your gymnast to ..read more

  If your gymnast has gone through (or is going through) a mental block in gymnastics, you've likely noticed that it often gets a lot worse before it gets better, even trickling onto different events. What might have started as a mental block on her series on beam may now be a block on her round off back handspring back tuck or her flyaway on bars or her back tuck dismount off beam or...ALL OF THE ABOVE! Many parents ask me why this happens... And while I don't have any scientific evidence to support my conclusion, I will tell you my theory based on practical experience working with gymn ..read more