How Counseling can help you overcome gymnastics mental blocks
Gymnastics isn’t always fun and games. It doesn’t matter whether you are a young recreational gymnast or an elite athlete, we all experience mental difficulties in our lifetime.
Sometimes gymnastics is the cause of the mental challenges and we need a sports psychologist to give us counseling in order to overcome mental blocks that might be causing us to overthink our physical actions or let fear and pressure overwhelm us and stop us being able to overcome challenges and achieve our dreams.
At other times Gymnasts can suffer from problems outside of the gym that affect their performance in gymnastics. Maybe your parents are struggling to find work, your pet is unwell or somebody is bullying you at school. Whatever the problem, no matter how small or embarrassing it might seem, help is available from a counsellor and can quickly change your outlook.
Is counselling for me
One option for trying to solve your problems is to seek the help of a counselor who you can talk to in a safe environment. Making the decision to find the help of a counselor can be a difficult one.
Maybe you are concerned about sharing your feelings with a stranger or are worried that someone will find out you’ve been seeking the help of a counselor.
Don’t worry, counseling is confidential and a counselor is a trained professional who has the tools and skills to be able to try and understand how you feel.
Gymnastics Mental Block Affecting Performance
If you are experiencing a mental block this can affect your gymnastics skills. A mental block often results in the loss of confidence when performing a certain skill and the memory of this difficult performing the skill can become ingrained in your mind and block you from being able to perform the gymnastics skill to the best of your ability.
Talking with a trained sports psychologist or counselor and tracing back your memory to the event that caused the mental block can help you to release it. This can take a little bit of time and it can be emotional but it is worth it.
Parental Pressure On Young Gymnasts
Parents always want the best for their children but at what point does this support become an unnecessary pressure. In gymnastics often children are really keen to take part and their parents give them their support both in terms of time and finances. After a while children might come across a difficult skill and become frustrated and lose interest in gymnastics. When this happens the parents who have seen their child progress so far might encourage their child to continue and the child feels pressure to carry on even though they aren’t enjoying it.
If this happens, speaking to a counselor can help the child gain the confidence and build up the toolkit to be able to deal with the situation and find a solution.
Moving forward – How counselling can open up more opportunities for you as a person and a gymnast
Whatever the problem is that you are experiencing, there is hope for a happier and more successful future. Counseling may seem like something that only crazy or really ill people need but this misconception leads a lot of people to hold their feelings in their own mind and this build up can cause further problems.
Let your feelings be known to a mental health professional, or even to a trusted friend and work through your problems. Whether this is a difficult depression or a gymnastics mental block, you can move forwards and achieve a more peaceful life or compete at the next gymnastics meet without feeling overwhelming pressure. Laugh and move forward towards a happier and healthier life.
