It is virtually impossible for an athlete to give a top performance at every meet. Regardless of how talented an athlete is, eventually she will have to deal with disappointment, which can be difficult for both the gymnast and the parent.
As gymnasts move from fun meets to the competitive Junior Olympic (or JO) program, and as they progress through the levels, the athlete will face new challenges.
I have seen disappointment in gymnasts who start off their competitive career struggling, but also gymnasts who have started off winning easily and are devastated when they have a rough meet or when they move to a new level and don't enjoy the same success they had in the past.
When your child has a disappointing performance, there are things a parent can do or say to help the gymnast deal with the disappointment.
As gymnasts move from fun meets to the competitive Junior Olympic (or JO) program, and as they progress through the levels, the athlete will face new challenges.
I have seen disappointment in gymnasts who start off their competitive career struggling, but also gymnasts who have started off winning easily and are devastated when they have a rough meet or when they move to a new level and don't enjoy the same success they had in the past.
When your child has a disappointing performance, there are things a parent can do or say to help the gymnast deal with the disappointment.
- Focus on events that the gymnast did well or parts of the competition that she stood out. It is rare that a gymnast has a rough go at all four events. Usually, at least one went better than the others.
- Help you child focus on the long term. Meet season is usually 5-8 meets, so there are plenty of opportunities to improve.
- If you child is having trouble placing at meets, suggest that she focus on her own improvement, rather than where she places with other gymnasts. Are her scores improving from meet to meet? If she has a tendency to fall on bars or beam, is she falling fewer times as the season goes on?
- Allow your child to be disappointed. Disappointment is part of life and it is an important life lesson to help your child deal with this emotion.
- Let you athlete know is is OK to make mistakes or to fail. People learn from mistakes and failure.
- Encourage your child to not be demoralized by mistakes or failure. The inventor Thomas Edison said, “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
- If only you had.....
- It was the judge's/coach's fault.
- I pay a lot of money for you to be in gymnastics and I expect more than this.
- You don't want it badly enough.
- It's not important.
- You really screwed up...
- Wow, you really choked.