Lessons 4 Life is a collection of ideas specific to gymnastics and easily related to everyday life. These ideas are used to teach the basic understanding of the structure and elements of the learning process. Learning how to learn and how one's attitude affects learning are possibly more important than what is learned.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
There are at least two types of time in the world: Practice Time and Show Time.
Practice Time is most of the time. Show Time is when coaches, judges, or parents
are watching. Generally, when you feel "pressure", it's Show Time.
When it's Practice Time, you should pretend that it's Show Time and give your
best performance. When it's really Show Time, you should pretend that it's Practice
Time and perform exactly what you've practiced so diligently.
Be aware that asking your coach to watch YOU while in your practice group can
be selfish, because you may be stealing someone else's "Show Time".
Instead, pay attention to YOUR practice. Practice hard until it's your turn
for Show Time!
THE BEST EVER?
During competition ("Show Time"), should you try to do the "best"
you've ever done? NOOOOOOO! That means you're trying to do a routine like you've
never done it before. That's not being consistent or safe. You must do the routine
exactly like you practiced a hundred times before and keep it the same when
competing. If you want to do better in competition, you must do better in practice!
Pretend every practice routine is competition. Then, when you compete, pretend
that this routine is just like the many other routines you succeeded in doing
during practice. Try to do the same as you did in practice -- no better…
no worse… just the same. That's why it's called a "routine."
Remember that we all make mistakes. Treat any mistake made during competition
just like you would if it occurred in practice. Under pressure, mistakes happen
more often. However, if you really practice like you're in competition, your
"Show Time" pressure will be the same as it was in practice!
HOW MANY COACHES?
When you are being coached, how many coaches are really coaching you? TWO! You and your coach. Guess who is coach #1? You are! Obviously, your other coach knows more than you do and must be highly respected. However, it is your responsibility to figure out and translate what your coach is trying to teach you. Problems arise when a respect for coaching falls short, causing a lack of patience. Without patience, both coaches become more frustrated. Imagine if your parents ever heard your coach say to you, "You are so lousy, you're stupid, why are you still trying, you'll never get it, you should just quit!" They would surely fire that coach! Have you ever said anything like that to yourself? If so, you need to work at respecting yourself. How can you possibly respect your coach if you do not respect yourself?
HEAVY OR LIGHT?
Answer these questions out loud. When you are happy, do you feel heavy or light?
Fast or slow? When you are frustrated or upset, do you feel heavy or light?
Fast or slow? So what must both coaches try to do to keep you light and fast?
Remember coach #1? Often, it's coach #1 that is causing you to feel heavy and
slow by saying things like, "I'll never get this - I am so pathetic,"
or "I am so bad, I don't deserve to be here." If your parents heard
your other coach say this, they would probably fire him! So if you say it to
yourself, should you fire that coach? Yes, get a better coach #1.
I NEED TO TRY HARDER
When you're frustrated because you cannot master a new skill, should you say "I can do this", even when you know you can't? NO! It is better to say, "I need to try harder." Trying to do something you know you are not ready for is dangerous and even more frustrating. Saying "I can't do this" also makes both coaches frustrated and feel like they have to fix your attitude before they can correct your technique. A coach wants to teach someone with a good attitude and will go out of his way to teach the athlete who shows great willingness to try. So say, "I need to try harder," and see the smile you put on your coach's face!
YOYO
YOYO is an acronym for "You're On Your Own"! YOYO is what the athlete
must be striving towards during all training. After all the progressions, conditioning,
and drills to get ready for that most important skill, if you still feel unsure,
it is your responsibility as an athlete to communicate to your coach that you
do not feel ready. You need to practice all those progressions, drills, and
conditioning exercises until you know you really are ready. You need to feel
physically and most importantly mentally ready before you "go for it."
YOYO is when both you and your coach feel you are ready.
"Pretend" YOYO is a great intermediate step before true YOYO. You
tell your coach, "Pretend YOYO!". That means you are thinking that
you are going for it on your own, but the coach needs to be spotting, just in
case. You might believe it's YOYO time, but it is your coach's choice to spot
you or not. When both you and your coach know you have it, YOYO!
BORED
Being bored is not always a bad thing. This is especially the case when learning a difficult and risky skill. Here, the state of boredom is a sign of readiness. After all the drills, progressions, and sometimes months of practices learning every aspect of this new skill, you slowly change to an automatic mode where you just do it without thinking about how you do it. When you've successfully completed the new skill so many times that you feel bored, you're ready for the next step.
GOOD PAIN, BAD PAIN
Even adults confuse good pain with bad pain. Children should learn the difference early. Good pain is felt when stretching moderately. Too much stretching can cause muscles and joints to hurt for days. This is bad pain. If you are injured with pain that lasts a long time, that's bad pain. Good pain goes away quickly. Therefore, when stretching, you should go for all the good pain you can reasonably handle. Once you recognize the difference between good pain and bad pain, you can push yourself a little harder. You will learn to interpret good pain as a good feeling.
SELFISH
Is selfish ever a good thing? YES! When you are training on difficult and potentially dangerous skills, you need to be paying attention to you and only you. Worrying about what you look like to others while figuring out a new skill only makes learning all the harder. You need intensity and focus. Clowning around or joking with friends during training will slow you down and create bad learning habits for the future. The more you get into yourself, the more you find out how good you really are. The problem is, you and maybe other teammates are too distracting during training to accomplish this state of intensity and focus. How about starting with you taking on an attitude of "selfishness", where you don't let anyone take away your ability to succeed. Eventually, more athletes get "into it". Being selfish with "you" also helps others succeed. Practice is a time for you. Before and after practice is a time for you and everyone to share. Learning to separate these two occasions will increase their quality and give you a greater appreciation of both. Try it. You'll like it!
FLOWING WITH GRAVITY
In general, people have a negative attitude about gravity. On the contrary, it is gravity that allows the dynamics of all skills, going higher, longer, faster and ultimately, "bigger". When it comes to "air", it's gravity that causes amazing things to happen. Gravity works to throw trampolinist higher, tumblers faster and bars and ring dismounts get big scores. Look at the best gymnasts, they never struggle or fight with gravity, they learn to flow and use it. Most people say that "being on balance" is right. Not always. Sure everyone wants to have good balance. But in gymnastics like in many other sports, being off balance is the difference between winning and losing. Athletes who are willing to "fall" into their skills are at the top of their sport. Most people will not allow themselves to "fall". In many sports, those who learn to understand "falling" or "flowing" will find themselves at the top. Learning to "flow" is an asset of injury prevention. The best athletes seem to "flow" from one near accident to another and continue to get better, more comfortable and win. Only over time, the right training and the commitment to practicing "CALMNESS" can one learn to "FLOW".