Photo: Snapped! by Becca Clark!
Mental blocks and a general fear of tumbling are quite common in cheerleading. This is partly due to how cheerleading skills are taught, as well as the nature of tumbling.
Understanding Tumbling Fears
In cheer, the word “mental block” usually explains the fear that some athletes have when doing tumbling skills on the floor. This fear is accompanied with uncertainty and can prevent athletes from ever doing skills on their own or in their routine.
Why is Tumbling so Scary?
Those who have tumbling mental blocks most often have a fear of going backward or forward and inverting. They likely do not have 100% control of their body throughout the skill and are unable to tell exactly what’s happening at each point in the movement. They also have trouble knowing where they are in space as they invert or twist, even if they don’t realize it.
Athletes may be scared of hurting themselves or not landing properly, especially when trying the skill on a regular sprung floor or dead mat. When an athlete is used to doing the skill on a particular surface or with a spot for a long time, the transition to the floor without a spot can bring up those fears of a potential injury.
In addition, cheerleading encourages getting skills quickly to put them in routines and level up as fast as possible for the next season. Athletes get praised for being fearless and willing to throw skills on the floor after working on them for a short period of time.
Also, since there are only 7 cheer levels, it’s generally a big step from one to the next. In comparison, gymnastics has more levels which forces athletes to level up in smaller increments and prep themselves for more advanced skills in a logical order.
How Do You Fix a Mental Block?
In order to overcome the mental block, you have to address each of the issues listed above by doing the following:
- Eliminate the fear of going backward/forward & inverting
- Gain 100% control over your body throughout the skill
- Improve spatial awareness
- Improve confidence of landing properly
- Eliminate the rush to get skills in a short period of time before competition or tryouts
For explanations on how to do the things listed above, sign up for my Free Resource Library on the Home page of this site! Just enter your name and email, then you’ll be sent a password to access the resources (including the full guide on how to overcome mental blocks)!
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