At our recent WAG competition with 900 competitors the two biggest medical incidents:
1) sprained ankle
2) a nervous athlete hyperventilating
… Competitive anxiety can be crippling for some athletes. There are several contributing factors that lead to, as some coaches put it, CHOKING under pressure (“it’s hard to stay on the bars with both hands wrapped tightly around your throat,” I once heard one coach say”. …
contributing factors:
Nervous Nelly Personality
Lack of preparation
Outside influences
Fear of failure
Fear of injury
Fear of repercussions
Unproductive Use of Warm Up Time
Full Twist picked up on the topic – Competitive Anxiety in Gymnasts, linking to a post on World of Gymnastics – How to Control your Nerves Before a Gymnastics Meet and on Beam.
And a new post by Alicia Sacramone, one of the most confident appearing gymnasts I’ve ever seen, – Don’t let fear steal your confidence.
Missy Marlowe this past weekend was telling kids of an epiphany she had as one of the best gymnasts in the world: … If she pretended to be confident, she found herself to be far less nervous.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 