Dr. Patrick Cohn:
Cal Berkeley women’s gymnastics head coach Justin Howell makes a distinction between good mistakes and bad mistakes.
Howell is not bothered by his gymnasts making mistakes as long as they are aggressive. Howell has sold his team on his philosophy regarding mistakes which has helped his team produce in high-pressure meets.
The Bears entered the 2017 season opening meet, the NorCal Classic with an aggressive “go-for-it” mindset rather than worrying about mistakes.
The Bears came out of the gate extremely strong on vault, scoring 9.75 or above on every individual routine but had difficulty on the next rotation, the bars.
Despite a couple of falls on the bars, the Bears won the meet for their third NorCal Classic title in three years.
Howell was impressed with his team’s aggressiveness but that aggressiveness is a direct result of not fearing mistakes.
HOWELL: “Their mistakes were good mistakes. They were doing big, aggressive gymnastics, and that’s what I like to see.” …
Gymnastics Mental Coach – Are Mistakes Good or Bad in Gymnastics?
I love the graphic for that article. 🙂
Gymnastics Coaching.com 