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Help I Can’t Tumble! Working Through the Mental Blocks to Tumbling

December 7, 2012 by Robert Andrews 71 Comments

This time of year I receive a lot of calls from gymnasts and cheerleaders or their parents about one common problem. The gymnasts or cheerleader just flat out can’t backward tumble. No matter how hard they try or how much they want to tumble, they just can’t. By the time they reach me they have been through extended periods of frustration, anger, grief, and embarrassment. Parents and coaches are frustrated too. They have tried “everything” and nothing has helped. Parents have spent all kinds of money on “privates” and coaches have tried being nice, yelling, spotting, not spotting, giving the athlete time off, kicking them out of the gym, or threatening to demote them to a lower level team. Nothing seems to work. Sometimes this tumbling block goes on for years. Many leave their sport because they can’t overcome the blocks and have grown weary of the mental and emotional toll that not being able to tumble has taken. Self confidence is eroded, families are devastated, and coaches are at a loss.

TumblingIn most of these cases there are different issues at work that create the block and cause so much misery. I usually see one or more of the following problems:

  1. The athlete has suffered a serious injury related to their sport. This injury is usually caused by a fall. The injuries I usually see are knee injuries, back or neck injuries, broken arms or hands, or concussions.
  2. The athlete has seen a teammate or someone else experience a serious fall or injury.
  3. The athlete is overwhelmed by stressors related or not related to the gym such as family problems, issues with a coach, bullying, school struggles, and others.

The first thing to understand in each of these cases is that the athlete wants to tumble. Their brain just won’t let them. A primitive part of their brain has taken over functioning of their body and it will not let them tumble. The brain interprets tumbling as a threat to the athletes safety and well being and basically shuts down the bodies ability to tumble as a protective mechanism. The inability to tumble is a cry for help. The brain is saying that it is overloaded and needs help processing all of the information it is struggling to process.

Pressure from coaches and parents only intensifies the problem and makes the symptoms worse. Constantly asking or saying “why can’t you tumble?”, “just do it”, yelling, and kicking the athlete out of the gym do nothing to help the athlete through the problem.

The Good News is That There is a Way Through this Issue

It takes hard work but change can take place. By teaching the brain how to process the original threatening experience, the fall or the injury, the primitive part of the brain turns control back over the the neocortex, the part of the brain that handles “regular” or normal activities. This is done by utilizing two specific processes that accelerate the integration and processing of information in the brain. Eidetic Imagery, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). These two processes work with the negative images in the athletes mind and teach the brain and nervous system how to process emotion, sensation, pain, light, sound, and most importantly fear associated with the key event very quickly.

TumblingIf the lack of tumbling comes from the “system” being overloaded, meaning the athletes brain is trying to handle too many things at one time, the work is different. We focus on identifying stressors and teach life skills and techniques for managing these stressors. This allows the brain and nervous system to calm down. In some instances EMDR work is also done to accelerate this process. There is hard work involved for the athlete to get better and return to tumbling. It takes openness and vulnerability to work through the fear, self doubt, embarrassment, and shame that they have experienced. The more open an athlete is with me and the more willing they are to be vulnerable with their fears and self doubts the better the results.

This process is very powerful but there is also a responsibility on the athlete to work hard on their mindset. The thoughts, attitudes, and perceptions that they allow into their mind play a key role in this process. They must train their mind to be positive. If they don’t, all the hard work we do will not result in them recovering the ability to tumble.

At the end of this process the athlete can go back to their sport absent of the mental blocks and the shame and embarrassment that goes with not being able to tumble. Tumbling becomes fun again and that is the most rewarding part of my work with these athletes.

These athletes desperately want to tumble again, to be a part of their team, to do skills that they used to love to do and could do without thinking. To return to that free place in their mind again is life changing. By learning to work through these blocks they access parts of their personalities that they might never had accessed if the blocks had not occurred. They return to their sport wiser, smarter, more mature, and grateful to be able to participate in their sport again with passion.

Filed Under: Sports Shut Down and the Mental and Emotional Impact on Athletes Tagged With: EMDR, Mental Blocks, Mental Overload, Overwhelm, Shame, Sports Performance

Sports Injuries and Shame – What’s Wrong With the Athlete Who Needs Help?

October 16, 2010 by admin 2 Comments

Pole VaulterI frequently receive emails and phone calls from athletes or their parents inquiring about treatment for sports injuries. These athletes have suffered numerous sports related injuries. Some of these athletes have suffered other complications during their recovery. Many suffered a serious injury and then several other injuries trying to come back. Many are contemplating giving up their respective sport.

I always explain to the athlete or their parent how these injuries affect the athlete on a conscious and unconscious level and how they can be helped. Most of the time I get to work with the athlete and experience the joy of seeing them work through the traumatic nature of their injury. They bounce back in a profound way. The athlete, their family members, coaches, and trainers are elated.

Every now and then an athlete or parent just kind of disappears and never returns phone calls or emails once we have the initial consultation. Sadly I don’t get the opportunity to help these athletes. The reasons…money, time, “we are going to see how he/she does for a while”, “not sure we want to go that route” and so on. It is always sad and disappointing when I am not given the opportunity to help these types of athletes. I always ask myself “how bad does it have to get for these kids?”

Money is certainly a very legitimate reason —especially in our tough economic times and I want to address another underlying reason that I see standing in the way of treatment and having a negative influence on sports injury recovery.

Sports Injury in The News

Over the last few weeks there have been many sports related injuries in the news. Locally rookie Ben Tate and Conner Barwin of the Texans went down with season ending ankle injuries:

  • Case Keenum of the University of Houston, a Heisman hopeful, suffered a concussion one week, and the following week suffered a season ending ACL injury
  • Anthony Rendon of Rice University, the College Baseball Player of the Year, broke his ankle playing for team USA—this after suffering a season ending injury on the same ankle last year

I read about a high school football player from the Houston area who broke his neck in a game. He sat on the side lines for forty-five minutes before anybody realized that he had a broken neck. He was centimeters away from being permanently paralyzed.

Reggie Bush under incredible stress, embarrassment, and humiliation gives up the Heisman Trophy he won in 2005 because of his issues while at USC. The next week he breaks his leg. There are numerous research studies that show a very clear connection between increased levels of stress and pressure from outside distractions and an increase in sports related injuries. Kevin Kolb, a University of Houston ex suffers a concussion while playing for the Philadelphia Eagles and loses his starting spot to Michael Vick. The media hounded Kevin for his play and made Vick sound like the savior of Eagles football.

If you read between the lines I believe you will hear and feel the powerful psychological impact all of these athletes experienced when suffering an injury. They all have to deal with stressful issues related to and not related to sports—all this while trying to return to play and make a comeback.

All of these athletes will have to take time off to recover. Some will need surgery and rehab. The lucky ones will be able to come back. The football player in the neck brace who came so close to permanent paralysis suffered a career ending and life changing injury. Case Keenum’s future is in doubt because of his injuries.

I read that Owen Daniel, the Texans tight end who was coming back form a torn ACL suffered last season was so nervous before his first gback that he was shaking during warm ups. Some of that shaking could have been from healthy excitement about his return to professional football. But my training tells me that consciously or unconsciously he was terrified and wondered how his knee would hold up. Fear of re-injury is a huge obstacle to overcome when athletes first step back on the field. ame

Sometimes I get very frustrated when I get emails like those I mentioned and I am not given the opportunity to help these athletes. The frustration comes from not being able to help these kids when they were first injured. I also feel sad that it has taken this much pain and suffering before mental and emotional support and assistance is considered.

The Psychological Impact Becomes Cumulative

The mental and emotional trauma builds up one injury on top of the other. For some the sense of overwhelm is so powerful the kid says “I am done”. Many go out and experience another injury. All play and attempt to hide the fear, anxiety, and sense of overwhelm. So what keeps athletes, parents, coaches, and trainers from getting athletes the help they need to overcome the mental and emotional impact of their injuries? What I hear most often is money. In our economy financial struggles are very real.

Could There Be Another Reason?

The answer is yes. Shame! – —a belief that something is wrong with an athlete who needs help to overcome their injury related trauma. This shame is also experienced by many parents of athletes if their son or daughter are injured and need help. It carries a negative stigma and is seen as a sign of weakness and a reflection on the athlete and those in his/her system.

When I was in high school I suffered a concussion, separated my shoulder, broke my arm and suffered a severe knee injury where I tore three of the four knee ligaments and a cartilage. In college I separated my shoulder again. With each injury I moved farther and farther away from a confident, outgoing, fun seeking kid, and closer and closer to a less confident, anxiety filled, pain avoiding athlete trying to act like everything was fine, but terrified of being injured again. It had a very dramatic impact on my personality.

Sometimes I get frustrated at not being able to help an athlete. Either they don’t want to come in, or coaches, parents and trainers fail to take what I see is critical action to help an athlete get the help they need.

I know that I have to do a better job of educating parents, coaches, athletes, doctors, and trainers. My mission is to help these athletes overcome the psychological impact of their injuries. To make this happen I have to continue to educate and do my part to shift this paradigm.

There is good news on my end. I work with USA Gymnastics, many NFL and Major League baseball players, Olympic gymnasts and track & field athletes, USA judo and weightlifting athletes, and high school and college athletes from all across the country. This treatment model is working its way into these systems.

With each athlete I work with I know there is one more athlete, teammate, parent, family, coach, doctor, and trainer that has expanded their knowledge and awareness of the psychological impact of sports related injuries. They see how beneficial treatment can be for the athlete and those in the athletes system.

Filed Under: Sports Shut Down and the Mental and Emotional Impact on Athletes Tagged With: Mental impact of injuries, Shame, Sports Injury

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