Last night we had the pleasure of seeing the sports psychologist at CGA. Yep, we have one of those too. It comes with the package. It’s a good thing I think. Our little girls are very impressionable and to have someone who can take care of their psyches is a good thing.
We were given a heads up by Molly. She said they talked about animals and how they could relate to gymnastics or something. What kind of animal were you like? She told mom to give her the name of an animal and she’d tell her how it would be good in Gymnastics. Mom said “ok, a porcupine”. Molly thought for a minute, and said, “Ok, not a porcupine, I don’t know about those”.
The psychologist was trying to relate the story about the Indian chief. You know the one where he tells his young warriors that inside him are two wolves fighting, one is fear and anger, the other is hope and courage, or something like that. A young feller asks which one will win? and the chief answers, “Whichever one I feed.”
So she helps them figure out which animals or animal combinations they have inside them that they wish to feed and not feed. What animal qualities. Bear with me, it’s a stretch, but it’s fun for the kids and they get it because they are 8 and 9 years old.
Like a tiger is fast and graceful a snail isn’t, etc.
I was hoping they’d ask me because I was prepared to be a “Score focused Porcupine” but it didn’t come to that.
Last time we drew pictures of mirrors and wrote stuff down that was anger related if I recall right.
But in the end we had a very good conversation about goal setting and hopefully we can break Molly of her expectation to show up at meets and get 10’s. Honestly I didn’t put that idea in her head. I might have talked about 10 here or there but I never set that expectation. She knows darn well I’d be perfectly happy with an 9.875 🙂
Seriously, at this stage Molly knows what the scores are for, but she needn’t worry if she messes up a routine. It’s not the end of the world. It’s certainly not worth crying over. Now 5-6 years from now, if she falls of the beam in the Olympics. I expect some serious tears then. I mean that’s national tv and all. Heck that’s global coverage. If you don’t cry under those circumstances you’re not a team player.