My daughter competed in her first competition as a Junior International athlete. I can’t even begin to explain how nerve wrecking the preparations has been for her. She is surrounded by an immensely talented group of girls this year. They are all determined, focused, flexible and ruthless on the rhythmic floor. She usually gets very flustered and nervous during warm-up but once her first apparatus is done, she manages to calm herself. Now, I need to emphasise that the last time she competed was at Nationals last year and she ended with a disastrous ball routine. I can only imagine the mental battle she had to go through to walk out and perform this weekend. But unfortunately her ball routine was a bit of a train wreck as she lost her ball off the floor, twice. Her score came down to a high 5 and is her lowest score yet while in the pre/international stream. Obviously she was disappointed and very upset with herself. But what made the situation worse was that her coach, the person she relies on in motivating her, ignored her when she walked off the floor. She didn’t give any feedback and told her to get changed for the next routine. My daughter was certainly not the only one who made mistakes during the competition but she was left feeling like a huge failure. When my daughter returned from the change rooms, she joined her team mate and started practicing her next routine. It was here when her coach looked at her and told her that she most likely holds the record for the lowest ever score by a gymnast from their club. This is what broke my daughter’s spirit.
Today’s photo is a quote suited best for the scenario my daughter found herself in. This is relevant to all people in leadership and facilitating positions. Be aware of the ears listening when you speak.
weatheringtulip 
I’m so sorry to hear that. I know EXACTLY what she’s going through… If she ever wants to talk to someone who’s been there, done it before, and isn’t currently involved in gymnastics – then I’m here 🙂
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Thank you Cheyenne 🙂 I really appreciate it and will mention it to her. We don’t really have any seasoned seniors at the club for the ‘younger’ ones to talk to or reflect with. It is certainly mentally draining as a parent to be their first point of support, but I certainly expected that during a competition, the coach should take on that responsibility. It has not been a good year for her (rhythmic wise) but she has bounced back and performing some beautiful routines.
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Wow I read this when you posted it but I just keep thinking about it and today I shared it with my flat who were equally outraged by it. Your daughter sounds incredible and pls remind her and there are group of otherwise pretty successful 21 year olds who are absolutely in awe of what she can do (there is no way i could do gymnastics ever heck) and physical, mental and emotional strength needed that she is displaying.
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Thank you so very much for your kind and encouraging words 💜 I will certainly share that with her. The situation has given a platform to discuss heart-to-heart with her how it makes her feel and what is the best way to deal with it. She made a beautiful come back 2 weeks later scoring a 9 for the same ball routine…I was almost in tears.
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I know you wrote this a while back but I just came across it – made my tears well up with empathy and also anger as the role of a teacher should always be to support, inspire and reassure. Incidentally I’ll never forget when our beautiful Amy scored a 4.3 in stage 3 so it isn’t even true that was the lowest score ever for the club! X
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Thank you Sarah. At the time I was filled with so much anger and utter disappointment. But she is certainly a stronger and more resilient gymnast because of this, and I think she is learning that there are more than 1 side to every person…a hard lesson to learn for anyone! That weekend alone we had 2 gymnasts scoring 3’s, but the difference was certainly in how the different coaches dealt with it.
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