Tips for Gymnasts
What would be great, is if people could write me questions, and then I could answer them as best as I could and give them tips. For now, I guess I will just give tips on general things.
Tumbling
~ Before you go for a tumbling run, take a deep breath, and calm yourself. You dont want to chicken out in the middle, or you could seriously injure yourself.
~ Make sure to keep your legs tight, and together: it will make it easier to get around.
~ If you roll or injure your ankle or your wrists, make sure that you stretch them out and make sure that they DONT hurt anymore before you compete. Going to do a routine with injured limbs could lead to disaster.
~ Do not tumble on injured ankles or wrists! The constant pressure will make things worse! If you must tumble, make sure you have a tensor, or are able to wrap up your ankles and wrists safely, to prevent further injury.
~ Make sure when you are tumbling, you use your toes! This one is from personal experience - I am a flat footed gymnast, and trust me, you get much more hieght if you take off your toes.
Competitions
~ The night before your competition, visualize all of your routines a couple of times. In your visualization, think about yourself doing your routines flawlessly, and getting a 10.0.
~ Be sportsmanlike. Instead of going up to a judge after your routine and complaining about your low score, go up to them and ask them to explain why they gave you the mark they did.
~ Cheer for teammates and be polite to other gymnasts. Your attitude could affect how others treat you!
~ When you go for your warm up on each event, make sure you get comfortable with the type of equipment they have (if it's not your home meet, of course). Being more comfortable will help you be more confident.
~ Eat pasta or something with lots of carbohydrates at least three nights before so that they can enter your body. Also eat heathy the day of the competition.
~ Oranges are a great source of instant energy; eat them during the competition if you can
~ Don't overreact or get really emotional after you finish a routine, or vault. Keep an open mind and be optimistic, you never know what may happen in the end.
