A mental block is defined as an inability to remember something or perform a mental action, in some ways it’s just like writers block. Some of my teammates, including myself, have the worst mental blacks when it comes to tumbling, it’s very common for athletes to develop a type of mental block.

For me, it all started during high school, I was at an open gym to practice my tumbling to get better for competition that was coming up soon. I was going for a back handspring and landed right on my head, and that was when and where it all started. Ever since that day, I haven’t been able to do any type of tumbling without someone standing next to me spotting.

There are so many reasons why athletes develop a mental block, and one of them is ineffective coaching. This can be from the coach being either too tough, or not tough enough. In my case, my coach was not tough enough to get me back in the habit of pulling my tumbling after it happened, she kept telling me to take it easy and that was when I just stopped being able to do any skill.

Another reason why athletes develop a mental block is because they have the fear of injuring themselves, or worse, re-injury. The biggest way to injure yourself is to have that negative mindset of possibly hurting yourself.

Lastly, there is always the person who is the perfectionist, and this one is the biggest. There is always that fear of not looking good while you are doing the tumbling pass, because you aren’t going to do the same pass the same way every time, it won’t ever work like that. The perfectionist are usually the ones who actually do things perfectly, and this is the irony with it, they are just afraid for that one time where it might not look right.