Why Does My Daughter Perform Better in Practice?

Mother of Gymnast:

My daughter trains 6 days a week for competitive gymnastics. She is strong as a bull. She does well when practicing at her home gym. When it comes time for competition, she looks nervous, she seems to hesitate and hold back her strength. We are looking for some way to help her better prepare mentally for competition so she can compete more successfully using her talent to the best of her ability.

Dr. Cohn’s Answer:

I see this very typical issue with many of the athletes I work with— the inability to take one’s practice skills to competition. Often this is a result of fear of failure and sometimes perfectionism. Here are the clues: If she has high expectations (almost unrealistic) for her performance, feels more comfortable in practice than competition, has anxiety and doubt before or during competition (which she does), fears letting others down or how others view her, and performs tentatively like she is controlling her moves—she has fear of failure.

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