Every youth sports athlete experiences fear especially in the game, sometimes even breaking them down. But what if you can use fear to your advantage?
Every athlete experiences fear, especially right before a big game or event. Sometimes it even causes them to completely break down from the pressure. But what if you knew a way to use fear to your advantage?
According to Olympic Gold Medalist Peter Vidmar, when an athlete is afraid of something or they have that fear that means they respect what they are doing and it is okay to have that fear. The question is how do you handle that fear. What do you do with it?
In this short video, Peter Vidmar, the highest scoring American gymnast in Olympic history and the winner of numerous national and international titles, shares with us his tips on how overcoming fear can leads to trust…
Watch Peter Vidmar, the highest scoring American gymnast in Olympic history, as he shares with us how Overcoming Fear In Sports Leads To Trust and Respect.
Read on and find out how YOU can turn fear into a powerful tool to develop trust and respect! We’d love to hear your thoughts, please do leave a comment below.
Sometimes we have already figured out as young athletes, especially in a sport like gymnastics, where you look at the skills we are performing and there is an element of risk involved when you are going upside down and flipping and twisting. Yet there is nothing wrong with fear.
When an athlete is afraid of something or they have that fear that means they respect what they are doing. It is okay to have that fear. The question is how to do you handle that fear. What do you do with the fear? Sometimes kids don’t have fear then they become reckless because they think nothing can happen to them.
They take chances when they shouldn’t be taking chances. When you have that well-founded fear of something, I think it shows that you treat that skill with respect. What I learned is to trust my coach.
I realized, and I will probably go back into this more at other times in other questions, but my coach would never ask me to do something or try something unless deep down inside he knew I could do it. So I learned to have that level of trust.
When he asked me to go for that double back flip off the landing bar, I went for it because I knew that he knew I could make it. That is important to have that level of trust with a coach.
Fear is normal. It happens to everyone. It is just a question of how do you handle it. I learned in gymnastics, of course, that when the time comes to go for a new skill to try it, don’t hold back. Go all out.You give it your all.
It is when we hesitate in the middle of a skill or hesitate that we tend to have problems or get sports injuries and things like that, so you have to be very careful.
I would certainly review the skill mentally. I would in my mind, close my eyes, imagine myself doing it, and get the feel for it before I actually attempted it. But once the time comes to go for it, you just buckle down and say here we go.
In my sport, we have lots of safety measures and safety devices we can take advantage of, whether it is the spotting belt or it is the coach that is spotting you.
There is always that moment of truth where you are on your own. Hopefully, you have taken the proper progressions to be able to do the skill on your own.
You don’t want to go from step number one to step number nine. You have got to make sure you do all the steps in between. Once those steps have been followed, then you have earned the confidence to say, “I am ready to go for this.
I am ready now because I have followed all the steps.” Then hopefully things turn out well.
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Peter Vidmar, the highest scoring American gymnast in Olympic history, is a leader in the Olympic movement today. He has worked for many years as the gymnastics commentator for CBS Sports and ESPN.
Peter is also a powerful and entertaining speaker at corporate meeting and trade shows. With over 2 decades of experience, he helps people throughout the country realize their full potential with his message of Risk, Originality and Virtuosity.
Click here to get his amazing book.