CBN Aug/Sept 2011
With a little preparation you won’t be helpless when the unthinkable happens on the mat.
by Sara Jarrett
Moments after the Maryland Marlins All-Stars Tsunami completed its routine during the first day of Worlds earlier this year, the lights went out. Literally. The team had to perform the entire piece a second time, (though the first half wasn’t scored again). On day two they endured an even worse tragedy. One of the team’s strongest athletes tore her ACL during a tumbling sequence and left the floor in a wheelchair.
For the second time that weekend the Tsunami’s routine was interrupted and the girls found themselves having to perform twice in one day. Thankfully, the coaches handled these situations calmly and appropriately, and despite all the obstacles, the Tsunami’s went on to take fourth place in their division. Here are some tips on how you can prep for the worst and keep your cool if things go awry.
Scenario 1: An athlete’s injured mid-routine
When Tsunami athlete Brea Curley tore her ACL mid-routine at Worlds, coach (and mom) Terri Curley calmly turned off the music and ushered her team backstage to regroup. “It was emotional,” she says, “but then they went out there without Brea and hit the routine the best they had all weekend. It was amazing. They did it four times that trip and hit it every time.”
How to prepare: Travel with alternates. “Brea flew and based the pyramid, so we had one alternate do the flying and another basing after her injury,” says Curley. “It took a few tries, but we made it work.”
How to react: Remain calm and give your team a pep talk to fire them up. “Each of the three coaches had something to say,” says Curley. “I told them Brea wouldn’t be back but that she wanted them to do it for her. Another coach gave a lecture about having a comrade down—if Brea were competing, she’d be strong and do it for them. Another coach said it was their time to shine. That’s why they hit the floor with all they had. They knew they could do it.”
Dr. Belisa Vranich, member of the Golds Gym Fitness Institute, says giving a pep talk is a great tool to motivate a team, but that it’s also important to distinguish between getting psyched and getting emotional. “Being too emotional can get in the way of clear thinking and make your athletes anxious,” says Dr. Vranich. “Keep your talk focused on the fact that your performance is well-practiced. Say things like ‘you can do this,’ ‘you’ve done it before, this time is no different,’ and ‘give it your all.’ ”
Scenario 2: An athlete misses her flight
Sometimes the reason a routine might have to be reworked is more an act of the universe than anything else. “I had a cheerleader whose flight was cancelled on the way to nationals one year,” says Curley. “We had a team of people helping to find this girl a flight and she ended up flying without her mom but got there in time.”
How to prepare: Insist that all athletes fly together and let them know that they win as a team and lose as a team. There will be no leaving a cheerleader behind. “Think of difficulties as challenges that are part of the process,” says Dr. Vranich. “Give the impression that although obstacles may be a surprise, they’re nothing new and you’ve dealt with them before.”
How to react: “You have to be calm and organized,” says Curley. “Don’t ever let the team see you rattled.” Dr. Vranich says it’s important to stop yourself from thinking the worst and instead try to focus on the positive. “If you immediately think ‘we’re screwed,’ it sets the tone,” she says. “If you’re upset, make sure the feeling is in check because it can be very contagious. Even if you fall apart later—in private—let them see you being level-headed and confident when you approach them with the setback.”
Scenario 3: An athlete misses a mandatory practice
If gym rules state that your athletes must attend all practices before competitions in order to participate, then you need a game plan in case of a no-show. Coach Jessica Lee of Galaxy Elite in Missoula, MT, learned this the hard way when one of her star athletes skipped the last practice before a Saturday competition.
“This situation was a big one to overcome,” she admits. “The girl who missed practice was front and center for much of the routine and also a main 
top girl. We had to pull a girl into the group who’d never flown before—she’d never done an Elevator let alone a stunt sequence and Basket Tosses. Everyone had to learn new formations and dance choreography. We had to think on the spot to rework the entire routine.”
How to prepare: Talk to your athletes beforehand so they understand what might happen under similar circumstances. Keeping lines of communication open and educating them on all the possible scenerios of competition will leave them feeling more prepared and better capable of handling the unknown.
“We talk a lot about difficult situations in regards to all aspects of life and the fact that you can choose to get through them and do the best that you can with what you’re given,” says Lee.
Also making sure the team trusts you to take care of a situation is a major part of overcoming this particular situation, adds Dr. Vranich. “Make sure you’ve established yourself as a coach who’s perceived as realistic, positive and resourceful,” she advises.
How to react: Keep your cool and be clear and flexible. “Once we realized the athlete wasn’t showing up, we had a coaches meeting and then a team meeting,” says Lee. “We let everyone know exactly what our plan was. We also laid out expectations to minimize confusion.”
Some of those expectations included forbidding athletes from talking at all during practice and asking them to not question the coach’s decisions, as there’d be some necessary trial and error during the process. In the coaches meeting, Lee let each person know what she expected and delegated one coach to work on formations, one to work on dances and one to teach an alternate how to stunt.
She also advised her coaches to speak in quiet voices. “This way the kids had to really listen to what we were saying and it kept the atmosphere of practice calm,” she explains. Of course, you should also let your team know that competition can sometimes be all about going with the flow.
“Flexibility is key in overcoming adversity. Our team performed very well. They had no major mistakes, no falls and the crowd couldn’t tell what obstacles they’d overcome. They ended up taking second place and winning state!”
Scenario 4: The music or lights go out mid-routine
As experienced firsthand by the Tsunami’s, just about anything can malfunction when athletes are out on that blue mat. Music can cut out, lights flicker or burn out, uniforms tear—we’ve seen it all.
How to prepare: “I’ve always tried to prepare my kids for musical mishaps,” says Lee. “When working through a routine, I’ll sometimes play the wrong music or shut it off entirely. They know to keep going.” If you haven’t done similar drills with your teams, now’s a good time to start. This way, if something does go wrong, you’ve taught your athletes exactly how they should deal with it, be it stopping and starting over or continuing sans music.
How to react: “When the lights went out at Worlds this year, I had to calm the girls down repeatedly,” says Curley. “You have to remain calm. Although I’ve seen it done, I don’t think that yelling or freaking out works. Keep them in the zone. We tell the girls to be warriors and to show no emotion during warm-ups. Whether you’re feeling tired or frustrated you have to smile for your teammates. Don’t bring anyone else on the team down.”
Dr. Vranich says it’s important to treat how your athletes react under pressure as a team building experience. “Every sport runs into surprises that they have to overcome,” she says. “Think of Olympic teams that not only encounter conditions that are different than their own countries, but international problems and language barriers.”
Scenario 5: Your team is rushed to the floor before they can do pre-performance rituals
Call them superstitions or rituals, but when a team has a way to prepare before competing it can be hard to follow through when those routines are cut short or taken out altogether. “We had a competition where the team was distracted right before going out onto the floor,” says Curley. “They felt rushed and it affected them because they didn’t get to do their team chants and all that. It was a big lesson for us.”
How to prepare: Vow to mentally prepare your athletes and instill confidence in them so they won’t sweat the small stuff. “Do this by teaching them how to assess when something is a small problem—regardless of how annoying or obnoxious it is—and when it’s a bigger, long-term one,” says Dr. Vranich. “The idea of winning the battle and losing the war, or keeping your eye on the big prize helps.”
You can also make sure that any pre-performance rituals are done at times other than right as they’re heading to the mat. The bottom line is that you 
won’t always be guaranteed a spare second to do your funky spirit good luck dance or secret handshake beforehand. Make it a point to relegate all superstitions to the warm-up room or the walk to the backstage area to ensure you have time to do your thing.
How to react: Help them put things into perspective. “I tell the girls that they can’t let things like feeling rushed affect their performance,” says Curley. “If they’re mentally ready, they’ll be fine no matter what. I tell them, ‘You’ve done the routine dozens of times. You know what to do.’ ”
Scenario 6: Your team has to enter the floor from the opposite side than they’ve practiced
“Each competition has you enter in a different place and for the little ones, it can confuse them for their first formation,” says Lee. “One day I had an athlete ask me what to do if that ever happened. It never occurred to me that it would even matter.”
How to prepare: “We practice entering the floor from the back and both sides,” says Lee. “We do this with all our teams, but it makes a huge difference with the mini and youth squads.”
Lee also has her teams practice their routines facing each side of the floor. “Their bodies become so accustomed to the way things are set up in our gym,” she explains. “By doing this we help to teach their bodies to innately go to the correct spot. I like doing this because it causes some stress, which mimics competition. It also teaches them to communicate on the floor, which is important if something goes wrong mid-performance.”
How to react: “Relax. You see so many coaches screaming at their kids to move one way or another, especially the little ones,” says Lee. “If you calmly direct them to move over one panel, they won’t start the competition feeling like they already have ground to make up. The calmer the coach, the calmer the team.”
How to Deal with a Panicky Athlete
Being a coach takes more than just the ability to choreograph killer tumbling passes. You have to be willing to take on the role of mom, friend and therapist. What would you say to one of your athletes if she thinks she deserved a better placement at competition, started freaking out and distracting everyone in the arena? What if she lost her cell phone or is being harassed by an opposing cheerleader? What would you do if a guy broke up with your star stunter via text right before your team’s about to take the floor?
Dr. Belisa Vranich, member of the Golds Gym Fitness Institute, says the best way to react when someone else is panicking is to do one of three things: “First, try to be firm,” she says. “Tell them they can get upset later and that they’re not allowed to flip out now. The second tactic is to tell your athlete to focus on her performance and assure her that you’ll work together to take care of the logistics of the problem after the performance. The third thing is to remind her that her anxiety isn’t constructive, that it’s actually quite selfish and can take its toll on the entire team. Each of these can work depending on the situation and the attitude of your athlete.”
Comments are closed.