Mental Toughness

Tumbling is about 75% mental and only 25% physical. These are not proven statistics, just my opinion. However, it makes perfect sense. As long as a person can jump and bend a little, he or she is capable of doing basic tumbling skills. The hard part about tumbling is understanding how to make your body move and not being afraid to take risks. When it comes to fear and risk taking, the name of the game is mental toughness. For today’s topic, I quote the movie Inception:
"What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed - fully understood - that sticks; right in there somewhere. "

Fear and doubt are planted like a seed. It starts out so small, that small sliver of what on earth am i doing, or I cant do this, or how do i do this, or what if? Its too small to notice it was even planted but it grows and grows until all you think about is fear.
Think about it…If I was to say, "Don’t think about Christie and Erika dressed up as purple polka dotted elephants cheerleading on a beach"…what is the first thing that enters your brain? Probably Christie and Erika cheering on a beach dressed as purple polka dotted elephants….this couldn’t possibly have entered your mind if I didn’t plant it like a seed just now!
This happens that easily. One bad back handspring makes you think that they are all scary. One girl next to you balks on a tumbling pass and makes you think that it might happen to you. Your friend has a tumbling block and you start to think "what if it happens to me?" Maybe you just see someone else fall and picture it happening to you.
Seeds of doubt and fear can be planted in an instant and in a trillion different ways. This is why ideas are the most resilient parasite. One tiny incident or thought can trigger something deep inside your brain. This is why mental toughness is KEY. Once the seed has been planted it is difficult to remove. The best bet is learning how to remove the seed when it is planted.
For example, this past weekend, I got a sliver of doubt in my brain that I am too old to tumble and that I could hurt myself simply because I saw to other people my age hurt themselves tumbling. I had a brief freak out before realizing that it was just a parasite of a thought. It was just a seed of doubt! How silly of me to think that just because someone else hurt herself that I would hurt myself. You need to be aware of these "parasitic thoughts" and learn how to recognize them, and then remove them from your brain. The longer a thought lingers in your brain, the more you obsess over it, and the more detrimental it can be.
Let’s all try and track our negative thoughts. As soon as you realize one is creeping in your mind, kick it out! Do not let any seeds of fear or doubts become planted in your brain! Great tumblers are mentally tough tumblers.