Routine Ready: How to Motivate Your Gymnast on Competition Day

The morning of competition day in the house of a gymnast can be hectic. There’s the rush to get an energizing breakfast in, finding her favorite Destira leotard, and all the other last minute items needed for the day… not to mention that pre-competition over-thinking. She’s wondering if she’s practiced enough, if she will be able to land just right, if she will perform well in front of her friends. Is she routine ready? Child psychologists will agree: motivation is the secret to helping children develop their greatest potential. In the end, it’s up to your child to do her best, but you can create an encouraging environment that will strike the spark of motivation, producing an internally fueled quest for success. Here are 5 tips to create that motivating environment and help your gymnast get routine ready:

1. Encourage a Good Night of Sleep: A good night of sleep has many benefits. To begin with, it improves memory and creativity, sharpens attention, lowers stress, and is mood enhancing. Sleep is important more than just the night before competition day too- a Stanford University study found that college football players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours a night for seven to eight weeks improved their average sprint time and had less daytime fatigue and more stamina. In short, the simplest way for an athlete to improve their performance? Sleep.

2. …and a Nutritious Breakfast in the Morning: Imagine you are a car. After a long night of sleeping, your fuel tank is empty. Breakfast is the fuel that gets you going so you can hit the road. You need to provide enough new energy for your body to get started and to keep you functioning until lunch… Especially if your morning is going to be filled with somersaults!

3. Praise vs Encouragement: While the words may show up as synonyms, there’s a different approach to the two. With praise, you discuss results and use opinion words (such as good, great, terrific) With encouragement, you notice effort and progress and use descriptive words. The difference between the two is that encouragement is not focused on results, rather what they achieved overall and how that has improved.

4. Teach Your Gymnast Resilience: There’s two basic steps to your gymnast fostering resilience: teaching them to regard mistakes as something that happens to everyone and that are something to learn from, and by instilling in them a strong belief that an adult in their lives will aways be there with love and support. This resilience will allow them to focus on their strengths and to develop the ability to solve their own problems.

5. Let Your Gymnast Know It’s Important to You, Too: This is a step that typically happens before competition day, but it’s worth mentioning. If your gymnast sees that you also find their gym time valuable and rewarding, that internally fueled motivation machine will soar. Maintain a relationship with her coach and stay up-to-date with going-ons and events in the gym.

The first step to being routine ready is to have a great fitting gymnastic outfit! Browse our shimmering fabrics and strong color choices in quality fabrics for a leotard to fit your gymnast’s personality.