Mental Blocks

It took me a long time to actually do an aerial (cartwheel with no hands) in gymnastics because my body refused to do it.  I had the physical capability, but every single time I went to go for it, my hands would go down.  I just couldn’t mentally accept that my hands were not supposed to touch the ground.  This was the only time I had a serious problem with a mental block in my gymnastics/cheering career.  Normally, I was really good at overcoming my fears and just going for it.  Unfortunately, I’m encountering a similar issue with parkour now.

The move I’m trying to master is called the kong vault.  I thought I had learned this already but then I realized what I was actually doing is the kash vault which is kind of a mix between the dash vault (which is actually really easy and fun for me) and the kong.  Hence the name.  In the kash vault, you start out with your hands but then your feet come through.  When using a kong vault, your feet come after your shoulders.  Push off with your hands, leaning forwards, hips up, then your feet come through.  I didn’t understand why this was so difficult for me.  I knew I could physically do it, so why was I having so much trouble with it? And then it hit me.  I didn’t like the fact that my feet were coming after the rest of my body.  I liked the comfort of my feet going first with most skills, and it drove me crazy to trust my body to stay in control when I’m going head/shoulders first.  I worked on it this weekend until I was so tired that I tripped on my way to the vault and landed with my body draped over the vault box.  I lay there for a moment in defeat and eventually rolled off onto the floor.

I took a break when I realized how tired I was because I didn’t want to hurt myself, but I’m determined to get over this silly fear.  I was told progression steps were the best way to get me there so I’m going to find some ways to work up to it.  Additional advice is more than welcome though!

Note: the videos aren't necessarily the best out there, but they're the shortest little demos I could find and I know you don't all have hours to spend watching parkour videos like me!