How to help build confidence after a bad dive
Question
hi George! I have 2 daughters that have been diving since they were 8 years old. The younger one is a solid, strong diver, the older one has been one of our area's best divers, but sustained a lower back injury that took her off of the boards for 6 months. Consequently, she fell behind her top competition while she healed. Now she's back, but cannot seem to regain her focus. She is a beautiful diver, determined, and passionate, but in regional and national competition, when she doesn't do a dive well, it blows her confidence for the rest of the meet. What can you suggest that will help her get through this? Any good books or advice you can provide would be most appreciated. She knows she's a good diver, but totally loses her focus when she is under pressure, and the rest of her dives suffer as a consequence. It probably doesn't help that her younger sister always makes it to zones and nationals. Help!
Answer
Dottie--
The hardest part of coming back from an injury is to regain confidence in ones self. When it comes to competing, your daughter needs to use a one at a time approach. Each dive is it's own competitive entity, if she has a bad dive, she needs to put it behind her(it's done and over, time to move on) and focus on the next dive. Have fun, diving isn't worth getting that upset about, it's just a way to show one side of her personality. If she has fun at practice, put that attitude into competition. If she fell behind her rivals during her injury, catching up should be a secondary focus, get her confidence back on her old friends(older dives) and then worry about the new stuff.
Don't stress/worry about diving, it should be fun, not stressfull. The main thing I want to stress is to not let one dive ruin an entire meet, a list isn't just one dive, it's a list of dives. Put the bad ones behind and move on.
I hope this helps,
George
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