Mental Toughness Training: How to Overcome Mental Blocks
Many of us have seen the dancer who freezes when they try to do a hard skill. It could be a new hip hop trick, new jump, aerial, just about anything. However, it’s common when dancers are trying to learn a new challenging skill that they freeze up and absolutely can’t do it… OR …maybe it’s a skill they’ve had before but something happens like they miss it during an important competition or they get injured and now they have a mental block and can’t perform the skill anymore. As a teacher, you want to keep encouraging them and say “you can do this! Just go for it!” But they are frozen in place. How do you help a dancer get over their mental blocks? In this episode, I share with you the simple 4 step process to overcoming a mental block.
Here are some highlights:
- [2m 24s] What causes a mental block?
- [5m 09s] Step 1: acknowledge the block
- [7m 08s] Experiencing a slip in confidence? Try to notice the patterns because bad days teach us a lot
- [8m 07s] Step 2: improve your self-talk
- [11m 50s] Step 3: reduce the demands of the skill (make it easier)
Interested in learning more mental blocks or other mental toughness skills? Click below to check out my virtual workshops customized to you and your dancers.
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Great job!
Hi Chelsea! You mention 4 steps to overcoming mental blocks but only discuss 3 in the episode. Is there a 4th we should know about?
No, I meant to say 3 in the beginning and didn’t realize the mistake. Thank you for being such a detail-oriented coach and catching that for me!