Junior floor specialist Jessica Taylor has her work cut out for her at each home meet in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Often waiting to contribute one of the last routines of the competition, her ability to stay focused on her job is a major key to her success. Her consistency and newfound performance quality on floor have earned her a spot in the back end of the Eagles’ floor lineup, where she is trusted to knock out the lowest score of the rotation. It is a tall order for many, but for her, it’s a weekly learning opportunity instead of a task. Every routine she contributes is as calculated as ever: At first glance, her composition is extremely suited to her strengths–watch for her sky-high double tuck–while below the surface, her holistic approach to training allows those strengths to shine.
She attributes her successes to constant mindset training, which head coach Kasey Crawford encourages all of her athletes to utilize. At the start of the season, the entire team works through an introductory module on mindset training with Gymnastics Mindset Academy. Topics range from positive thinking to competition day nerves and are all discussed with a gymnastics-specific lens.
In Taylor’s freshman year, the full team worked together through mindset training packets and watched videos to help with mental performance. The extra focus on mental training resonated differently with each athlete, causing the team to shift to a more individualized approach in her sophomore and junior years. Each UW-La Crosse gymnast has the opportunity to schedule weekly private meetings with the Gymnastics Mindset Academy, working through scenarios that are specific to their own gymnastics. Since no two gymnasts contribute the same thing to the team, meetings and discussion topics are all tailored to their goals and workloads in the sport. This flexibility in mindset training is perfect for the Eagles, as the gymnasts have a variety of academic schedules, too. Taylor is recognized by her team and staff as an athlete who makes the most out of this supplementary training and has consistently done so since her freshman year.
The Eagles’ connection to Gymnastics Mindset Academy is a unique one, as the program is often geared to club gyms and their athletes. Many of the Gymnastics Mindset Academy’s clients commit to collegiate teams and are required to use their respective school’s performance coaches. UW-La Crosse’s athletics structure proves an exception to the rule, creating an environment where alumna and former assistant coach Ali Havel can work with the gymnasts on both a team and an individual scale.
The Gymnastics Mindset Academy, spearheaded by Havel and fellow life coach Stacie Fletcher, provides cognitive behavioral training in sport-specific delivery methods for gymnasts. Separating their services from those of sport psychologists, the Gymnastics Mindset Academy’s focus is on building proactive toolkits rather than re-wiring reactions to obstacles in gymnastics. Fletcher describes it as “managing the symptoms instead of the emotions and nerves.” Training a gymnast’s thought process can help unwanted nerves arise less often.
Both Fletcher and Havel have experience in the gym as athlete and coach, allowing for a smooth entry for gymnasts who start mindset training. “Being able to understand that process, and then help them find a thought and feeling that’s going to get them to take those actions they want— they can understand and process the whole skill and it’s really unique and fun,” Havel said. For her work, she touches specifically on the unique dynamics of gymnastics. It can often be hard for a kid to have a teammate, best friend, and rival all wrapped up in the same person. It can prove even harder to try to explain that to someone outside the sport. She shared that “while we don’t need to know gymnastics to coach them on their brain, it makes it fast and helpful. You can get there really fast, instead of a kid having to spend 30 minutes trying to explain what’s happening.”
Similarly, the duo can relay advice back to the gymnasts in a manner and language that mimics the sport itself. If a “routine” is made up of a string of cues and mindsets, then each piece is often presented as a single skill; those pieces are then further broken down into drills—the individual thoughts. Converting a mental toolkit into skills makes it easier for athletes to initially grasp and in time to track their progress.
One of the main skills taught is differentiating between “having to” and “wanting to,” as the two can often get confused. The first implies a true life-or-death situation while the second reminds the athlete of the gray area between perfection and failure. After unpacking the contrast between the two above statements, many gymnasts that work with the Gymnastics Mindset Academy are able to remind themselves that at their core, they do want to face challenges. “When you can switch that thought process in your brain, it’s pretty significant in clearing up a lot of things,” Fletcher said.
Another exercise that athletes resonate with involves pocket change, and for Fletcher it’s been the exact same bill for years. In it, she’ll ask a gymnast the value of her $50 bill. No matter if the bill falls off a proverbial beam, gets crumpled, or is side-by-side with a new $50 bill, the gymnasts confidently say it’s still worth $50. After discussing why its appearance doesn’t affect its value, the door is open for athletes to address self worth.
For Taylor, a measurable takeaway from mindset training has been having a mental routine to go along with her floor routine. She has a mental cue for every section of her jam-packed set and a physical roadmap of skills and breathing spots to go along with it. “For me, mental training isn’t necessarily the keywords. It’s more the mindset going into your routine and trusting all the reps that you’ve done,” she said. “That’s something you have to learn outside of gymnastics.” She notes that coaches can always help with keywords and breathing, but the rest is up to the athlete; these are things that will stay with them after their gymnastics careers come to an end.
Having a mental pattern on floor helps Taylor stay focused without sacrificing any performance value–she’s trusted to keep up her team’s energy (of which there’s no shortage on the other side of the white line) while staying dialed-in on her execution. Rather than thinking about the implications any single routine may have, she’s completely locked-in on what she can do in the moment to set up the best score she can. In doing so, she treats each routine as a learning opportunity.
The work is paying off, too. Her season has been going great so far, and the Eagles are on a roll with NCGA regionals and a chance to qualify to nationals on the line this weekend. Taylor boasts a 9.850 high on floor and contributed to the Eagles’ third-highest floor score in program history with a 48.975. UW-La Crosse also posted its second-highest program score this season, tallying a 193.450. To add the cherry on top, it also established itself as the strongest DIII floor team in the country.
While nothing can be guaranteed in gymnastics, it’s safe to say that for anyone watching, the focus and gratitude in the eyes of each UW-La Crosse gymnast will be clear.
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Article by Peri Goodman
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