Focus and Determination

Focus and determination are key components to any sport, especially gymnastics. It is required most of the time, whether you are at practice or at a meet. Beam and floor are probably the two events that required the most focus and determination. On beam, especially when you are dealing with acro skills (cartwheels, round-offs, backwalkovers, frontwalkovers, backhandsprings, handstands, etc.) you must be very focused and cannot be distracted.

Beam requires an extreme amount of focus. For example, during flight elements. In flight elements, there is atleast a second where you are mid-air, not touching the beam at all, and then after that second or two, you come back down on the beam on either your feet or your hands. You would come down on your feet if you were doing a round-off but if you are doing a backhandspring then you come down on your hands. I am not a big fan of round-offs on beam so I don't do them, so I can't describe what it would be like to come back down on your feet, but I do do backhandsprings and coming down on your hands can be scary. If one of your hands comes down even a fraction of an inch off-center, you could fall and get hurt. Your hands come down onto the beam in a certain position, so the weight of your entire body is resting evenly on both of your palms, so if you miss a palm, ultimately your entire body weight plus some extra force is on one hand and that can be very dangerous. You don't only need to focus when you are doing a hard skill. I, personally, along with a few of my gymnastics friends, struggle tremendously with full turns. And, compared to everything else we do in beam routines, a full turn should be one of the easiest skills if not the very easiest in the entire routine. Whenever I do a full turn, I have to be completely focused and I have to spot the end of the beam or I will not even have a chance of staying on. Also, once you do something too many times, something hard or easy, and you don't give it your full effort anymore, then you are giving up and not paying full attention, which can only do you harm. 

Floor also requires determination and focus, along with beam. Some skills just require practice and are pretty simple and once you get them they are there to stay. Twisting skills (when you are twisting mid-flip either going forwards or backwards) are difficult to do without complete concentration and determination. I have never front twisted but I have back twisted and it is more difficult when you are not focused, because twisting requires your full attention. Along with twisting, you need to be focused during an entire floor routine when you do one, because you have to be conscious of whether or not your toes are pointed and your knees are straight along with being able to keep up your endurance during the whole thing.

All four events do require an extreme amount of determination and focus, but I only discussed beam and floor because they are the most complicated.

So, make sure before trying something risky or doing a skill for the first time that you aren't distracted or thinking too much because doing those things can certainly make things worse for you. Trust me, it happens. And when you do get hurt because you weren't paying attention, you want to blame someone or something so you don't take fault for what happened. However, unfortunately, you are responsible most of the time and you just have to accept that.

Clearly, as I have explained certain situations, focus, determination, and concentration are all very important when it comes to doing skills.