A Proud Mom Moment
If you don’t know already (meaning you happened upon my blog vs being someone who knows me in real life), my daughter is a pretty amazing ninja warrior (think the American Ninja Warrior tv show, not martial arts). She is a fierce competitor, but more than that she is insanely coachable and works incredibly hard to continue to grow and get better at her sport. Most of the time that hard work shows in competitions. But for the past few months she’s been struggling in our local league, the Colorado Ninja League.
At the last competition she identified that it was hard for her that so many people knew here and were cheering her on. She loved the support, but it was creating pressure for her. She was getting in her head thinking everyone expected her to do well all the time.
Get Katherine Plog Martinez’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
We’ve been talking about it a bit at a time. What’s different at competions out of state or smaller competitions? Why doesn’t she feel that same pressure? How does she stay out of her head when people are encouraging her and cheering her on.
Enter the Proud Mom Moment
This weekend, a big group of her friends came running over to the start. She graciously engaged with them, and then, she quietly whispered to me that it was too many people and she felt pressure. I politely asked her friends to scoot back to the warm up are and they did. Her coach (shout out to Coach John Maul for being all around amazing!) and I both told her we are okay being the bad guy any time and gave her kudos for letting me know what she needed.
She went on to crush the course and get first place. That’s not what I’m proud of though. I’m proud of the mental work she is doing.
It is HARD to figure out what you need in any given moment. It’s hard to figure out your mental blocks. I struggle with it regularly and I’m an adult! Abigail not only figured out what was causing her to get in her head, she successfully advocated for what she needed. She said it was a little embarrassing that I asked them to leave, but that it was okay and it helped.
Sometimes I’m the annoying mom who reflects too much and tries to unpack everything, but in this case our work together paid off. I’m proud of my little bundle of awesomeness!
