I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who heard this saying from their parents a plethora of times. Even so, I still struggle to execute this simple rule. Even more general is the idea that you should know what you are going to do before you do it.
In gymnastics this is probably one of the top five rules of the sport, next to respect your coach and don't eat the pit foam (four year-olds have weird tendencies). This is simply because you can DIE. Imagine for a second you're rock climbing. Every step and hand placement you take is careful and thought through to ensure you don't fall. Now say you stopped thinking and just started going. The odds of you putting your foot or hand on an unstable spot is pretty high. Then you fall, Then you're hurt. It's pretty much the exact same thing in gymnastics. If you aren't positive in what you're doing on any given turn you open the door for injury.
Commitment is one of the most taxing, but most required things in this sport. I know for a fact that if you aren't committed to something in one turn you can wind up changing your mind and either scaring, or hurting yourself. I have had too many weeks where I was forced to walk like a little duckling because I accidentally pulled something, like a hamstring or my groin, while tumbling. I couldn't even walk like a grown duck, I still tripped over air enough to impress any cartoon.
Not even solely in regards to injury is this principle important. For gymnasts, our competition is one of skill and execution. When you fall in a routine it's like watching your self walk over you to go hand the gold medal to some stranger, unless they fall in which they pass it on. In some competitions it's an endless game of pass until someone can control themselves. If you are not thinking of exactly what you are going to do in the moment you are doing, most of the time it doesn't end well. Planning ahead is something all gymnasts do. We have to get ready for the next skill, but in turn we wind up missing the one we are supposed to be performing. It's the equivalent to studying for the test on material you haven't covered in class. You'll be ready for it! But only after you fail the test on what you were learning about. Even just in life if you don't think about what you're doing or what's going on around you in the moment you could miss something important - like that piece of gum or dog crap we've all stepped in at some time.
In the end the lesson is don't think too far into the future, don't concentrate on the past, think and feel in the present, because that's what determines what will come next: progressing to the next stage or getting stuck, a game of pass or being able to hold on to that medal.
Gymnastics Background: Currently there are eleven colleges with D1 gymnastics teams. There are 21 schools total who have competitive teams when including D1, club, and the EIGL branches.
Question of the day: Oddly enough one of the most frequent questions I get is "Can you do a backflip?" I'll let you answer that one.
Skill of the Day: Azarian cross, one of the toughest skills on rings.
Being a dancer, the gymnastic world seems pretty similar in the way that I would describe it in comparison to your post. It is a tough thing to do, just like gymnastics is. One injury, one fall, could cost you ever dancing en pointe again. It could also just cost you a medal. Much like you described, we dancers have a tendency to overthink our futures and rethink our past. If we would have done that tour jete just a little higher, we could have gotten the gold medal, etc. in the competition.
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