Severs?

[canadiangymmom]

I had a meeting with my daughter's head coach last night to discuss her progress etc. I mentioned some discomfort my daughter's been experiencing in her heels. She said it's Sever's and it pretty much goes with the sport.

Has anyone else got any info. I've read up on it, but would love to hear thoughts and suggestions for relief. It's not bad at this point, periodic complaints when she's been sitting for a long time, but it passes when she's active.

I was told that most gymnasts experience it and it goes away completely when they leave the sport and grow up.

I'd love some feed back. This is her 1st injury, well, it's not even that, but 1st pain associated with the sport.

Canadian gym mom

[bogwoppit]

I've copied this to the coaches forum. I'd like to see what they think.

Bog

[Gym-Nice-tics]

A couple of my girls have heel pain when the work out, but I don't know if any of them have been diagnosed. I've taped heel pads to them during practice, which several claim really to help. I guess it absorbs a little bit of the pounding. Another gymnast says that just taping her ankle in an achilles type tape job helps to relieve the pain she feels when tumbling or vaulting.

At home or at the gym I've found that the best icing method is ice massage. We freeze paper cups of water and use the cup to massage the sore area with the ice. I feel this does a much more thorough job than just ice alone.

Also, make sure plenty of calf and achilles stretches are being done. You don't want overly tight muscles pulling on things. That should also help.

Good luck! Hope it begins to feel better!

[gymdog]

I've only known a couple girls who have had this (compared to Osgoods) but some of them use heel cups. I wouldn't be averse to that but I would be a little concerned about getting dependent on it or using it to mask pain when some time off of tumbling on harder surfaces, etc, would really be better.

This is usually more the advice for plantar fasciitis, but I'd probably recommend it for any heel pain just because it's generally a good course of action. She should really try not to go barefoot, even in the house - it can't hurt, and the arch support might help with the pain. A pair of slip on clogs or something like that with arch support kept in her bedroom would be good. I've heard some people say crocs are good, but I haven't ever tried them so I don't really know myself.

Definitely freeze the ice in Dixie cups and peel back the top of the paper so you can hold the bottom and use the top to ice.

I would be wary of relying on OTC painkillers, because I've known a lot of people who would use them before practice and then they just built up a tolerance for it. A lot of times with was without the coach's knowledge - they had to make a rule that if you wanted to use OTC painkillers at practice, it had to be in the office labelled with your name and what schedule you could take it on (from a parent). They have their place, but you kind of have to be careful with them. You don't want to be masking a problem at a young age and continuing to train on it. If she is having pain and needed Advil before practice, I'd definitely tell her coach or send a note if you don't drive her, so the coach will be aware that she might have to modify her practice. Sometimes young kids don't speak up or it is hard to accurately gauge their pain level. The parent knows the child much better so it can help to get that info firsthand.

Stretch. You can use a stair case and stand on one stair with your heels hanging off the edge and let it stretch through the foot. Sit in pike and pull the toes back.

Heel cup link (from above): g195 the cheetah

[gotgym]

We have a young team(only been open in this area 3 years) of 90 girls . Several have heel pain and a few have been diagnosed with severs.. i would have it checked before assuming its anything. For a few its just that sore heel or bruised heel. For others that have actually been diagnosed they have had it for quite a while and it gets worse in the cold weather for them, or during a growing spell. I either tape or have them order the heel cups.. Most that have it came with it from a previous gym that conditioned on a cement floor with carpet over and no padding (conditioning area).. We all feel that may have contributed . Others said between gymnastics and gym at school on hardwood surfaces it aggravated the condition. Most Drs wrote notes having them excused from any exercise on the hard gym floor for aperiod of time.. either way I would have her checked

[jes.the.gymnast]

i was told i had severs about 7 years ago, while i was doing gym. the pain at times was unberable IT REALLY HURTS. but you also have to understand it cant get any worse and will not affect the feet in years to (besidespain) so if the pain can be pushed throuhg no harm will come. i had alot of growing related problems which were made worse by me doing gym but went away while i still did gym. i quit about 4 years ago and they still hurt at times. all growing problems go away with time they can just take ages, like heading on 8 years for my case
hope that helped