practice bar recommendation

[margymmom]

My new level 5 is has asked for a practice bar for her birthday. Does anyone have recommendations in terms of brand or type? I have looked at the Jr. Kip which extends to 58 or 60 inches high and a Gibson bar that goes to 48. They seem quite pricey- so I'd like to make a good investment (or find out if a more inexpensive bar is sufficient). My daughter is about 50 pounds and 48 inches tall (and not growing any too fast!).

Also, I'm interested in knowing if this seems like a safe idea in the first place. The bar would be placed in our basement, which means it would likely be used unsupervised.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[bogwoppit]

Not a good idea. If she is already a level five she has all her basic skills, you do not want her practicing level5/6/7 skills alone on a bar in your basement. She could really hurt herself, more likely though is she will develop skills with bad form and have to relearn them.

If she wants something to work on at home a pull up (attaches to a door frame) bar can be good for working on her strength and conditioning.

Though I do know that kids will swing on anything they find, a bar in the basement is a little different (especially one like you mentioned that she really could do skills on) as it will always be too tempting to her.

How about a nice beam? Just my opinion...

[margymmom]

Thanks, you may be right. I don't think she wants to work ahead, only practice her 5 skills (so far!). She has a beam which collects dust in her bedroom- a bar may suffer the same fate once she is comfortable at level 5.

[flpflp7]

I have to go with Bogwoppit on this one. I think a floor bar or pull up bar would be best. I just checked, Resilite has a parallett bar for $99 (http://www.resilite.com/spl_prod_all.shtm). With this she could practice handstands & pirouttes & it says it can be attached to the wall for pull ups or even to practice dance. I think this is a much safer idea. The other thought would be to get private lessons at her gym!