Kips and Grips

[Tumblequeensmom]

O.K. here's my first question on this forum. My daughter is moving up to Level 5 and has been practicing the dreaded "kip." She had been using the beginner grips w/no dowel for her level 4 bar routine. I ordered her some w/the dowel a month ago and she's been using them since then. She's also been having terrible trouble trying to get that kip... actually seems worse now. Well, just out of curiosity, she didn't use them this past weekend and did 8, count 'em, 8 kips. Now, they weren't GREAT, but she got up over the bar... so what gives here? Her coaches say that the grips are the right size for her, but she complains that the leather is kind of "buckling" on her hand when she's trying to come up on the bar. Any ideas? Thanks!

[littlegymchampsmom]

TQM - dowel grips were a royal pain for us as well, skills were always much easier without the grips ... they will break in, it just takes time - dd's took a good couple of months before the leather softened well and felt comfortable. Make sure you keep them wrapped up after every use and make sure your dd uses them every time she does bars... congrats to your dd on the the kip ... keep working it w/the grips and I am sure she will have it in no time

[gym law mom]

Our kids do not get grips(they are with the dowel) until they have finished their L6 season. Then they work on breaking them in to do giants and everything else on bars. Once you start with them, you're basically stuck since the hands soften up and going back and forth just fouls up their feel for the bar.

What drove my daughter crazy was doing a kip with grips on. Here she was having done kips for over 2 years, but really struggled with grips on. She got much more comfortable with the giants and grips than the kips(kind of rhymes!) Her problem was adjusting her grip as she came up to the front support part of the kip. She would complain on end about how it felt that the dowel was getting hung up on the bar. Unfortunately nobody had a great solution except to keep working it. I have no idea what happened, but she came home one night and announced her "kip problem" was solved. The actual kip itself was fine.

Does your daughter have to wear grips? Sounds like last year, all she really had was palm guards, so she is trying to get one of the most frustrating skills plus get used to grips with a dowel. This might be something to discuss with the coach. Most girls in our state do not use grips at L5, some start at L6---just about all at the optional level. It might just be too much too soon.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I've always found kips to be far easier with grips than without. Perhaps it's different on unevens than on highbar; the grips fit differently, and the bar is a different size.

[hammy]

I learned kips, flyaways and giants all at the same time--when i was 6-7 years old. They were the first main skills my coach taught on bars (besides pull over and what not). I learned them all without grips, and then I started using grips during my level 5 season. I didn't have a big problem transitioning into using grips, but bars came naturally to me. Many of my teammates had trouble swinging (big swings that is) with grips because they were used to no grips. I think it all depends on the gymnast when it comes to grips and bars. Some kids like doing bars without grips--One of my teammates didn't use grips until she was a level 9.

Grips sometimes take a while to "break in" to the point where gymnasts are comfortable using them. Sometimes you will have gymnasts who can just get up and use a pair of grips for anything the first time they use them.

[Tumblequeensmom]

Now I'm even more confused... My original thinking after this weekend was to let her "get" the kip with the proper form, and then focus on using the grips? At her gym, all the Level 5's are "encouraged" to start wearing them... And yes, after doing them at open gym, her hands were extremely painful and starting to blister up (she did use the palm guards last year).

Help! She's getting really frustrated and tonight is her first real 'team" practice since she discovered that she COULD kip w/o the grip! Hey, that rhymed too!

[gym law mom]

Seems the whole when to get grips issue depends on your gym. Some gyms tell the kids to get them as soon as they touch a bar, other like ours wait until the girls are training optional skills and then you have the gyms that say its ok if you want them whenever. Alot of kids just want them because they see the "big girls" wearing them or someone else on the team has them.

Since your daughter had palm guards last year, her hands have never "toughened up" from doing bars bare handed. That explains why they hurt after her practice. Really for that reason, once they get started with grips, its hard to go back since their hands have softened up. Believe me, my daughter would have tossed those grips in a minute while struggling with kip, but her hands had gotten soft from wearing them, so she had to stick it out.

Bottom line for L5 is she has to do 2 kips--glide kip on low and long hang on high. If she's able to actually get the kips and put up with some hand discomfort and maybe a few rips, then it may be worth it to put off the grips for awhile.

[Tumblequeensmom]

She did 14 kips w/o her grips tonight at practice!!!! Amazing when she can hardly do ONE w/them.... Gymlawmom, you have some great advice... I just wanted her coaches to know that she COULD do them after all... but I guess we'll put her grips back on again now.... especially since she's come home w/her hands raw!!! I'm not sure of the "official" policy of our gym. I'll ask that at our parent meeting Friday night... we're also considering switching to a different gym run by two ex-chinese national team members, and they said that they NEVER use grips in China! But your'e right, her hands ARE soft from having used the palm grips last year! Thanks for your advice!

-Lynn

[bogwoppit]

My two daughters do not wear grips. Oldest is working giants, handstands etc. She learned her kips without grips, there certainly was a toughening up phase for her hands but now she hardly ever has blisters or rips.

Some girls in our gym wear grips, most do not. The coaches just check if they are the right size, but there is no club policy.

At this point I am happy if my girls never wear grips. We went to a meet last year and one girl in another club had forgotten her grips and was begging to borrow from other girls, in the end she competed without them and did poorly (usually the gold medal kid!). That made me realise that you can forget your grips, but you cannot forget your hands.

Gym policy seems to be what drives the use of grips, so I think that if you choose a certain club, then you have to follow whatever the coaches decide.

Kips are a challenge with or without grips, congrats to your DD on just "getting it" with or without grips.

[hammy]

If the gymnast is doing fine without the grips then go for not using them...as long as they can put up with the pain. Kips are one of the most techniqully difficult skills a gymnast will ever learn, so getting the kip with or without grips is an awesome accomplishment!