Grips - Practice With, Meets Without --> Is that crazy?

[vagymmomma]

I have a question that I'm pretty sure will get a resounding "yes, you're crazy" response. My DD is a L6 and this is her first year using grips (she started right after the end of L5). Last summer she had a incident where her grips slipped and she flew backwards off the high bar. No injury -- she just hasn't quite gotten over the slippery sensation.

She's always been pretty good at bars (consistently mid 9s for L4 and L5 and state champ in L4). This year, giving due respect to L6 bars, she's doing okay (high 8s on a consistent basis). My question came up after she forgot her grips one day for practice. The team was doing testing and she got one of her highest scores ever at L6 in practice. She said she could really feel the bar without the grips. Then she jokingly said that maybe she should compete without her grips. I didn't say anything.

Her casts are well over 30 degrees, and she's losing a decent amount of points on her tap swings. Her tap swings were gorgeous last year without grips. In particular, the first counterswing after the baby giant is really low. She's told me before that part of the issue is her high bar slippage last summer (she's afraid she's going to fly off).

She wants a 9 so bad on bars this year (it was her pre-season goal) and she's so close. Would she be asking for trouble to compete without grips (especially this late in the season)? She started using them because of blisters. Any other thoughts on how to deal with the slipping feeling? Thanks!

[wallinbl]

After working with grips for the past two months, DD hopped on the bar without them and flew through the L5 routine, startling the coaches who commented on how phenomenal it was. Up until that point, she had been commenting that she liked the grips better than no grips (probably because of the excitement about getting to use them).

I can't comment one way or the other except to say that your DD isn't alone in finding that she's better without them.

I do know of a 12 year old level 10, probably soon to be elite, girl that doesn't use them at all.

[bogwoppit]

Well if she does better without them I would say leave them in the grip bag. She may return to them later, she may not.

[Esoteric]

I would ask the coach- or encourage your dd to ask coach about their thoughts. Any fall or slippage can turn into quite the head game, so maybe it will just mean taking her back to basics until she can regain confidence. Maybe the coaches will be fine with her going sans grips until she decides she wants them again. I know at our gym the HC prefers the girls get dowel grips immediately upon learning the kip so that they are learning the higher skills with grips, and are comfortable wearing them and don't run into this issue.

My dd has incredibly sweaty hands and gets rips/blisters easily. She, too, is very proficient at level 4 bars, and decided to go with grips while working on kips and cast handstands and fly-aways. She wore grips for every practice for several weeks, then had a meet (level 4) without them and literally FLEW around the bar and made a few errors. She was also the bar champ at fall states- so she didn't mind too much at the mishaps- but decided on her own that she needed to always practice without them for at least a few sessions before a meet since she can't wear grips during a meet at level 4. She is very eager to wear grips at meets, though, and prefers them due to her hands. Even with grips she sleeps with bag balm and socks on her hands several nights/week.

Good luck to your dd!

[gymdog]

I would consider competing/working routines without them, but would also keep training some things with them. Would depend on how much the difference was. I will say it took me about that long or longer to get used to grips, and while my bars suffered in the short term (terrible in level 6) they didn't really suffer in the long run.

[gymnastbeth]

[BlairBob]

At the gym I was at in 2011, one of the coaches didn't like the size of even appropriate sized grips from some of his smaller girls. So he made them their own by cutting up other grips. Worked out well for some of those girls. Some of them were just dealing with the grips themselves being too big for their hands. These were training L6/7s, most around 9-10, fairly small. So, my point is, that her grips might be too big for her in the first place.

[vagymmomma]

So, my point is, that her grips might be too big for her in the first place.

That might be part of it (they've always seemed a little big to me, but I had her coach okay when we first got them). She's 11 yr old so not that small.

I'm not sure it's as simple as -- "if she does better without the grips, then don't use them". She started using them because rips were starting to be a problem (hands too sore to practice, et al). The grips definitely resolved that issue, so I don't think she should give them up completely (especially now she's working giants). I guess I didn't understand what my real question was when I first posted. I guess I'm really asking --Does using grips periodically create an issue? Is it hard to go back and forth using them and then not? We probably won't change anything till after the season ends, but I'm wondering for future consideration.

[gymdog]

What brand and style grips is she using? If she isn't using this style: US Glove Hot Shot Hook & Loop Grips - Uneven Bar: Amazon.com: Sports & Outdoors, then I think it would be worth looking into. Though those particular ones are velcro and I would recommend the buckle wrist closure. That was just the first picture I found, US Glove site seemed to be down when I was looking.