bruises

[tumblerK]

BWO's on the beam. I have been doing them for a couple years and I have never once put my hands square on the beam. They turn to one side and no matter how much body control I have i can't put them on the beam the right way. This actually works just fine for me and I can stick them fairly consistently on the low beam. The high beam however is a different story. Even if i feel perfectly fine up there sometimes when my hands get on the beam crooked the rest of my body follows and i'm suddenly in a side handstand. Certain tricks can make me more square, but those don't help consistently.

So today I had a meet so I did like a million BWO's on the beam. I spent over an hour on them one day and I was turning a whole lot. I could even feel my back and the side that I twist to was very noticeably warmer than the other. That night when I got home my mom noticed these big bruises on that side of my back. They don't hurt in the least bit. I have gotten them before when I was first starting BWO's on the beam, but I haven't gotten them for a while or I never notice them when I do.

Has anyone else ever had big bruises on their backs without hitting in on anything?

[GymnastRaeRae87]

No, that has never happened to me or any of my gymnastics friends. Or anyother friends for that matter. If I were you I would talk to your coach to see if they know anything about something like that. I would also go to the doctor ASAP!

[I-Heart-Beam]

Yeah, I would say go to your doctor. I bruise really easily but I don't think you should be bruised without having hit yourself off anything first .

[cccam]

yeah i would say you should definitely have you doctor check that out.
somethings definitely not right

[gymnasticsbabie]

whoa thats definitely weird... you should get the checked out by someone. no i have never gotten bruises from nothing

but about your backwalkovers, i have that SAME PROBLEM!!!! granted i don't really do/work on them anymore, but i know exactly what you mean! someone said it was because i didn't have enough flexibility in my back/shoulders. do you have good flexibility in those areas? if not, that could be the problem.

[tumblerK]

Yeah my mom is going to schedule a doctors appointment tomorrow.

I have decent flexibility in my back and shoulders, I'm not super flexible and I could have more flexible shoulders. My BWO's are weird though because what trick fixes them one times doesn't always work. This last summer I watched my hands from the very beginning but by mid November that stopped working. Then last week I got to see my old coach and I managed to stay on the beam by stretching them out more, then next practice I wasn't making them and my other coach said they looked really long. I got through my meet this last weekend by having loose shoulders and and extra tight body, following the logic that if I'm super tight then when my hands twist my shoulders do to and the rest of me follows, and I actually managed to get two feet on the beam that way. It's also possible to blame that on adrenaline though.

[gymgymgymnast08]

Haha thats kind of ironic. See I'm a level 8 and originally this year my connection on beam was backwalkover backhandspring but I could never go on the first backwalkover because I would do a really crooked backwalkover and not be able to go for the handspring. My leg that I kick over with goes all the way around to the side and then somehow I managed to pull it back on most times and still like my backhandspring? Anyway now my connection is backhandspring backhandspring because I can't do backwalkovers. If I did a straight backwalkover I wouldn't go for the backhandspring usually because It felt weird but then I could have my leg go completely crooked all the way around to the side still manage to get it on the beam take off crooked and land the backhandspring. Trust me it was very weird and not too good looking but I managed to land it lol! My friend's aunt who is a rhytmic gymnastics coach said that my left side( I am a lefty so I do kick for my backwalkover with the left) was more flexable then my right so if I got my right side more flexable so they were even I wouldn't go crooked? haha idk but i'm glad that I do backhandspring backhandspring now.

Sorry that this doesn't help you at all but I'd say definitely get your bruises checked out! Good luck! =)

[Tuduri]

For sure, have a Dr check the bruise on your back.

Re shoulder and back flexibility: My level eight daughter once had very little shoulder flexibility, though she was exceptionally strong. Her coaches began doing special stretching exercises after every practice. This was in additon to her normal class conditioning and stretching. Some of these stretching exercises looked like some form of torture, though they were not actually too painful. (Your coach or a physical trainer should be familiar with this type of stretching) Some excercises involved back stretching as well. See the bridge test for TOPs at USGA web site. Indeed, the bridge test replaced the shoulder flexibility test at TOPs national testing. I think this is so because it tested both shoulder and back flexibility and more closely simulated basic gymnastic moves than the old shoulder flexibility test.

After many hours of hard work, my daughter eventually became quite flexible and still maintained her strength. But it took a lot of work! It did not happen over night. You can do it too. Just be patient with yourself and give it some time.

Some girls are naturally flexible but are not that strong. They have the opposite problem that my daughter had and which I suspect you may have. (more strength, less flexible-sounds like a commercial) These have to do strength conditioning to increase their strength while trying to maintain their flexibility. But it can be done, too. Again, lots of hard work. But it can be done.

I think you will find that with both strength and flexibility(plus good technique of course)you will more easily master your BHS, BWO.

[united team girl]

Well i have never gotten bruises on my back wothout falling but i know i have shin splints and when the are hurting i get bruises out of no where. I also have more muscle in the left side of my back so when i do front handspring fronts i drop my right hip and my left hip bone and the right side of my ribs hit. That bruises so maybe you are just having problems in there. I would go see a doctor

[KBT]

Hmm, I would also recommend a trip to the doctor just in case. It seems like twisting to the side is causing your back to bump up against a rib or something. Hopefully it's nothing too serious.

As for the BWOs, do make sure that you are pushing through the shoulder of the second arm to leave the beam. It's easy to push through the first shoulder and not so easy to push through the second shoulder which causes you go go crooked.