WAG Hanging from the high bar as punishment?

[Vivianflips]

Now that I'm no longer doing competitive gymnastics do I dare ask this question. Is having gymnasts hang from the high bar as a punishment something that your gym does? This was common practice in the competitive team groups at my gym. Girls would have to hang for things such as falling and bobbles on beam, not doing enough 'good' vaults, or not being able to do a skill that the coach thought they should be able to do etc. Hang times varied anywhere from one minute to ten! I personally STRONGLY disagree with this practice as I do not believe it really accomplishes anything good. This is one of the many reasons why I choice to stop competing, I was constantly afraid to ever make mistakes, fall, or not be able to do a skill just yet because I might have to hang from the bar. I really hope this is just something crazy that my gym does because it certainly is not appropriate. Those minutes spent hanging could be spent fixing the problem at hand rather than punishing us for it.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

No and if it was, it wouldn't be my kids gym for long.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

They definitely don't make them do that at dd's gym. 10 minutes?!? Wow, who can actually hang for 10 minutes? Yikes!

Now I will say that dd's gym does sometimes make them do conditioning if they miss certain skills or make mistakes. It's not all the time and certainly not when they are first learning or practicing a skill. But now that it is closer to meet season, they have been doing it more. So, for example, when they are on bars, if they are supposed to be showing their bar routine and fall (miss the squat on, etc), they have to climb the rope. If they have bent arms in their kip, they may have to do 10 pushups. And if their tap swings aren't a good enough shape, they might have to do 10 hollow holds or something like that. So at least it's somewhat related to the skill they made a mistake on and it only lasts 30 seconds or so. Still not my favorite thing, but dd and her teammates think it's fair. Also it's not like this during the whole practice, but only when they are supposed to be showing their good routines to the coaches.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

Hanging like that sounds like a torture technique. Seriously. Are they child gymnasts or POWs? Who in their right mind would think that was ok?

 

[munchkin3]

Sounds like 'stringing em up by the b****.'........Which is what I would have done to the coach.....unless it's a female....then I would improvise.

 

[Vivianflips]

I'm glad to hear that this is not considered an acceptable practice in the gymnastic's world and seems to be isolated to my gym! I honestly don't know why people tolerate this. Originally when I joined the xcel team there, we seldom to never were punished this way and the other groups were not very often either. Mainly the optional group was having to hang at that point. (side note: I honestly don't know who can hang for longer than just a few minutes but apparently the optionals were having to hang for 10 minutes sometimes. I think most of them ended up not lasting the whole time and the coaches let them break the time up into several smaller length hangs.) Something changed over the summer though because all of a sudden all the groups were hanging on a regular basis including mine, that has a completely different coach! That was the last straw for me. I had been considering leaving due to other issues but that just solidified my decision. I find it just so sad that my former teammates put up with this

 

[raenndrops]

We only use hangs as a fun contest. They even do it in the advanced rec class. The kids all hang at the same time and see who can hang the longest.
For punishment - no way in Hades!!!!

 

[amgymnast618]

No, definitely not common. Sometimes coaches will make girls do push ups or ropes for not going for a skill or not making a correction that they are perfectly capable of making-however, they know that this type of punishment/motivation doesn't work for everyone and it doesn't happen very often. I didn't think it was even possible to hang off a high bar for 10 minutes.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Now that I'm no longer doing competitive gymnastics do I dare ask this question. Is having gymnasts hang from the high bar as a punishment something that your gym does? This was common practice in the competitive team groups at my gym. Girls would have to hang for things such as falling and bobbles on beam, not doing enough 'good' vaults, or not being able to do a skill that the coach thought they should be able to do etc. Hang times varied anywhere from one minute to ten! I personally STRONGLY disagree with this practice as I do not believe it really accomplishes anything good. This is one of the many reasons why I choice to stop competing, I was constantly afraid to ever make mistakes, fall, or not be able to do a skill just yet because I might have to hang from the bar. I really hope this is just something crazy that my gym does because it certainly is not appropriate. Those minutes spent hanging could be spent fixing the problem at hand rather than punishing us for it.

it worked so well that it drove you out of our wonderful sport. hail to the coach!! (Dunno rolled his eyes so high i now can't find them) shoot me now!

 

[gymdog]

In China hanging and very long wall handstands are often used this way and i have seen some Chinese coaches use them in the U.S. (Shawn Johnson and some of her original teammates once talked almost fondly of how Shawn was always doing ten minute handstand holds because she always got in trouble and always tried to get out of conditioning).

But yeah I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[sewgood]

That sounds like a shoulder injury looking for a time to happen. :/

 

[Tumbellina82]

Vivianflips, have you considered going into coaching? Your post shows that you are thoughtful about coaching practises and I think the key to being a good coach is to be a thoughtful, reflective coach.

Probably the coaches at gym were just continuing on what they had experienced as gymnasts without considering the value of it. Then other coaches coming in were learning it from those coaches and also accepting it unquestioningly. It is intellectual laziness, and it is a laziness that enabled them to keep being lazy because in punishing gymnasts for not doing skills successfully they transferred the responsibility away from themselves. How much easier to punish the gymnast for their lack of success than to take the trouble to analyse why the gymnast cannot be successful and suggest exercises and progressions to enable them to succeed? That's a lot more work, and it means accepting the failure of a gymnast to be able to perform a skill correctly as your failure to find an appropriate teaching strategy for them (yet, but also a learning opportunity.) I think that is really what good coaching is about; analysing skills, analysing coaching strategies, striving to be better. A challenge not unlike gymnastics, perhaps.

 

[GymDad9.9]

Vivianflips, have you considered going into coaching? Your post shows that you are thoughtful about coaching practises and I think the key to being a good coach is to be a thoughtful, reflective coach.

Probably the coaches at gym were just continuing on what they had experienced as gymnasts without considering the value of it. Then other coaches coming in were learning it from those coaches and also accepting it unquestioningly. It is intellectual laziness, and it is a laziness that enabled them to keep being lazy because in punishing gymnasts for not doing skills successfully they transferred the responsibility away from themselves. How much easier to punish the gymnast for their lack of success than to take the trouble to analyse why the gymnast cannot be successful and suggest exercises and progressions to enable them to succeed? That's a lot more work, and it means accepting the failure of a gymnast to be able to perform a skill correctly as your failure to find an appropriate teaching strategy for them (yet, but also a learning opportunity.) I think that is really what good coaching is about; analysing skills, analysing coaching strategies, striving to be better. A challenge not unlike gymnastics, perhaps.

This was excellent.

 

[Vivianflips]

Vivianflips, have you considered going into coaching? Your post shows that you are thoughtful about coaching practises and I think the key to being a good coach is to be a thoughtful, reflective coach.

Probably the coaches at gym were just continuing on what they had experienced as gymnasts without considering the value of it. Then other coaches coming in were learning it from those coaches and also accepting it unquestioningly. It is intellectual laziness, and it is a laziness that enabled them to keep being lazy because in punishing gymnasts for not doing skills successfully they transferred the responsibility away from themselves. How much easier to punish the gymnast for their lack of success than to take the trouble to analyse why the gymnast cannot be successful and suggest exercises and progressions to enable them to succeed? That's a lot more work, and it means accepting the failure of a gymnast to be able to perform a skill correctly as your failure to find an appropriate teaching strategy for them (yet, but also a learning opportunity.) I think that is really what good coaching is about; analysing skills, analysing coaching strategies, striving to be better. A challenge not unlike gymnastics, perhaps.

I do hope to go into coaching someday as I want to give others the kind of coaching that I unfortunately did not receive. I want other girls to not end up leaving the sport because of coaching issues and to have a coach they trust. I definitely agree that new coaches have just learned and accepted this practice from the other coaches without question, which is sad.

 

[Aero]

Vivianflips, have you considered going into coaching? Your post shows that you are thoughtful about coaching practises and I think the key to being a good coach is to be a thoughtful, reflective coach.

Probably the coaches at gym were just continuing on what they had experienced as gymnasts without considering the value of it. Then other coaches coming in were learning it from those coaches and also accepting it unquestioningly. It is intellectual laziness, and it is a laziness that enabled them to keep being lazy because in punishing gymnasts for not doing skills successfully they transferred the responsibility away from themselves. How much easier to punish the gymnast for their lack of success than to take the trouble to analyse why the gymnast cannot be successful and suggest exercises and progressions to enable them to succeed? That's a lot more work, and it means accepting the failure of a gymnast to be able to perform a skill correctly as your failure to find an appropriate teaching strategy for them (yet, but also a learning opportunity.) I think that is really what good coaching is about; analysing skills, analysing coaching strategies, striving to be better. A challenge not unlike gymnastics, perhaps.

This is the post of the year right here!!! This is precisely why there are so few good coaches out there, because it takes a ton of work. And not only physical work, but mental work, too. Constant learning and research into the sport, reflecting on each practice, strategizing different methods, planning practices and whole seasons, and the list goes on! It is not an easy job, but it is the most rewarding job in the world!

Well said @Tumbellina82.

 

[Gymnast989]

Our coaches used to make us do seven to ten minute handstand holds against a wall, as both conditioning and punishment. If we fell down, we had to start over (and we were watched like hawks). It got easier the more you did it, but most girls (myself included) would be near tears or crying by the end. Conditioning as punishment can be effective, but only to an extent! A handstand hold for 10 minutes is brutal, especially when you're a 10 yr old. A lot of girls would even bite their arms because they couldn't handle the pain. The worst was that your arms would just feel absolutely dead for the rest of practice, which would lead to a crappy practice and consequently more handstand holds... we did bar hangs but never as punishment, still hated them though

 

[duyetanh]

Our coaches used to make us do seven to ten minute handstand holds against a wall, as both conditioning and punishment. If we fell down, we had to start over (and we were watched like hawks). It got easier the more you did it, but most girls (myself included) would be near tears or crying by the end. Conditioning as punishment can be effective, but only to an extent! A handstand hold for 10 minutes is brutal, especially when you're a 10 yr old. A lot of girls would even bite their arms because they couldn't handle the pain. The worst was that your arms would just feel absolutely dead for the rest of practice, which would lead to a crappy practice and consequently more handstand holds... we did bar hangs but never as punishment, still hated them though

Ugh!

 

[curlygirls]

A handstand hold for 10 minutes is brutal, especially when you're a 10 yr old. A lot of girls would even bite their arms because they couldn't handle the pain.

This sickened me.

 

[duyetanh]

This sickened me.

same.