Learning to land tucks without injury?

[MaryA]

Twice in the last three weeks (and that's with the gym closed for a week in between) my DD (who is training level 6 and learning to do tucks) has landed her front tucks funny (and NOT funny ha-ha). The first time she landed with her big toe kind of turned under her foot, leaving her with some pain across the top of her foot. That was the last day before program shut-down, so she rested it, and it got better. Today she landed the other way, with sort of the pinky-toe side of her foot turned under. Now she has a swollen bump (not huge, but definitely there) on the side of her foot. We iced it and ibuprophened it and are waiting to see what tomorrow brings before we decide if we're going to go to the weekend clinic to get it checked out. She says it's feeling better and is walking fairly normally, but she is a tough cookie and, I'm sure, doesn't want me to limit her end-of-the-school-year activities, such as her gymnastics banquet at a local amusement park on Sunday. So I'm not sure how much I trust her "Feeling lots better! Really, Mom!"

I will not ask a medical question (though if you've had something similar happen, I'd be interested to hear about it) but I am curious if these wonky landings are just a part of learning the skill (she's landing them all of the time with even a tiny spot, but without a spot she lands about half of them on her feet and the other half on her butt, which is much hardier than her ankles, luckily) or if there is something she should be doing differently that might prevent the battering of her poor little feet and ankles?

We are T-minus-8-days-and-couting till Woodward, so I'm hopeful that this is not a major injury!!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i guess she's not ready. maybe should still be doing them from on top of a panel mat and landing on a stinger mat.

 

[marie83]

I agree perhaps she should ask if she can land on a mat for a while, or wear a pair of gym shoes?

 

[gymdog]

i guess she's not ready. maybe should still be doing them from on top of a panel mat and landing on a stinger mat.

I agree...usually when they are not ready with sufficient height and rotation they are just not going to get in the right position to land while they are still working on the "memory" of the right positions. I remember your gym has limited equipment and I think no tumble track and pit. So that is tough. If she doesn't have this problem when being spotted though, I would suggest that she only does it spotted and does not try without a spot until it is more consistent on the takeoff and she is comfortable with the skill. Unless the spotting station is a different set up and then maybe she should do it there first rather than on the floor.

 

[All Chalked Up]

I did the same thing (not with a tuck though) and it went away after a little time, ibuprofen and ice! Sounds like she should still be doing drills and landing on a sting mat. Even though my tucks are no problem for me, I still like to land on a sting mat sometimes to save my knees and ankles if we're doing a lot of them.

 

[MaryA]

Well, I think no tumbling or vault for her this week regardless. Today swelling is down and she says it doesn't hurt unless she does some side-to-side movement on it, and then not too much. She's resting and icing today, and I'm keeping it wrapped... more as a reminder to her that "hey, I'm hurt... I need to take it easy" than necessarily any need to immobilize it. She's such a perpetual motion machine that it's really hard to keep her from overdoing it.

Hopefully it will be 100% by the time she gets to Woodward and she can work on her tucks on the tumbletrack, tramp, and all of their fancy stuff.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

My DD was telling me that her hiney hurt from practicing FHS FT's. She seems to land on her heels and then slides onto her butt. Not sure if that is any help but it was funny because she did not understand why it hurt until I told her she must have landed on it about 20 times!! LOL!! They were using a sting mat!

 

[eme777]

My DD was telling me that her hiney hurt from practicing FHS FT's. She seems to land on her heels and then slides onto her butt.

Funny! Sounds like my DD!