Palm protectors vs grips for level 4

[hannahsmom]

My daughter's gym has recommended she get palm protectors. She loves bars and spends all of her free gym time on them and her hands are getting torn up. They say she is too young or too low of a level (can't remember which one) to get dowel grips, but recommended the palm protectors. Now, won't she have trouble adjusting to the palm protectors and then turn around in a couple of years and have to adjust again to dowel grips? Do you recommend the palm protectors or should we maybe just look into taping her hands for a little while and wait until the appropriate time for grips?

 

[gymch34]

wait until she has a strong kip for grips-Im sure your gym wil recommend when she is ready. Dowel grips CAN be dangerous if the gymnast does not know how to shift her wrists around the bar correctly. Whether she has grips or not, her hands need to rip & get caloused in order to stop ripping- does that makes sense? Even if she has grips or palm protectors- if her skin is soft, she will rip.

Palm grips are slippery, but thats my opinion, I would have her use tape grips instead. Your coach can make her some.

 

[bookworm]

At level 4 , she needs neither...

 

[hannahsmom]

Thanks! Exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Aussie_coach]

At her age I would recommend the palm protectors not the grips. Its still relatively early in her training and her hands need time to get used to swinging on the bars without the dowel so she can learn to grip the bars properly. Don't get the dowel grips until has a good solid kip. Also the grips can have an adverse affect on her growth plates so they are not recommended if your daughter is very young. Definitely not if she is 8 or younger. And be careful if she is 10 or younger.

If she rips really easily the palm protectors may be a good idea. Especially if she is doing long sessions on the bars (more than 40 minutes).

 

[bookworm]

Eventually when she does get to using grips (my daughter never used palm protectors...she only started with grips at Level 6) ; she wouldn't really be using dowel grips until she was a Level 8 and swinging giants on a regular basis.

My daughter started originally with the Velcro dowel grips but one of her coaches suggested when she got to Level 9 that she switch to buckle grips and she absolutely loved them..and still does.

 

[bookworm]

and as one of the prior posters said, they need to get really good callouses on their hands ..and she does. Her palm feels like a leather glove!! the callouses will come from the repetition on bars and will build up over time....

 

[gymdog]

and as one of the prior posters said, they need to get really good callouses on their hands ..and she does. Her palm feels like a leather glove!! the callouses will come from the repetition on bars and will build up over time....

Although I agree with the basic principle, this I think is not the best argument against these palm things, or grips. Although my preference is for kids to never use the palm things, so don't get me wrong. In my experience I'd say grips don't make a difference in ripping for everyone, and it really just depends. Most girls are going to go through a period around when they are beginning optionals (L7 training) where they will get more hand issues because they aren't used to swinging. Then some will never rip and some will continue to (although probably less frequently). I think this depends a lot on skin type to be honest. The skin on my hands is pretty tough and dry. After an adjustment period learning giants, I literally NEVER ripped. But people who have sweaty palms are probably more prone to ripping, just like you don't want to use a lot of lotion and stuff on your hands to soften the skin but it's just like that for some people naturally.

 

[nevertooold]

Some kids never rip, some kids cannot keep any skin on their hands even when both are doing the same workout. I personally as a gymnast ripped maybe 2-3 times in my life, two daughter gymnasts same thing. I have 4 gymnasts in level 6 who rip every practice even with grips.

We do not have our level 4's or 5's in grips but have some palm guards that they can use for a practice if they need to. I do not want to be continually making grips for our level 4's so we just keep a pair of palm guards around and if they really need to they can wear one or both during part or all of practice.

I would say our habitual rippers fall into 3 groups: the seriously sweaty, higher weight to strength ratio, and the ones who use a death grip on the bar. If she is the first 2 groups, palm guards may be a help to her. If she is the latter group, the coaches need to help her adjust her grip.

Also be wary of playground bars and the metal home chin-up bars. I see a lot of ripping on the girls who like to swing metal bars outside of gym.

If her gym recommends it then as a parent I would take the middle road and buy the palm protectors and ask the coach if they can just be worn when she has a rip and have her continue to work bare-handed the rest of the time.