Parents Training while injured

[MamaofEnS]

Hi All,

I'm just wondering what your gym policies are for training when the gymnast has an injury. For example, my DD is in a cast right now for her fractured foot, but is still expected to come in and train for 20+ hours a week. We don't, because she gets so bored doing the same conditioning exercises over and over again for 4 hours. What are your gym policies?

 

[Ingwe]

Our gym expects the girls to come in to practice (4 hours) to condition while they are injured.
My Dd's poor teammate was in a cast for a broken growth plate in her her wrist for 5 weeks, the night before she was to get it removed she rolled her toe doing a switch leap on beam(low) and has now been in a cast on her foot for the past 5 weeks, with 3 more still to go. She is going crazy right now . She's been doing nothing but conditioning since the end of Oct.

Tracy

 

[drivingmom]

My DD has been in a cast twice. The gym does expect her to come and work out and do what she can. Like work on low beam if it's her arm or bars if it's her foot. I am all for still going to the gym while injured, BUT only if the is not working anything that she get hurt on. I did allow her to take off, a lot. We usually missed 1 pratice a week and sometimes left early. I have to say I really don't care what the gym thought. I felt she was going enought to stay in shape and doing what she could. Much of the time she just watch the other girls practice when done with conditioning and doing what she could. I didn't want to bore her death. It always nice to have a little break. I think they she was always refreshed after having a bit of down time.

Oh and I am not one to really give a hoot what the gym says. It's my kid.

.

 

[justanothergymmom]

Our gym would like them to stay for practice but is very reasonable and lets them go early if there is only so much they can do. I always go with what the dr says. It depends on the type of injury. DD2 was told to stay completely out of the gym for 2 weeks with the last injury, but told she should go in to condtion with this one (foot fracture). I will pull her out early if the practice seems too long and she is bored.

 

[Crystalflipz]

I think between my two girls I could probably write a book on training while injured! LOL Our gym does not have a formal policy about training while injured, but our personal experience has been that it is important that the girls stay in the gym on a regular basis so they continue to feel like they are part of the team - yes the social part of gymnastics really is important to the girls. At times they have cut back practice hours, but they have almost always been to practice for at least part of every scheduled practice. The only exception to this was when Em had mono and the doctor told her she could not go in the gym for 1 month - she and I both nearly had a breakdown over that one! My girls have done this through a fractured arm, Severs disease, chip fracture of the ankle, tibial plateau fracture, mono x2(same child), fibula fracture (in college and driving her trainer crazy wanting to do more than she can!), and ACL rupture/reconstruction - surgery was 11 months ago. It can be a real pain sometimes to drive your kid to practice and feel like she is mainly sitting around, but it can make the difference between staying in gymnastics or quitting. If the girls are getting bored, talk with the coach - if you are paying for practice hours, they need to be keeping your child busy even if it's just running music or doing crunches.

 

[gym law mom]

Basically the policy is to come to most practices and stretch/condition as best you can with the limitations. Obviously, if the girl can do some skills then work on them. I would not push having a girl there 20 hours/week with a cast on her foot. I'll bet she gets very bored.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

My daughters gym still expects them to condition while injured but it is a modifyed schedule like 2 hours instead of 4. Last year it drove me crazy because I would drop off my daughter and I would get a phonecall when she was done the amount of hours was unpredictable ranging from 1 to 3 so I finally said something to the coaches and then I just told them I would pick her up in 2 hours. We actually had so many girls injured that daughters one coach formed them into a group and all the injured girls conditioned together. I thought this was a great idea I think she even came up with a conditioning plan for them as a group. It really made it more fun for the girls who were injured. We are still expected to pay the full tuition for at least 6 months than I think they reevaluate it.

 

[Monkeygirlsmom]

My oldest dd has gotten hurt and really has been the ONLY one to go to practice and condition, a couple of times she felt awful so I took her home (this was when she was going thru the poss concusion , She was REAlly bored and the coaches all felt bad for her and did not care that she went home, I think they even thought it was best since it made it worse for her to be there and not do anything!
otherwise she has done what she can and her coach will work with her (they know I take her in and will not hold her back unless the dr said plus they know how much she would rather be there , I think it makes a hige diff if the kid wants to be there but is frustrated so they let it go if they are not!

 

[AGM78910]

There is a gymnast on our team who does strap bar with her foot in a boot.