WAG bars without grips in higher levels

[Iloveg2602]

A girl at my gym is doing giants, free hips, kip cast hands and flyways all without grips on. but she is not a tiny girl, she is 14 already and probably about 120lbs!

she said she got her grips at L5, but had a hard time relearning the skills so she always refused using them.

is this common in your gym? i can not believe it, i don't even want to look at the bar without my grips on.

do you think it is bad to do gymnastics without grips on?

 

[bookworm]

Personal preference....the top bar worker in the NCAA Georgia Dabritz does not wear grips, and never has.....

 

[zoe_the_gymnast_]

I haven't seen any girls in my gym without grips... Strange.

 

[Vivianflips]

I haven't seen no grips on anyone but smaller level 4 and up gymnastics at the gyms I've trained at. Ive heard of gymnasts doing just fine without grips, my coach competed elite like that! Keeping in mind this was in the 70's!

 

[htimcj]

As bookworm said Georgia Debritz from University of Utah doesn't use grips and she's FANTASTIC! From what I heard as well there many other countries don't use grips either.

 

[sce]

It's not common, but a few higher level athletes never use grips.

 

[gymdog]

Personal preference....the top bar worker in the NCAA Georgia Dabritz does not wear grips, and never has.....

Georgia's amazing, but, kind of the exception rather than the rule because she is really the only one in modern NCAA. I'd agree you don't have to use grips, but they certainly help most NCAA sized gymnasts

 

[needcoffee]

My level 5 DD would much prefer not to wear grips. She hates them. I asked her coach about not wearing hem a few weeks ago when we were having bar issues and she said it's not a requirement, but she prefers them to wear them now rather than having to relearn skills later.

 

[MomIdidit!]

I love this post, it hits home. My 7 year old just got her kip this week and swears it's easier to do it without grips. Since her gym insists the girls wear their grips on the bars she has no choice. If it were up to her she would prefer the rips over the grips......go figure.

 

[sce]

I love this post, it hits home. My 7 year old just got her kip this week and swears it's easier to do it without grips. Since her gym insists the girls wear their grips on the bars she has no choice. If it were up to her she would prefer the rips over the grips......go figure.

Grips are not about avoiding rips. They are for gripping the bar. Best to learn to wear them early on, even if it feels awkward right now. When her tap swing gets bigger and she learns giants, the grips will be quite helpful.

 

[MomIdidit!]

Thank you sce I just showed DD your post.....you make perfect sense. I understand why they feel awkward but I definitely agree it's important to get used to the grips now.

 

[gymdog]

Well, I don't go overboard, although I do put kids in grips around 8. Nine if my 7 year olds are big enough. And they do fine on everything within the appropriate skill level for their age (level 4) without. But my 8-10 level 4s generally have them.

 

[Gymdancer]

My DD did not wear grips until second year of L8. She has very small hands and was tiny for her age. She also changed gyms and coaches, so she just kept going without them. She did learn to use tape grips, though, and could make them quickly. A few scary falls and coaches were telling her to get grips for second year of L 8. Now she cannot imagine being without them.

 

[Along4theRide]

When my dd began using grips last summer, her height and power on the basrs seemed to decrease. She is small and said didn't completely close around the bar anymore. She struggled to learn a few new skills last fall...only *just* consistently getting the clear hip a few days before her level 5 meet (yikes!). Coach gave her a chance to train without grips, so dd went back and forth for a little while. In the end dd decided to keep training with grips. I'm thankful that I've recently noticed that she seems to be getting back her confidence on bars.

 

[cbifoja]

All of our girls are in grips too, beginning at L4 although a couple of the older/bigger L3s wear them. There is an L8 in our state who doesn't wear them but she is an itty bitty and says that she can't find any that fit her hand.

 

[dynamicduo]

My DDs are in the middle of their level 7 season and have been in grips for 3 weeks now. They never wore grips & hate chalk, so at the first few meets they were having trouble on the bars cause HC couldn't get enough chalk off before their turn. So, did a rush order of grips, they had 5 days in them before the next meet & dd1 did great, 9.1, best of the season. Dd2 wasn't as comfortable in them, so took out her Giants and still got 8.5. They are getting more & more used to them but it was hard changing over at level 7! So, if you have the chance to get them at level 4/5 I'd say go for it!

 

[CameraShy]

Yes, Georgia Dabritz is amazing... Saw her score a perfect 10 Friday night on bars.

DD doesn't wear them and is competing giants. She's little though so her coach says no grips until she starts doing release moves. She hasn't had any scary falls on bars so seems to be doing okay without for now but no grips is definitely not the norm. Seems like all coaches have different philosophies for when is best to introduce them though.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

A girl at my gym is doing giants, free hips, kip cast hands and flyways all without grips on. but she is not a tiny girl, she is 14 already and probably about 120lbs!

she said she got her grips at L5, but had a hard time relearning the skills so she always refused using them.

is this common in your gym? i can not believe it, i don't even want to look at the bar without my grips on.

do you think it is bad to do gymnastics without grips on?

no, not a bad idea if your hands can take it. look at Georgia Dabritz at Utah.

 

[Aero]

@dunno | What are some signs to look out for as far as when an athlete needs grips? In other words, are there occurences, situations, or even specific skills that require grips? If I'm bringing an athlete up without grips, how do I know they can continue without them, or if they need to start using them? The reason I'm asking is because I don't want to mandate grips. If my girls end up needing them, I'll have them get some, but if they never end up needing them, then I won't.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

@dunno | What are some signs to look out for as far as when an athlete needs grips? In other words, are there occurences, situations, or even specific skills that require grips? If I'm bringing an athlete up without grips, how do I know they can continue without them, or if they need to start using them? The reason I'm asking is because I don't want to mandate grips. If my girls end up needing them, I'll have them get some, but if they never end up needing them, then I won't.

Well they said my dd needed grips, because without grips she needed the bars almost chalk-free and it was causing too much of a delay at competitions. They said she had the potential to make teams for Ontario in the future and wanted her to be able to do the warm up without messing everyone up. This is what I was told after Easterns 2 years ago.