WAG Being a One-Handed Gymnast

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

backflipruby

Coach
Gymnast
Hi everyone!
I am a one handed gymnast training level 8. I have developed Positive Ulnar Variance, which means my ulnar bone is longer than my radius and it interferes with everything inside my wrist. I will be able to compete beam and floor fine, with mostly aerial skills and one-handed tumbling, and I am currently learning one handed vaults. It's difficult, but gymnastics is something I love to do, so I'm willing to try anything.
I was wondering if anyone is going through the same thing, or if anyone knows any one handed gymnasts and knows what might be possible?
Thanks :)
 
We have a girl on our team who competes one handed. A couple years ago she had a bad injury to one arm that didn’t heal in a way that enables her to keep using it for gymnastics.

She has a beautiful floor routine. She does one armed roundoffs into her back tumbling and lots of front tumbling. She also competes beam with a 1 handed back handspring to back layout stepout and a front twisting dismount. Other than that she has many of the same skills on beam as everyone else.

She competes level nine and qualified to regionals as a specialist last year.

I believe that there is a rule that a vault must be performed with the support of both hands on the vault so they have never pursued that. It is a 1.0 deduction for 1 handed vault. I guess it might be doable if you were willing to take the deduction but seems pretty dangerous and hard on that other good arm. So much impact pressure for just one arm. Doesn’t seem worth it.

Good luck!
 
We have a girl on our team who competes one handed. A couple years ago she had a bad injury to one arm that didn’t heal in a way that enables her to keep using it for gymnastics.

She has a beautiful floor routine. She does one armed roundoffs into her back tumbling and lots of front tumbling. She also competes beam with a 1 handed back handspring to back layout stepout and a front twisting dismount. Other than that she has many of the same skills on beam as everyone else.

She competes level nine and qualified to regionals as a specialist last year.

I believe that there is a rule that a vault must be performed with the support of both hands on the vault so they have never pursued that. It is a 1.0 deduction for 1 handed vault. I guess it might be doable if you were willing to take the deduction but seems pretty dangerous and hard on that other good arm. So much impact pressure for just one arm. Doesn’t seem worth it.

Good luck!

Ooooh thank you! I'll keep that in mind! :)
 
I do not have any experience with this an gymnastics but have you talked with a hand/wrist specialist about this? There is a surgery to cut/reshape the edge of the ulnar. Not sure if they use it for this particular condition but I had it done in both wrists for rheumatoid arthritis. Obviously you would have to weight the risks and costs of the surgery and whether it is worth it just for gymnastics but from what I know about your condition, it can affect other areas of your life, beyond sports so it may be a viable option. Worth a talk with the ortho at minimum. good luck.
 
I do not have any experience with this an gymnastics but have you talked with a hand/wrist specialist about this? There is a surgery to cut/reshape the edge of the ulnar. Not sure if they use it for this particular condition but I had it done in both wrists for rheumatoid arthritis. Obviously you would have to weight the risks and costs of the surgery and whether it is worth it just for gymnastics but from what I know about your condition, it can affect other areas of your life, beyond sports so it may be a viable option. Worth a talk with the ortho at minimum. good luck.

I have been to see wrist specialists and sports physios to talk about this, and I am going to speak with a surgeon soon, but everyone I have talked to are not encouraging me to go down that path just yet, because while I'm still growing they have to interfere with the growth plate, and it's risky - also it's really expensive. I go to a hand therapist now, to get strength and flexibility back into the wrist and arm.
Thanks a lot though :)
 

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

Back