WAG Grips adjustment time?

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My dd got her first set of grips at the end of this competition season (so, about 2 months ago) and she has definitely regressed on bars. She is just still struggling with the feel and movement with grips on and says she "almost dies" on tap swings. lol. She currently can't get through a whole bar routine with them on, despite having competed it an entire season without grips just fine.

Is this standard or "normal"? The coaches don't seem terribly worried about it, but I am concerned that we're going to be forced into a repeating year simply because of the dang grips (that she wanted soooooo badly. :rolleyes:). It's hard for me to imagine her adjusting to grips AND getting the next level skills at the same time.

If it helps for context, she was the last in her group to get grips, because her coach didn't feel like she weighed enough or had enough force on the bar to make them safe for her any sooner.

Thoughts?
 
Normal in my opinion. Some kids take longer to get used to the grips than others. She needs to re-learn some of the grip and rotation that's central to skills like kips, tap swings, and clear hips. Since your competition season ended in April-ish, you have quite a bit of time before anyone needs to panic about her not having bars skills for the next level. Hopefully she is still working on next-level skills in practice, or at least drills for them. It may actually be more efficient to struggle with the grips now than to learn these skills without grips and then transition.
 
Normal in my opinion. Some kids take longer to get used to the grips than others. She needs to re-learn some of the grip and rotation that's central to skills like kips, tap swings, and clear hips. Since your competition season ended in April-ish, you have quite a bit of time before anyone needs to panic about her not having bars skills for the next level. Hopefully she is still working on next-level skills in practice, or at least drills for them. It may actually be more efficient to struggle with the grips now than to learn these skills without grips and then transition.

Well, my dd is on the sloth track (her words, not mine! lol!) so I suppose it's only natural for her to not immediately adjust to them. Thanks for your response. ;)
 
this is normal, i was the same way, it's been about 4 years since i got grips and i still feel as if i was stronger on bars before i had them but it's too late to go back now. the only difference they really made for me was that i didn't feel as if i was going to slip every time the bars were really chalky. When the girls i coach first start breaking in grips i slowly transition them into it, first I like them to just swing on the bars, i have them spend about 1/4-1/2 of the bars rotation doing big tap swings and glide swings (use the pit bar if needed) then once those feel comfortable the grips should start being less stiff and forming to the hand and other skills will be easier. that's when we get into kips and back hip circles, after that we move to free hips and harder skills. some people will be used to their grips very fast and others it'll take months. If you're worried about the grips causing her to not get her skills for the next level i would suggest she practice 1/2 the bar rotation without grips and the other 1/2 with grips until both halfs she is in the same place on all her skills, then if she really cannot adjust to grips she still has chance to learn her new skills
 
Sounds normal. But I would just check to make sure her grips are the right size.
Our head coach measures them and totally knows what he is doing. I know Alex should be wearing a 1 but likes her 0 so she hasn't changed. The head coach said it's her choice and she has a to feel comfortable
Just check to make sure they are.not too big. Just a thought.
 
Sounds normal. But I would just check to make sure her grips are the right size.
Our head coach measures them and totally knows what he is doing. I know Alex should be wearing a 1 but likes her 0 so she hasn't changed. The head coach said it's her choice and she has a to feel comfortable
Just check to make sure they are.not too big. Just a thought.

Yes, good call. I'm pretty confident that they are correct, as our bar coach fitted her and he knows his stuff, but it can't hurt to confirm that he's happy with the fit and her progress.
 
And some kids just don't like them. We have A L7/8 young lady, doesn't like them and is not using them.
 
My DD got hers this past fall and backtracked on kips, jump to highbar, shifting hands for the clearhip. Most of her teammates adapted quickly. After months, she is adapting. Or maybe her bar skills are just improving? Everyone seemed to agree moving to grips is inevitable, so I figure may as well get the pain over with now.
 
My dd got her first set of grips at the end of this competition season (so, about 2 months ago) and she has definitely regressed on bars. She is just still struggling with the feel and movement with grips on and says she "almost dies" on tap swings. lol. She currently can't get through a whole bar routine with them on, despite having competed it an entire season without grips just fine.

Is this standard or "normal"? The coaches don't seem terribly worried about it, but I am concerned that we're going to be forced into a repeating year simply because of the dang grips (that she wanted soooooo badly. :rolleyes:). It's hard for me to imagine her adjusting to grips AND getting the next level skills at the same time.

If it helps for context, she was the last in her group to get grips, because her coach didn't feel like she weighed enough or had enough force on the bar to make them safe for her any sooner.

Thoughts?
Happens , she should be swinging without grips for half her workout to maintain her skills. That is a standard
 
How old is she? We have a girl headed to level 7. Probably 60lbs wet. She is 9 yrs old, almost 10 and she has not been able to get comfortable with grips for over 2 seasons. She just doesn't wear them.
We had another girl almost as small but 12 yrs old and also made it almost her entire 6/7 and now going to 8 that doesn't wear them. Her hands are too small and wide?!

The coach just makes her wear them 1/2 of bar practice. Just so they are broken in.
 
My dd done a mix with and without grips at training when she first got them and as she didn't feel confident in them for a while she carried on competing without them until she felt 100% confident in them.
 
I agree it depends on the kid. Took my DD about 1-2 weeks, and her bars actually looked better with them once adjusted.

My DS took much longer to adjust - its been 4 or so months and I'm not sure he's fully back to where he was before them.
 
Had this problem with one of my gymnast last year. I had her train the first half of out time on bars, with her grips and the other half without. I had her compete without her grips. She would begg me to to take them off. She was 9, about 55 lbs. Now, she can't train without them.
 
How old is she? We have a girl headed to level 7. Probably 60lbs wet. She is 9 yrs old, almost 10 and she has not been able to get comfortable with grips for over 2 seasons. She just doesn't wear them.
We had another girl almost as small but 12 yrs old and also made it almost her entire 6/7 and now going to 8 that doesn't wear them. Her hands are too small and wide?!

The coach just makes her wear them 1/2 of bar practice. Just so they are broken in.

She's 10. Just finished level 4 and bars aren't her strongest event to begin with. She's tiny too. I need to measure her but I'd guess about 4'5" and 55 lbs?
 
My DD is basically the same height/weight as yours...and she got grips 3 years ago right after she got her kips. I think at the time she got the grips she weighed maybe 45 lbs and wasn't yet 4 ft tall. Her transition was smooth and she didn't lose her kip. She's learned most of her bars skills with grips on - jump to high bar, free hip, flyaway giants...I'm not sure your DD's size is the issue, maybe the grips aren't sized correctly? My DD uses Pixie grips.
 
I agree it depends on each child. My ODD had no problem getting used to grips after her lv3 season. On the other hand, my YDD, who just turned 8 and has small hands, was not able to tolerate the grips so she ditched them :) Her bars coach is okay with that for now. He said she does not really need them until lv8. Of course other coaches might have a different opinion...
 
I wish I had an answer. For my girls it seemed quick - within a few weeks. However, my DS still struggles with grips on high bar and competed giants without them all year. His coach is finally pushing him to use them and he's been doing a lot of spotted giants with them on to help but he's still adjusting.
 
If kids originally showed no signs of needing grips, and then they have an extended period of difficulty learning or maintaining skills (that is to say at least six months), then I believe at that point it is a clear indication they don't need grips! There is something to be said for being able to feel the bar and grip it with your skin; it gives you a very real sense of the bar. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using grips either! It is completely individual to the gymnast. Perhaps a girl's hands are very small, or maybe her grip strength is not quite there, or when learning release moves, having the dowel there helps that particular girl on the rare occasion she doesn't get a 100% complete grip on the bar with her whole hand.

It is my belief that a large majority of girls need grips, but they should only be given grips when it is clearly demonstrated that they need them. That is to say if they happen to peel often (and a coach should always be standing nearby), or if they just state that they never really feel that secure on the bars with their grips. I also understand that this is largely an unpopular opinion, but it is an opinion based on my own personal experience and research.

That being said, I personally feel that grips are an essential piece of equipment in gymnastics, and they allow many gymnasts to reach the upper levels of the sport. However, for many gyms/programs to require grips, I feel they may be cutting off many gymnasts' natural abilities to swing bars. My argument can be supported by the following: for a very long time, Romanian elite gymnasts did not wear grips as a blanket rule! As a result, pretty much every Romanian national team member was not internationally competitive on bars. Conversely, looking at one of the strongest nations on bars at the elite level, China, we see athletes with grips, and some without, even to this day! This observation, as well as with my own experience with my athletes, grips are not 100% required all of the time.

My advice: don't be close minded! If your athletes seem to reject grips, then screw 'em! No need! If your athletes seem to need grips, then let 'em! No worry! The whole argument of getting them used to grips before the big skills is a reasonable and valid idea, but the realization of if grips are necessary or not should happen long before they get to those skills in the first place!
 
My argument can be supported by the following: for a very long time, Romanian elite gymnasts did not wear grips as a blanket rule! As a result, pretty much every Romanian national team member was not internationally competitive on bars. Conversely, looking at one of the strongest nations on bars at the elite level, China, we see athletes with grips, and some without, even to this day! This observation, as well as with my own experience with my athletes, grips are not 100% required all of the time.

Our gyms philosphy has changed a bit. Older HC from an eastern bloc country, is of the mind, no one really needs grips. So the girls who had them (and it was case by case) got them much later, L7 or 8 was the earliest. Younger raised in US coach is of the..... lets get them earlier, get the break in out of the way............... philosophy

But we have girls training L8, don't like them, won't use them. Coaches fine either way. Only rule, buckles.
 
I'm glad you brought this back up. I just had a conversation with dd about how bars were going, and the answer was not great. :( She said she's still missing kips and having trouble catching the high bar (getting the dowel over the bar). She just keeps trying over and over. Will repetition eventually help her get over this hump? Her coaches maintain no concern, so I'm trying to encourage her but also let it go. She doesn't compete until January. So I'm thinking I don't bring it up again or ask how it's going until maybe September? And then if it's still not going well address it with the coaches? Or is that waiting too long? Ugh. I'm trying to find that unicorn of perfect coach/gymnast/parent balance. Thoughts?
 

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