WAG Spring Floor Versus Foam Floor

[raenndrops]

I wonder if the host gym has to specify what kind of floor will be available? I know for big international competitions, they specify the brand etc. Not sure how that works for smaller meets!

As far as I am aware, they are supposed to tell what equipment is available in pre-meet info.

 

[John]

Hopefully, we can talk about the disadvantages versus a spring floor?

 

[2G1B]

Hopefully, we can talk about the disadvantages versus a spring floor?

I would imagine that the disadvantage vs a spring floor would be the increased likelihood of injuries. As I said, my kids used to be at a gym that didn't have a great spring floor, it was old and didn't have much "spring" left in it. Since they changed gyms they have complained much less about heel and knee pain. If your DD thought it felt more like it was "dead" (my kids used to say that old floor had "dead spots") then I'm thinking it isn't the best thing for her joints.

 

[GymMom4]

Many gyms in my area have a rod floor strip, along with a spring floor. Non of them compete T&T.

That's like our gym. Spring floor. Rod floor strip and also a tumble trak as well as in-ground and raised trampolines and foam pits. We don't have T&T.

 

[CLgym]

Super interesting -- I honestly had no idea there were different types of floors. DD's current gym has two spring floors (team and rec, although the rec floor is a hand-me-down from a gym that closed), a rod floor strip (into pit), tumble track and a trampoline. No T&T. Prior gym was even better equipped (two beautiful facilities), but did have T&T sharing the equipment. I've been to one other gym in our area for a birthday party and recall it being similar to our current gym in terms of equipment. Seems like this must be the norm in our area.

 

[Invisible Duck]

WE had a spring floor with foam blocks as opposed to springs at my gym and I loved it. In my opinion it felt better than some floors we competed on that had springs.

I also worked on the events team for our state association and when we ran events we used foam sprung floors as well (level 2-senior elite events).

As far as I know, any events run in Australia that use acromat equipment would have foam block flooring, including worlds and commonwealth games etc. Although I’m not sure I ever saw bump in/out to confirm this.

 

[Aero]

This weekend DD gym hosted there yearly meet. Things went smoothly and I actually had fun volunteering all weekend long. During setup and tear down the coaches were available and much bonding took place.

I learned our gym does not have a spring floor but instead a foam floor. The HC/Owner expressed to me that he likes it because it is not easy. He knows when the girls visit other gym power will not be an issue.

Does anyone have thoughts on Foam floor versus Spring floor?

I really think the gym owner's reasoning is very flawed. Spring floor systems are way more safer than foam block floor, and they allow for higher level training, both in terms of eventually skill difficulty and repetitions. Also, a foam block floor will always be inferior compared to a spring floor. This is because the deflection and restitution rate of a foam block is so much slower than a spring. Science says that the amount of force that is exerted on a foam block will largely be absorbed, and the amount that isn't absorbed will be deflected back relatively slowly. A spring, however, is almost instantaneous in the way it deals with forces, with very little loss of energy.

Another point to think about is that virtually every competition you'll go to will have a spring floor. It makes no sense to train all the time on a surface entirely different than what she'll compete on. Gymnasts must be taught to use a spring floor, as well as how to land on one in a controlled manner. Having extra power than usual at a meet is not a good thing, really. Landings will be all over the place, the reaction time of the floor will make the timing of skills feel different, and yes, more potential for injury, too. I'm sure many of us saw the effects of unfamiliar (and even faulty) equipment at this year's Worlds in Montréal. There were injuries everywhere, and many people were thrown off by the feel of the equipment.

One more point: innovation creates a better and safer sport environment. In the past there were horsehair floors, actual wooden beams and bars, a very narrow horse for vaulting, not to mention springboards that used foam blocks too, some of them even just consisting of curled multi-ply wood, relying on the natural bounce and reaction of the wood. But look at where we are today; there is a reason equipment does not look like that now. The modern equipment we have today is far more effective and safe!

I really would not like the idea of staying at a gym with outdated equipment and a warped philosophy on training. I would do whatever I possibly could to persuade the owner to change his mind.

What is the highest competitive level in your current gym?

 

[John]

Level 10.

 

[gymmomx2]

My son trains on a foam block floor. It's definitely not as bouncy as a spring floor. They don't seem to do a lot of hard tumbling or a lot of reps on the floor, not sure if that's to mitigate injuries or that they prefer training their tumbling on the tumble track / air track into the pit. From what I can gather from DS, they use the floor for warmup/conditioning/stretching and for running routines mostly.

He does have to adjust when he goes to competitions. He dials back the power otherwise the first few landings can be wild. Sometimes he also dials it back too much It's not ideal but it can work even at the higher levels . He has learned over time and with experience how to compensate when he competes.

 

[John]

I imagine even every floor has a different feel even from sprint floor to spring floor. I hope to get more thoughts and I will continue to think on this.

 

[Texasmomof3]

My dd has chronic overuse injuries around her knees. She only practices tumbling on the rod floor for the most part and moves to the spring floor just the week of meets. Her ortho has said not to let her tumble on a foam floor as it is too hard on her knees. She was first injured landing on a dead spot at a meet that used a foam floor and it has continued to plague her for two years.

 

[NY Dad]

I'm not worried about my dd but more curious than anything else. Is there a way for a parent to tell if a floor is foam blocks versus spring from looking at it, stepping on it or from watching someone tumble on it?

 

[tucktwisttumble]

I'm not worried about my dd but more curious than anything else. Is there a way for a parent to tell if a floor is foam blocks versus spring from looking at it, stepping on it or from watching someone tumble on it?

Go look under the floor panels and see - sometimes you can recognize by the 'sound' of impact on the floor. Springs sound different (maybe louder?) then the foam. But I don't really know the best way to describe it.

 

[Chalky]

John, you might be interested in this: https://www.researchgate.net/public...es_on_a_gymnastics_rearward_tumbling_take-off

Also, Google "Weller Spring".

 

[John]

@Chalky Thanks

 

[azara]

My old gym had some type of foam floor. Exactly what kind, I never found out, but I'm reasonably sure it was manufactured by Acromat - if that means anything to anyone. It was perfectly acceptable for lower levels, and I saw up to back layouts and front pikes being performed on it without issues. Nobody ever tumbled higher than that simply because of the tiny size of the gym - we had to open the back doors and place mats on the pavement to create a run-up to vault/tumble. I have no doubt that they could have.

Of course, at higher levels, it wouldn't give nearly as much rebound for multiple connected saltos, or as much spring from round offs and back handsprings. That said, I thought it absorbed shock better than a spring floor and was softer to land on (though I never tumbled anywhere close to double saltos - those gymnasts might feel differently?). Until reasonably recently, such floors were used up to the elite level without problems. Unlike the different vault, beam, and springboard, I don't think the difficulty level of floor has improved *that* much (at the highest levels) in the last few decades, despite advances in the floor. Top routines from the 1990s and even some from the 1980s would contend with those performed today in terms of difficulty. So, there is my defence of the foam floor. Is a sprung floor better? Yes, for its rebounding capacities - but I would not consider a foam floor a deal-breaker in and of itself.

My biggest concern would be adjusting to a sprung floor at meets. I imagine pretty much every meet in the US uses a sprung floor, and it would be difficult to adjust to the greater rebound and absorption required for landing in a short warm-up period. I'm not sure whether the gymnasts have noticed this is a problem, but it could be worth investigating that avenue. If your daughter is Level 10 and has NCAA or even elite aspirations, all of those floors will be sprung, and she should probably become accustomed to that type of floor sooner rather than later.

 

[Pigeon]

As a former gymnast of the foam block floor era...the first time I bounced around on our gym's spring floor my only thought was "I would have been awesome on this!!!"

The new equipment does give you perspective of the talent of those gymnasts back in the day when the equipment wasn't like it is today!

We have two floors in our gym - a warm-up, rec, cheer floor (foam block) and a real spring floor. As a coach, I generally only let my girls do basic tumbling and dance/leaps on the warm-up floor.

If you have level 10 gymnasts at your gym, you may actually have a hybrid floor with a combination of some springs and foam (but I'm no floor expert and I don't know your gym).