Parents What does your gym do if gymnast gets a large rip on their hand?

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jenjean70

Proud Parent
There have been a few times when my DS has gotten a large rip on p-bars doing a lot of under bar type swings and then gone to the next event which happened to be high bar and is expected to do his routine on a fresh rip. He gets to a point where he can't do the routine because his hand hurts. In the past he would've gotten conditioning for the rest of the practice or sent home. Thankfully the coaches are understanding him better and just made him climb ropes then work on floor. He worked hard on floor and was happy with some of the skills he was attempting.
What does your gym do if a gymnast gets a large, painful rip on his/her hand do the coaches make them continue to work through the pain?
 
ANd they don't climb rope with a brand new rip!!!!

Usually tape it up and keep going if possible. If not as other have said, conditioning such a core, legs, etc. Once it is no longer bleeding, then they can do other events. Typically the tape works and they keep going.
 
There have been a few times when my DS has gotten a large rip on p-bars doing a lot of under bar type swings and then gone to the next event which happened to be high bar and is expected to do his routine on a fresh rip. He gets to a point where he can't do the routine because his hand hurts. In the past he would've gotten conditioning for the rest of the practice or sent home. Thankfully the coaches are understanding him better and just made him climb ropes then work on floor. He worked hard on floor and was happy with some of the skills he was attempting.
What does your gym do if a gymnast gets a large, painful rip on his/her hand do the coaches make them continue to work through the pain?

Rope climbing seems like the worst for a rip. Are you saying they get "punished" for getting a rip?
 
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According to my child, climbing a rope with a brand new rip is the definition of hell....
Her gym doesnt do it, btw...
 
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Rope climb with a rip? My dd says that would be worst than carrying on with bars.
According to my dd she will clean it up, trim any flappy skin and tape it up, she has a ‘rip kit’ in her gym bag so she can sort it out herself and then will continue as normal as much as possible however might not do as many repetitions of skills that aggravate it.
 
Rope climb with a rip? My dd says that would be worst than carrying on with bars.
According to my dd she will clean it up, trim any flappy skin and tape it up, she has a ‘rip kit’ in her gym bag so she can sort it out herself and then will continue as normal as much as possible however might not do as many repetitions of skills that aggravate it.
I guess they were hoping that he would suck it up and do his routine. I don't know what a rip feels like and I don't know if it's fear of more pain or actual pain that caused him to not do his tech sequence routines on high bar. A lot of the boys got rips last night at practice because of the number of under bar swings they did on parallel bars. He and another gymnast were the only two who felt that the pain was too much to continue on high bar. I am glad that he didn't have to condition the whole time and got to work on some skills on floor.
 
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Rips happen, some are bigger, deeper and more painful than others Punishing a kid who says it hurts too much to do bars with a fresh rip is awful.

Yep, and if something like that happens in your gym I would stay and watch the practice. This sounds like abuse to me. I gently courage my kids to TRY to work through mild pain when they have a rip that is not bleeding and that is properly covered by tape. But I would never punish a kid because he/she had a rip and couldn't continue working on bars. Usually the kids are devastated to have to stop anyway and the rips happen when they are working hard on something new and exciting like flyaways. No need to make them feel even worse. When my little ones get their first rip I congratulate them for working hard, because rips are just that - a mark that you have worked super hard. When the kids cry or feel bad because of the rips, I get one of the optional girls to show them her hands and congratulate them and all of sudden the littles forget the pain.
 
Here is my son's take. He is a Level 8.
He says that in his experience, there are kids who will use rips (or other claimed pains) to get out of doing something they do not want to do. Maybe this is more prevalent with boys than girls, I would not know- he says it is more prevalent with younger boys by which he means 12 and under.

If a kid has a reputation for doing this, then the coach is going to be more hardnosed about it or at least may suspect the kid is overstating the pain. Think the boy who cried wolf.
If a kid has the reputation for not doing this, their claims of being in pain would be taken more seriously.
My son says he has worked with new rips and not worked with new rips. It just depends on the rip in question and how bad it hurts. He says it is the depth and not the surface size of the rip that makes it more painful (generally.)

Also at his gym, they do not work Hbar right after Pbars typically. The rotation is normally Pbar, rings and floor one day, and Hbar, vault and pommel the next. (Usually.)

For a situation like the above, the coach would have the kid tape up and give the event a try, and if after trying, the gymnast says it hurts too much to do the planned event, they would go do something else that is less likely to hurt the rip. Another event or conditioning etc.
Also my son says using straps on highbar can help make it not as painful to work hb with a rip.

Rope climbs are typically used for conditioning. They are also used for discipline when a kid is acting up. Boys at gym practice need lots of (appropriate) discipline because gym practices are long and somewhat boring and particularly for boys, that can be a real challenge. Even the most devoted boy can lose interest, goof off, and cause disruption. One way a kid might act up is not wanting to work hard on the scheduled event, and wanting to do something they find more fun or whatever. A reasonable number of rope climbs as a consequence for such relatively minor misbehavior or disrespect is appropriate in my opinion, assuming it works for that particular kid or group of boys. I would not call it abuse!

I am not clear on for what purpose the coach suggested a rope climb, obviously if was ordered with the intent to hurt the child who has a rip, that is abuse. In fact, rather sick abuse of the Doloris Umbridge variety! But is that what happened?
 
Here is my son's take. He is a Level 8.
He says that in his experience, there are kids who will use rips (or other claimed pains) to get out of doing something they do not want to do. Maybe this is more prevalent with boys than girls, I would not know- he says it is more prevalent with younger boys by which he means 12 and under.

If a kid has a reputation for doing this, then the coach is going to be more hardnosed about it or at least may suspect the kid is overstating the pain. Think the boy who cried wolf.
If a kid has the reputation for not doing this, their claims of being in pain would be taken more seriously.
My son says he has worked with new rips and not worked with new rips. It just depends on the rip in question and how bad it hurts. He says it is the depth and not the surface size of the rip that makes it more painful (generally.)

Also at his gym, they do not work Hbar right after Pbars typically. The rotation is normally Pbar, rings and floor one day, and Hbar, vault and pommel the next. (Usually.)

For a situation like the above, the coach would have the kid tape up and give the event a try, and if after trying, the gymnast says it hurts too much to do the planned event, they would go do something else that is less likely to hurt the rip. Another event or conditioning etc.
Also my son says using straps on highbar can help make it not as painful to work hb with a rip.

Rope climbs are typically used for conditioning. They are also used for discipline when a kid is acting up. Boys at gym practice need lots of (appropriate) discipline because gym practices are long and somewhat boring and particularly for boys, that can be a real challenge. Even the most devoted boy can lose interest, goof off, and cause disruption. One way a kid might act up is not wanting to work hard on the scheduled event, and wanting to do something they find more fun or whatever. A reasonable number of rope climbs as a consequence for such relatively minor misbehavior or disrespect is appropriate in my opinion, assuming it works for that particular kid or group of boys. I would not call it abuse!

I am not clear on for what purpose the coach suggested a rope climb, obviously if was ordered with the intent to hurt the child who has a rip, that is abuse. In fact, rather sick abuse of the Doloris Umbridge variety! But is that what happened?
No. Ropes are assigned when they don't do what the coach has told them to do the first time.
 
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Rip Update: I watched a little bit of practice this morning and saw that his head was not in the game on floor, his first event. He struggled on a couple of passes he doesn't usually struggle with and I could see his demeanor change and his attitude and effort was not good. I saw that pbars was next so I stayed a little longer to watch. Today I saw the rip as an excuse. I think the fear of pain was affecting him more than the actual pain. The coaches tried talking to him but he just wouldn't do it. I told the coaches to send him out that I was going to take him home if he was going to waste everyone's time. He was crying in the car and I gave him a talking to about effort and attitude and working through his pain. He begged to go back and told him I would let him on the condition that he put his full effort into the rest of practice and change his attitude. He went back and did his pbar routine cold and then moved to high bar and had some beautiful routines and got happy again. Ugh!
 
Yep, and if something like that happens in your gym I would stay and watch the practice. This sounds like abuse to me. I gently courage my kids to TRY to work through mild pain when they have a rip that is not bleeding and that is properly covered by tape. But I would never punish a kid because he/she had a rip and couldn't continue working on bars. Usually the kids are devastated to have to stop anyway and the rips happen when they are working hard on something new and exciting like flyaways. No need to make them feel even worse. When my little ones get their first rip I congratulate them for working hard, because rips are just that - a mark that you have worked super hard. When the kids cry or feel bad because of the rips, I get one of the optional girls to show them her hands and congratulate them and all of sudden the littles forget the pain.
He got the rip doing underbar swings on pbars. They had them doing a lot of swings to work on form. He tends to have a fear of pain without trying first. He got spooked when he was 9 and pulled in to the high bar doing a layout flyaway out of a giant and hit both shins on the bar. That season was a hot mess after that. As a result he fears pain. I think he was more afraid that it might hurt a lot so he didn't want to do it. His body reacts to fear by freezing or doing the skill so loose that it guarantees failure. I think the fresh rip was tender and not doing high bar that day was fine but today he was still avoiding swinging on pbars - two days later. He's got to learn to get out of his head.
 
I told the coaches to send him out that I was going to take him home if he was going to waste everyone's time. He was crying in the car and I gave him a talking to about effort and attitude and working through his pain.
He begged to go back and told him I would let him on the condition that he put his full effort into the rest of practice and change his attitude. He went back and did his pbar routine cold and then moved to high bar and had some beautiful routines and got happy again. Ugh!

Maybe for your son, the threat of being sent home is more of a motivator than rope climbs etc. My kids would be the same!

I think you should chalk this up as a smart parenting moment! Not only did you support the coach and the other kids at practice, and teach your son about commitment and being considerate of the efforts and time of others, your son learned something very important about himself- that he can be afraid of the pain but still make an effort and it will be ok. Basically he learned he has more grit than he thought. Going back to practice and working hard is something for him to feel legitimately proud of. Not saying he learned this lesson for good, of course. Working though fear is an ongoing journey.

And just for the record, I do not believe it is a good idea to encourage kids work though pain, obviously, if that pain is telling them they are injured and they need to stop the activity or they risk further injury. It can be very tricky to know which is which, and I know that sometimes, coaches and parents and the gymnasts themselves get this wrong. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with a kid learning they are tougher than they thought if the risk is fairly low.
 
Maybe for your son, the threat of being sent home is more of a motivator than rope climbs etc. My kids would be the same!

I think you should chalk this up as a smart parenting moment! Not only did you support the coach and the other kids at practice, and teach your son about commitment and being considerate of the efforts and time of others, your son learned something very important about himself- that he can be afraid of the pain but still make an effort and it will be ok. Basically he learned he has more grit than he thought. Going back to practice and working hard is something for him to feel legitimately proud of. Not saying he learned this lesson for good, of course. Working though fear is an ongoing journey.

And just for the record, I do not believe it is a good idea to encourage kids work though pain, obviously, if that pain is telling them they are injured and they need to stop the activity or they risk further injury. It can be very tricky to know which is which, and I know that sometimes, coaches and parents and the gymnasts themselves get this wrong. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with a kid learning they are tougher than they thought if the risk is fairly low.
I agree and that's why I pushed the issue with him. :)
 

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