WAG Bars... How can a Host Team NOT realize...

[raenndrops]

Ok, so we were at a meet yesterday. First Session was L3. The bars looked fine... of course the girls are only on the low bar.
Second session - L4. I noticed that the bars looked unlevel. I also noticed that they were REALLY, REALLY chalky looking. I was directly in front of the bars but there was 3 feet of walk space and the floor exercise and 3 more feet of walk space and the matting for bar mounts between me and the bars. When HC walked by, I said something to her. She noticed it too. She tried to get it fixed. The Meet Director / HC of host team said it was fine. 66 girls in that session... at least 14 had falls (uncharacteristic for the girls in question... I didn't count falls on squat ons or those who don't have a kip getting counted as falls).
3rd Session - Xcel and L5. The bars looked ok at first. I thought maybe they fixed them... until the first time they were adjusted. Then they were unlevel again. 42 gymnasts... at least 8 falls. It was getting ridiculous. They worked on them between sessions.
4th Session - Level 6+. 45 gymnasts. A L9 fell 4 times... one of our girls fell on her low bar clear hip (her hand slipped on all the chalk build up - she said it felt like there was nothing there.) She continued... jump to front support, squat on, jump to high bar, kip, clear hip ... her hands completely slip off... she flies over the bar and manages to regrasp it with one hand... gets the other hand on, 2-3 swings to get momentum... flyaway! Scored a 7.2... had to go wash the blood off her hand (she was ordered out of the gym because there was blood on her face - from where she wiped her eyes/ face with her hand). They fixed the bars while she was out (including cleaning off the blood) and our next girl went. She moved over slightly (to get away from the super chalky area that they couldnt or wouldnt remove). She couldnt move too far over though and she slipped a little on high bar, but didn't fall or get hurt.
After it was all said and done, the girl with the 2 scary moments was happy. She still managed to qualify for Nationals and she survived. She said they should "fix" their bars to one of our coaches and the other HC overheard the conversation. She yelled at this gymnast - it was your fault that you fell... the bars are just fine... our girls use them all the time... and you dont know if you qualified for Nationals because qualifying scores havent been announced yet! Our coach looked at her and said "She is happy. She had a good day. Dont even TRY to take that from her. Besides, there is no way they will raise the qualifying score more than 1 point from before - so she will still have it."
We have trouble with their bars EVERY year. In previous years, there was enough "safe" space on the bars that we could just have the girls move over 4-6 inches. Now it is getting wider. The host team has more higher level gymnasts who use grips and tons of chalk... and water on the bars. They need to strip the bar and start over... but apparently can't see that!!! Will they ever learn?

 

[JBS]

I guess I am unsure what you are talking about. It is up to each coach to make sure the bars are safe for their gymnasts. I would not let my gymnasts swing on crooked bars. If there was too much chalk on them...then I would scrape it off with the little yellow pad that comes with the rails or a wire brush or something.

If a club has slippery rails because the laminate is worn off because they do not purchase new equipment enough...then I would not return to the meet. We do have meets that we will not attend do to poor equipment.

 

[raenndrops]

The coach couldn't tell they were crooked until she looked at them from a distance... and they did fix them. It was just a constant thing. And she did try to scrape off the chalk. The build up was just so much that it didn't help.
We are in a small district and, since this other team's HC is one of the heads of the district, it is hard to NOT go to her meets - especially when we only get to go to 7-8 meets total (including Nationals). Also, they occasionally host the District Championship meet, so we HAVE to go to that. I am not exactly sure WHAT the big problem is with their bars... I know its too chalky on parts... but the other parts are known to cause rips (so many rips in one meet that we ended up having 3 girls scratch bars a few years ago). This gym can DEFINITELY afford to replace the rails or something. They CHOOSE not to.
I guess i was just venting or hoping @dunno would have the magic words to help, lol.

 

[JBS]

It just sounds a bit strange...are they swinging on old Nissen rails or something?

 

[berrisweetness]

That would probably be the meet that I would not pay for my daughter to go to. :-(((((

 

[gymdog]

Pretty much all our meets are in outside venues that bring in equipment, so we don't really have this problem, more likely to have problem of bars not being chalked. Anyway, it's not hard to get chalk off bars, something would have to be wrong with the rails. Lots of bars look crooked, not necessarily a problem in many cases, depends on what you mean there.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i can't begin to figure out what the problem is.

 

[MaryA]

This was a YMCA meet, correct? I don't believe that the Y league has the same requirements for competition equipment as USAG does, and if they do, it's surely not enforced. Lack of decent equipment is one of the main reasons my daughter is no longer on a YMCA team. Though the equipment at our local Y is better than the equipment at our local high school. At the high school meet I went to, a coach had to sit on the chain on each side of the bars to try to keep them steady.

 

[Jenny]

This was a YMCA meet, correct? I don't believe that the Y league has the same requirements for competition equipment as USAG does, and if they do, it's surely not enforced. Lack of decent equipment is one of the main reasons my daughter is no longer on a YMCA team. Though the equipment at our local Y is better than the equipment at our local high school. At the high school meet I went to, a coach had to sit on the chain on each side of the bars to try to keep them steady.

Surely invalidating any insurance I might add!

 

[AmandaLynn]

I am trying to figure out how they were unlevel or crooked... Like... In height? Were they not clicking into place and being tightened?

I have seen shaky bars, but never like crooked... And I agree with the others that the coach should have scraped the chalk off of the bars if necessary.

 

[Jen H.]

Ha! I read the title of the post to say "bras" not "bars".

 

[gymdog]

I am trying to figure out how they were unlevel or crooked... Like... In height? Were they not clicking into place and being tightened?

I have seen shaky bars, but never like crooked... And I agree with the others that the coach should have scraped the chalk off of the bars if necessary.

The bars can appear crooked sometimes when the metal base on either side is offset a little. I don't find that uncommon having seen high school gymnastics set ups but it's not really an issue today with the water table AAI at most outside venues. Anyway it sounds like it wasn't new equipment but either way they aren't really crooked to the point of being unusable, the bars are still parallel.

 

[raenndrops]

It was a YMCA meet, but we do have the same USAG safety rules to follow with the same equipment specs (with the exception of a spring floor... one gym that hosts a meet does not have a spring floor.... but everyone is aware of this in advance and can choose to attend a different meet if they want.) This gym likes their bars extra chalky. I think it is just a constant build up from being chalked, watered, chalked, watered... Our coach can only get so much chalk off the bars... but it is still bad. Our girls (at least most of them there this weekend) do not use grips. At the host gym, all of their Optionals use grips as well as most of their L4 and all of their L5. It was just horrible to see so many girls flying right off the bar. Thank goodness nobody was hurt.
As for the crookedness... the bars were sloping down to the left or up to the right. It was affecting swings even though bars were parallel to each other...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

too bad you didn't take a pic.

 

[raenndrops]

too bad you didn't take a pic.

I might be able to get one off my video... will have to see if it's noticible in the video.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

okay

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Yes, what gymdog said, but also with a regular set when you tighten and pull the cables up more on one side the bars will APPEAR to be uneven, well,, its an illusion, the top of one or both rail is simply set forward more on one side so it looks uneven but it is actually pretty level . When this happens bars are a little skewed when you compare them parallel to each other (not horizontally), but they really do visibly look uneven,. That is why sometime they appear to be straight during the meet and sometimes not. Happens and really the only time this will give a gymnast problems is when they are doing high low or low high releases (optionals).OR when someone makes an issue of it and it gets into the kids heads that they are not level. My kids workout on a set just like that every day. The kids know that the bars are not perfectly parallel to each other but they are horizontally level. The only time I take care in setting them is for our upper level kids when they are releasing. As far as the chalk problem, well... kids need to adapt at each meet and it's the coaches responsibility to teach that in the gym, in other words they should be swinging daily in the gym with chalked bars and bare bars. This sport is really mental and creating mental toughness in dealing with issues or non issues is often what sets champions apart from each other. And remember some day these kids are expected to go to college and not only swing on a team that either uses chalk or doesn't, but swing on an entirely different setting!

 

[AmandaLynn]

Gymdog and coachp, yes. I agree. I have seen bars that were slightly "off" because of the way that the bases are placed on those floor or the fact that the tensioners aren't tightened evenly, but certainly not enough to effect a level 4-5 to the point of numerous falls...

I would be interested to see a picture.

 

[raenndrops]

The falls that were worrisome were L6-9 (Optionals). Like the L6 that flew over the bar on a clear hip and ended up (miraculously) catching the bar with one hand... or the level 9 that was doing an intentional release and her hands slipped and she landed flat on her stomach. i am checking my video to see if I have a clear shot of the bars.

 

[coachmolly]

I coach a HS team and some of our equipment is the definition of awful. Our bars are old Nissen bars and they almost always appear askew in some way- high bar looks crooked, one side looks to be out farther than the other, and no amount of pushing/pulling/loosening/tightening can make them appear even. They are perfectly stable/safe, especially for our purposes (our girls max out at a level 5/6 skill level), but some visiting teams are put off a bit by their appearance.
But it does sound suspect if there was a large number of scary falls, and definitely not professional for the host team coach to yell at another club's gymnast for commenting.