Parents DD Scared the Bejeezus out of me

[krisnkids]

My older dd who is 13, just came back to gymnastics after a 4 year break, has only competed level 4 and who is competing level 4 this season, decided to scare the living daylights out of me, TWICE in one night.

First she was on bars doing her mill circle; no big deal, she's done thousands over the years. Something happened with the grip on her right hand in mid circle, she let go with that hand. Any other child in the gym who is a level 4 would have probably crashed, but not mine, she somehow had the forethought to hook her leg to keep her from going flying on her face. Her coach came up to me afterwards and asked me if my heart was still beating.

Later they were vaulting working on their handsprings, dd is not used to the hands on corrections/coaching that this gym does. The coach as soon as her hands hit the vault touched her stomach to remind her to hollow, she freaked and ended up going face first over the vault. They do this "tasing" thing at school where they poke eachother right between the ribs and hip, exactly where the coach got her. Needless to say she's fine, coach got on her about never ever ever bail no matter what. Thankfully she is old enough to explain her perspective and the coach understood, but still scared the crapola out of me.

 

[gymgal]

Glad she is ok. This is exactly why I rarely watch her practice. My head and heart just can't handle it anymore. It is bad enough when she tells me if the crashes after practice on the ride home.

 

[MeetDirector]

Well ....
If these falls/incidents got your heart racing, you definitely don't want to be watching as she trains later in her career. I can tell you that the higher levels bring riskier skills; you absolutely must have coaches that know how to spot correctly and that pay attention. Even with all of that in place, a gymnast can still miss the bar on a big release move and the coach just can't get to her in time. The gymnasts must learn how to fall correctly. I could not watch dd learning the shootover this summer; that low bar came up very fast and if her hands weren't just right it would have been ugly.

Good Luck.

 

[cbifoja]

LOL at Meet Director's post because I remember sitting in the lobby as a rec parent watching the older girls do tumbling passes on the beam and telling myself that we were OUT of there the minute my kid got to the point of having to do such things.

4 years later, she's started doing some backward tumbling on the beam and we're still there.......

 

[sglemon]

Wait until she starts peeling off the high bar and landing on her back or face! It only gets more exciting after Level 4.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

hahaha, you guys crack me up.

 

[krisnkids]

Wait until she starts peeling off the high bar and landing on her back or face! It only gets more exciting after Level 4.

She already did that 4 years ago, one of the reasons she left the sport. Her first attempt at transfer with new grips, "spotting" coach got a cell phone call and looked down at precisely the wrong time, dd peeled off and landed on her back. We left that gym that night and never went back. She tried another gym and just could not trust coaches anymore. She is slowly building a good relationship with her current coaches.