WAG Grips Question for L7/Training 8

[DisMom]

My 11 year old is currently a L7 but may move to L8 mid-season. The reason for "maybe" moving up is bars! She is scoring great on all other events and has her skills for 8 solid.

Here's the issue. She doesn't use grips. She is TINY. Much smaller than the average 11 year old. (She's 4'4" and 63#.) As such, she also has tiny hands. Her coaches seem to think that her hands are too small for grips. I know that they DO make grips for her size. And I have looked at enough clips on YouTube or here or other places where there are teeny tiny gymnasts who are doing advanced moves on bars and they all use grips.

On the one hand, I want to trust her coaches. After all, I am not a coach and not the expert here. But on the other hand, she is struggling on bars and I wonder if it is because she isn't using grips. Thoughts?

 

[wh/gh]

Without knowing more about her problems on bars, it's hard to say if grips would help or not. Problems with hand/wrist strength could be ameliorated by grips or by conditioning. It's certainly possible to do high level gymnastics without grips, and there are a handful of elite and NCAA gymnasts who don't use them (e.g. Pavlova). I have the sense that it's easier to do bars without grips if you are smaller, but don't really have any stats or physics to back that up.

Bars is often the "gatekeeper" event for moving up levels because it's so different mechanically than the other events and favors different physical characteristics.

 

[DisMom]

I definitely agree. I know that bars is the gatekeeper. And I know that it is essentially different than the other 3 events. Part of her issue is *may* be strength/conditioning related, I am certainly willing to admit that. But she seems to do her conditioning well, with good form, and doesn't struggle. So I am at a loss.

Does anyone have a link to great at-home bars conditioning she can do on top of her regular gym work? Again, appropriate for a L7. She's a motivated kid and will definitely do anything extra that will help her with her bars! Thanks.

Of course, if you have an opinion on grips, go ahead and chime in, too!

 

[catova]

My DD L7 is similar size (almost 12 YO, 4'6", also 63 lbs). She has always worn grips (size zero or smallest available). They too were probably too big at first a few years ago but she wore extra thick wrist sweatbands underneath. Lots of girls smaller than her also seemed to wear grips without issue. She has small hands/wrists but... bars is definitely her strength compared to other events. She has had several different bars coaches; none has ever told her not to use grips. She does not like the velcro grips though- only the buckle ones. Not sure if that has to do with her wrist size.

 

[momofthreegirls]

Our gym recommends grips beginning at level 4 and requires them for level 5 and up. My DD (level 6) is tiny: 49 inches tall, 47 pounds. She has been through two pairs of grips - pixie grips with velcro and now ginnasta double buckle grips. She didn't like wearing them at first, but now cannot do the high bar portion of her routine without them. She likes the double buckle grips much better than the Velcro - she says they take longer to put on, but feel more secure and stay in place better than the Velcro ones.

Honestly, her free hips are actually better without grips, but she is frightened to do tap swings and flyaways without grips.

I'm not sure sure exactly how tiny your dds hands are, but we skipped grips for level 4 based on the head coaches recommendation - she measured at a 000 grip size, and barely could get her hands around the bar without grips. HC said grips would hinder her at that point, because of her hand size.

Now she is either 00 or. 0 depending on brand.

Hope some of this info helps and good luck.

 

[CameraShy]

I would defer to her coach on this one. I was like you for a bit questioning whether or not DD needed grips, was told she was too small still (49", 55lbs) by her coach. I was worried about her getting her skills, but she has giants now, no issue, and was told she got her pirouette yesterday. It seemed like once she got the idea out of her head that she "needed grips", she started excelling. Her fav NCAA gymnast doesn't wear grips on bars and that has also helped her to see someone doing those big skills without grips and looking amazing. We're being told that maybe in a couple of years her hands will be big enough that she can try them out then. She seems pretty content with not having them right now.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Do what the coachs say.

 

[2gymmies]

I'm impressed that she has a vault at that size! My dd is shorter and lighter than yours and can swing bars in 000 grips just fine but is having a real challenge with the length of the spring board (and 5 springs) and the length/height of the table to yurchenko consistently. Better to be a consistent, safe and strong 7 than barely an 8 with weak bars because she will just end up repeating 8. The jump from 8 to 9 bars if you are tiny is beyond hard!