Concurred.
Before you read any further, please take the nearest pen/pencil and put it behind your ear.
Don't wait and see where I'm going with this, just do it.
.....
You're still hesitating. Do it. Come on, you'll see why in a minute.
....
There we go.
Anyway, I don't like this simply because I think it's completely ineffective. It's basically a coaching superstition. Wearing a belly band will not help you any more than picking up a four-leaf-clover on the way to gym.
Why? Because it's a continuing, unchanging stimulus, and as such the brain tunes it out after a minute or so. After the first minute or so, the gymnast literally cannot even feel the band unless 1) something reminds them it's there or 2) it's painfully tight. The brain simply tunes things like these out.
Some examples: the slight whistling coming from your monitor (assuming you're using an older monitor, as opposed to an LCD one). The subtle hum of your refrigerator. The heating or air conditioning. The cooling fans and spinning drives in your computer. Do you normally notice any of these noises? No; you tune them out. If you listen for them, you can hear them, but unless you're specifically listening for them, you don't notice them at all after the first couple minutes.
Those are all auditory, but the same is true of tactile stimuli. The clothes your wearing. Can you feel the fabric on your body? Well, of course, when you're thinking about it, but you completely tune out that sensation if you aren't being reminded of it.
Want another tactile example? Remember that pencil I told you to put behind your ear? Did you feel it at all before I reminded you of it again?
The belly bands are no different.
Yes, but 10 year old girls think they are cool
