WAG On the topic of grips

[Canadian_gym_mom]

So my dd is competing probably the equivalent of level 7 there, training some level 8 skills. The pre-novice national category in canada.

Her coaches have the opinion that they like certain girls to hold off on getting grips. Well the national levell girls have been going to another gym once a month for some extra training and the coach there said he wanted to get my dd wearing grips by next season for sure, to start introducing them now so she will be ready.

Her biggest bar issue has been the chalk on the bar. Without grips she like the bar to be without chalk and damp. Otherwise she is afraid (not sure of rightfully so or not) that she will fly off the bar. Too slippery, she says.

So her coaches have started having her practice some skills with a bit of chalk on the bars as she waits for her grips to arrive. She hates it.

The rationale for introducing grips and chalk for them is that because she needs the bar to be chalk-free, that in competitions she will have almost no warm up time of the coaches have to spend the whole time removing the chalk and prepping the bar for her.

I guess I just wonder if there is anyone else whose dd does not use grips/chalk, or who waited a longer time before starting with them, and if they ever ran into issues at competition.

 

[DND]

My DD is now in a similar situation. While being restricted from Sept. to Dec they had her in grips and it was the plan for her to move forward with them. She never really was bothered by them, but as she started doing more in Dec. her flyaway and giants seemed to be not as they were. (could be the injury recovery too mind you)

Just two weeks ago when I went to clean I noticed they had her on bars doing her routines and that she had no grips on. My DD prefers if she is not wearing grips to have little to no chalk and I notice that she sprays her hands doing her routines now. They are having her compete this weekend (first meet BTW) with no grips and I am not sure if they are going to try and have her use them for Gymnix or not. Maybe your DD could try spraying her hands and when she is being helped into positions just "rub" her hold area clean of chalk. To me that is what it looks like my DD is doing with the excess she sprays on her hands and it seems to be working.

Also here I don't think it will be much of a problem at the meet as there are maybe only 10 at best who compete in that level from the entire Province. In past years I have seen them clean the bar down and then work the rotation so that the girls with no grips and clean bar all go then the chalk and grips girls go and lastly the ones who use honey go last. I am sure at a large event with more athletes this would not be ideal.


Hopefully they will come soon and the transition will be smooth for her.

 

[wallflower]

So my dd is competing probably the equivalent of level 7 there, training some level 8 skills. The pre-novice national category in canada.

Her coaches have the opinion that they like certain girls to hold off on getting grips. Well the national levell girls have been going to another gym once a month for some extra training and the coach there said he wanted to get my dd wearing grips by next season for sure, to start introducing them now so she will be ready.

Her biggest bar issue has been the chalk on the bar. Without grips she like the bar to be without chalk and damp. Otherwise she is afraid (not sure of rightfully so or not) that she will fly off the bar. Too slippery, she says.

So her coaches have started having her practice some skills with a bit of chalk on the bars as she waits for her grips to arrive. She hates it.

The rationale for introducing grips and chalk for them is that because she needs the bar to be chalk-free, that in competitions she will have almost no warm up time of the coaches have to spend the whole time removing the chalk and prepping the bar for her.

I guess I just wonder if there is anyone else whose dd does not use grips/chalk, or who waited a longer time before starting with them, and if they ever ran into issues at competition.

It's good to know my DD isn't the only one with such problems. She did level 6 without grips and could do all of her skills very well on the rec set of bars that have little to no chalk. Move her to the bars the optionals use that have lots of chalk and she can barely do anything. She was doing cast to handstand, free hip handstand on the chalk free set and could not on the other set. She would say it was too slippery. Several times out of her free hip she would slip off under the bar. She was really afraid. It was an issue during her level 6 season because she found every bar at the meets too slippery. The coach would spray and scrape for her as much as possible, but it was still an issue. She is now doing level 7 and was forced to get grips. She was very resistant and is still in the process of relearning some of her skills on the low bar, but the bars are no longer slippery for her and she loves her grips.