WAG Advice for Heel Pain

[vagymmomma]

DD's coaches have her working on BT-BT or BT-BHS series for beam. Their preference would actually be BT-BT because they think she can do it with very few deductions. However, DD is experiencing heel pain (on one foot) when she does a lot of back tucks on beam. It's triggered by the BT skill, but once it hurts it is painful through the rest of practice. She is working on changing her feet position on landing, which might be part of the problem. However, we went through this last year and she ended up stopping training on BTs because of the pain. She really needs to upgrade her series though, so I think we need to figure out how to manage the pain.

I saw several old threads on heel pain (mainly seemed to be around Severs though) and there were several schools of thought on how to manage the pain. Some suggested SoleImpact socks, some recommended Cheetah cups, some said taping. Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with the pain when it's related to BTs on beam? I know she needs to correct the feet position, but I don't want her to quit training it because of pain in the meantime.

Also, her beam coach told her they can't wear them at meets, but I read on a old thread that you can wear them during meets. Has anything changed in the last couple year or are gymnasts still allowed to use them in competition?

Finally, one particular foot seem to be the problem. Is better to wear them on both feet or just the one with pain?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[JennC4]

My daughter has the same problem with tucks on beam. She wears a heal cup, and uses it at meets too and there has never been a problem.

 

[profmom]

DD has been wearing her successive Cheetahs at meets for two years now. I don't think she really has much issue with Severs at this point, but when she goes without, she finds that her heel does tend to get sore. The heel cup goes on for warmups and comes off at the end of the meet. She's never had a problem or been told there was a deduction.

 

[Deleted member 17723]

Work on strengthening the heel and ice, ice, ice. Depending on age, advil can help too. She can wear a brace/heel cup/ tape, etc. at a meet. They should/can not deduct for this. I have had ankles taped, shins taped, and they have never deducted for it. I have never dealt with much heel pain, but I have heard good things about X-braces and my teammate gets her taped like an ankle, then they add a folded, squishy square of pre-wrap on the heel, with tape on top.

 

[gymgal]

What a timely post. Dd has been dealing with the same pain for the past few months, but due to competition season, She didn't want to try any heel supports as she thought it might affect her skills. Season is over now and she Just went to ortho who said it was just bruised (inside, not outward) and had some swelling. Recommended no hard pounding for 2-4 weeks. Lots of icing as well. Since she has all summer now, she may try taping or heel cups to see how they feel. It is only one heel and it only hurts on the back tuck on bean and sometimes her double back dismount on bar.

 

[vagymmomma]

What a timely post. Dd has been dealing with the same pain for the past few months, but due to competition season, She didn't want to try any heel supports as she thought it might affect her skills. Season is over now and she Just went to ortho who said it was just bruised (inside, not outward) and had some swelling. Recommended no hard pounding for 2-4 weeks. Lots of icing as well. Since she has all summer now, she may try taping or heel cups to see how they feel. It is only one heel and it only hurts on the back tuck on bean and sometimes her double back dismount on bar.

Interesting. Just curious - have your DD's coaches suggested any adjustments to how she's doing the skills? Not sure if there's really much that can be changed with the landings or if it's just the nature of the skill. This is definitely the time of year for them try things like heel cups to see if they will help though. Problem for me is that there appear to be a number of types of heel cups and I am not sure what option is best. Normally I would ask the coach, but the beam coach is so sure that they can't be used in competition that I'm not sure she would answer. A teammate asked about them last week because of pain on a FHS on beam.

 

[my4buffaloes]

When my dd was working a lot of BT's on beam her feet her a lot. She did have to start limiting how many she did in a day.

 

[All Chalked Up]

Beam shoes or Cheetahs. Both are permitted without deduction in comp.

Or, if coach really doesn't want her wearing them in comp, she could do a routine or two a day without the cheetahs and compete without them, wearing them only for multiple repetitions at practice.

 

[gymgal]

Interesting. Just curious - have your DD's coaches suggested any adjustments to how she's doing the skills? Not sure if there's really much that can be changed with the landings or if it's just the nature of the skill.

From what dd has told me, it started with the way that she was landing. She was/is not always square on the beam. I don't know for sure, but it sounds as if sometimes she would land with part of her foot on the edge of the beam? So the impact on the foot was much greater. She says she is landing them much better now but the 'damage' has been done and what she really needs is to let it heal (no pun intended) now. The HC had her bring down her numbers and doing them on a padded beam or with a bath rug on a regular beam for some cushion.

 

[leotardmakermum]

My thought is if you're going to wear Cheetah cups, wear them on both feet. They do alter the height of the heel just slightly, which then affects the leg all the way up to the hips. You don't need hip problems on top of heel pain...

 

[Aero]

This sounds like a technique issue. You are never supposed to land on your heels in gymnastics, no matter what the skill. Inevitably, the heels will contact the ground anyway on take offs and landings, but they should never contact the floor first. Reaching for the ground with your toes first for a landing is the optimal technique because it allows the foot to sequentially take the impact, as well as allowing the ankle joint to dampen the forces, making the landing much smoother and helping to spread out the impact. Landing on the heel point loads all the impact to that one spot, and since there is no joint to buffer the impact this way, it all travels straight to the calcaneus bone (heel), as well as the tibia (shin), and the muscles don't effectively take the impact either in this situation. This can cause bruised heels, or worse - bruised bones or bone spurs.

Technique-wise, she may be having issues getting the height she needs, which would be causing her to slam down onto the beam because she doesn't have enough air time to completely finish the backward rotation and smoothly bring her feet down to land with enough time to spare. One of the hardest things to teach on beam is that even though they are already quite high off the ground, they still have to try to maximize their height on anything requiring a jump. Plus, judges like to see the three layers of space being utilized. The three layers are: 1. going down low on the beam; 2. standing on the beam at a normal height; 3. exploring the space in the air above the beam. The third layer is the only one without a limit, so the judges like to see when a gymnast fully uses this "height" layer. A good landing should make the gymnast appear "light" and looks effortless. Another good indicator is if the landing is fairly quiet; landings that are very loud and slam into the beam are not favorable.

All that being said, I am making an educated guess. This could very well not even be the issue. Do you have any videos of her executing the skill?

 

[Kyle]

Every athlete needs to stretch beforehand, which I'm sure we all know. When it comes to the foot though, stretching the plantar fascia can cause plantar fasciitis. Landing on balance beams can stretch the fascia, or walking on concrete. After exercise have your daughter use cold compression to get rid of inflammation, that inflammation would cause the pain she's experiencing and also blocks circulation. To heal or prevent pf she needs to get adequate blood flow to her foot without (over) stretching the fascia. Gentle stretching works, I'd recommend a blood flow stimulator though.

 

[vagymmomma]

I wanted to give a quick update and feedback on the Cheetah cups. DD has been using the Cheetah cups for a little over 2 weeks now. They seem to be working well. She said she still occasionally feels a tinge of pain when a landing is off even when wearing the cups, but the big difference is that she is experiencing no pain after the beam rotation when wearing the cups. She's not dealing with any specific physical issues like plantar fascitis, so I am not sure how they help with those issues. However, the Cheetah cups have worked well with pain mitigation directly related to training BTs on beam. She said it was an easy transition to start using them.

 

[gymgal]

Great to hear. Dd took a 3 week 'break' from heavy tumbling and hard landings on beam. She did a lot of icing and Motrin. She hasn't had any problems since going back to full training. She is keeping her numbers for bt on beam low and right now she is using padding on the beam. We will see how it goes once she has to start training routines in a few months without padding.