Parents Bars question

[LEG]

I am new to this forum but thought it might be a good place to get some information. My daughter is 7 years old and was moved to level 4 team at her gym back in April. Since that time she has really been struggling with making her jump to the high bar. She is very small, only 45 inches tall and when the coaches put the bars both at their lowest settings for height and on 2 for distance she can make the jump, but now they have moved the high bar up 3 inches and she cannot make it. She is jumping with all her might and can hit the bar with her fingertips but can't grab onto it and hold on. The coaches refuse to put the high bar down any lower and are now telling her that she's not trying hard enough. I don't believe that to be the case, and she is now so frustrated. I am having a hard time understanding the rationale behind increasing the height between the two bars and I can't get a good answer from the coaches either. Since the USAG rules state that the bars can be set at any distance and height that is appropriate for the gymnast I can't seem to find a good reason why she is having to struggle like this when kids who are 5 inches taller than her are working at the same setting and don't even have to jump at all to reach the bar, they can just lean over and grab it. I'm very confused!

 

[MeetDirector]

They are most likely trying to get all of the girls to use the same bar settings since it makes it easier on them (the coaches). Frankly, if she can't make the "leap of faith" on their wide and high settings, they need to adjust the bars. Sounds to me like the coaches are being a tad bit lazy.

 

[raenndrops]

Yep, I agree with @Meet Director. Coach laziness.
They dont want to move the bars and figure that they can get her to make the jump so they dont have to.
The bigger bar sets make the swinging easier for the bigger girls - less piking necessary on tap swings.

 

[CuriousCate]

this drives me nuts as well. I also have a 7 yo lvl 4 who is quite small (47") and there are two 8 year olds that are 1-2" shorter, while the rest of the girls seem to be a good 2-8" taller! But the bars (and vault table height) stay the same throughout. I figure that maybe it will make her more powerful/brave later on!?!

 

[3rd_time_around]

They should adjust the bars. On another note, its supposed to be a jump. Girls that are just leaning forward and grabbing the bar will be deducted for not jumping, improper body position, and lack of amplitude. So all around it doesn't sound like things are being done properly. It sounds like they may not want to talk to you about it, so i don't have much advice on what you can do.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

They should adjust the bars. On another note, its supposed to be a jump. Girls that are just leaning forward and grabbing the bar will be deducted for not jumping, improper body position, and lack of amplitude. So all around it doesn't sound like things are being done properly. It sounds like they may not want to talk to you about it, so i don't have much advice on what you can do.

I agree that the coaches should should be willing to adjust the bars. But I kind of wonder about the comment about leaning over. OP said girls that are 5 inches taller can just lean over and grab them, but that is still only about 50 inches give or take a couple. My dd is 53 inches and most of her teammates are around that or a little taller and they are definitely still jumping quite a distance to reach the high bar. Wouldn't the bars already have to be pretty close together in this case for girls around 50 inches to be able to touch them?

Our coaches adjust the bars once at the beginning of practice (for levels 4 and 5) and then they all use the same settings. I'm not sure what they would do if one of the girls couldn't make the jump at that setting though. I would hope they would adjust it, but I can't imagine them having to change it every rotation. Do they use multiple sets of bars where maybe one could be at a closer setting?

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Our gym doesn't do individual settings. But we do have 2 different bars set differently. They also group kids by settings when they are taking their rotations.

 

[LEG]

Thanks for all of the replies! Her gym has 2 sets of bars for practicing routines, and one set is the one my daughter works on, with another set that is set a little higher and a little further apart. But even on that set the tallest girls are not jumping, they are leaning into the bar, and on the closer set there are 2 other girls who are about 3 inches taller than my daughter who have to jump a very little bit to get to the high bar but not much. And when they rotate the taller girls move to the closer set and actually can't really do their tap swings very well because they are hitting the back of their calves on the low bar. I do believe that the coaches want to just have 2 settings and don't want to have to change the bars around for individuals, which I can understand, but the mom in me wants my daughter to have the same chance as everyone else to do well. In her gym she is the only 7 year old on level 4, all others are 9 and above, and definitely small for her age, and I feel as though they are not being accommodating to that fact. And her perception is that it is being made easy for everyone else and she's the only one who has to work this hard and still not make it and it's having an effect on her confidence.

 

[raenndrops]

Thanks for all of the replies! Her gym has 2 sets of bars for practicing routines, and one set is the one my daughter works on, with another set that is set a little higher and a little further apart. But even on that set the tallest girls are not jumping, they are leaning into the bar, and on the closer set there are 2 other girls who are about 3 inches taller than my daughter who have to jump a very little bit to get to the high bar but not much. And when they rotate the taller girls move to the closer set and actually can't really do their tap swings very well because they are hitting the back of their calves on the low bar. I do believe that the coaches want to just have 2 settings and don't want to have to change the bars around for individuals, which I can understand, but the mom in me wants my daughter to have the same chance as everyone else to do well. In her gym she is the only 7 year old on level 4, all others are 9 and above, and definitely small for her age, and I feel as though they are not being accommodating to that fact. And her perception is that it is being made easy for everyone else and she's the only one who has to work this hard and still not make it and it's having an effect on her confidence.

If she can develop the jump, she will probably have better bars than the bigger girls. She will have more power going into her high bar kip. She won't have to worry about hitting the low bar on tap swings and can maintain her shapes throughout.

 

[GymLife]

As someone who has a very tall DD having to use the lowest bar setting because of 1 tiny girl her age, I'm going to have to tell you what her coach told her..
"She will adjust". It takes time out of their warm up during competition to switch bar settings. At DD's new gym, they have 2 settings and it's fine, but they really push all the girls on 1 setting and it's the middle ground setting. Our tiny 9 yr old 47" girl can jump to high bar with out a problem. She also has no fear, but my daughter barely has to jump to get to high bar.
There are plenty of petite gymnasts jumping to the high bar. Give it time. She may surprise you.

 

[momof2gymmies]

I have a tiny gymnast. She is 11, and maybe 48-49 inches? She looks like she is 7. Our coaches do not adjust the bars. We have 3 sets in our gym, and they are set where they are set. DD struggled a lot when she first started jumping to the high bar, and eventually managed it on the closet setting. Now, a few years later, she can jump on any of the settings, and her kip on high bar is so much better than some of the taller girls, probably because her jump gives her the power. She will adjust to it.

 

[Seeker]

Ask the coach to spot her on that jump in practice so resetting the bar isn't necessary and she gets in her practice on the high bar. I would also request that they move it closer during competitions until she grows a little and can make that leap. She can go up first and then they can reset it for the rest of the team.

 

[LEG]

Well,she made some great progress, and on Friday she made the jump! Her coach spotted her on one, and then she did many jumps on her own and was able to do the entire level 4 routine from start to finish. She was so excited! She's still a little nervous, but now that she knows that she can actually do it hopefully the nervousness will start to subside. I guess I have to learn to trust that the coaches know what is best, it was just so hard to see her struggle and be upset for so long and not be able to help her. I am assuming that I will need to get used to that, though, because this was likely the first of many struggles that lie ahead as she moves to new skills. Thanks for all of the comments and thoughts, it was really helpful to hear others opinions and experiences.

 

[Lizandkatiemama]

I guess I have to learn to trust that the coaches know what is best, it was just so hard to see her struggle and be upset for so long and not be able to help her. I am assuming that I will need to get used to that, though, because this was likely the first of many struggles that lie ahead as she moves to new skills. Thanks for all of the comments and thoughts, it was really helpful to hear others opinions and experiences.

Yay! Glad she got it. I was coming to add to the give it time, trust the process, trust your coaches side but am pleased that it's already a non issue. And yes, this will only be the first of many things that you'll want to step in & try to fix for her. Mine is 13 & will be competing level 9. I know better and I still instinctively want to try & fix things for her - asking if she thinks a private would help when 99% of the time the answer is "no, I just need more numbers" (more practice).