WAG Grips

[Deleted member 14190]

good read https://www.chalkwarrior.com/single-post/2017/05/11/Get-On-a-Grip-For-When-Its-Time-For-Grips

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Since you are also a coach @coachp, when do your girls start wearing grips?

 

[raenndrops]

We have one girl who finally decided she was willing to wear grips at L8.
My OG got grips the first time for Old L5, but hated them. That was 2010. This is 2017 and she has been using grips for about 3 WEEKS, lol. She got tired of getting rips right before big meets.
All of our current L5 training L6 have grips or have ordered them.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Since you are also a coach @coachp, when do your girls start wearing grips?

After the first year of level 4. is the norm but has exceptions

 

[Aussie_coach]

A lot of gyms have a hard and fast rule, a common one is once they have a solid kip.

But I find it is a very individual thing. We rccomend grips (or guards as we call them) at different stages for different gymnasts.

 

[azara]

I find the methods of other countries very interesting. Romania didn't used to wear grips at all. China still has some girls who don't like them. I've also seen some girls using tape or pseudo-grips.

It seems using grips is a kind of Western thing - at least, it has been in the past. I'm pretty sure almost every gymnast now uses them, regardless of country.

I remember those several bizarre months when Cata Ponor decided to start bars again. She didn't use grips, and eventually gave up because her hands were ripping too much.

 

[mgegirl]

At our gym we usually go straight to dowel grips during/after level 4 for USAG girls but for USAIGC (similar to xcel), we usually get them once/a little bit after we start the team. Some of the girls on pre team get the palm guards though (the ones without dowels) but I really think it depends on the girl.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

I find the methods of other countries very interesting. Romania didn't used to wear grips at all. China still has some girls who don't like them. I've also seen some girls using tape or pseudo-grips.

It seems using grips is a kind of Western thing - at least, it has been in the past. I'm pretty sure almost every gymnast now uses them, regardless of country.

I remember those several bizarre months when Cata Ponor decided to start bars again. She didn't use grips, and eventually gave up because her hands were ripping too much.

Very true. I have had a couple level 7 kids over the years not wear grips but that is only because they were struggling in them. You do not need them but it is a nice addition to hand longevity and sanity .

 

[Nikki4]

Sometime around that kip is what I've seen to be pretty normal. One gym wasn't until you had your kip, the other was when you started training them.

 

[InbarSquirrel]

My training L8 9DD is in week 3 of learning how to use grips; as a parent watching its like watching a preschool class on bars during the first week of grips.
I wished she would have had them soon but again she went from L4 to L7 in two years.

 

[HoldThePhone]

DD started trying to get used to Grips last Summer. It took her awhile. She just really started feeling comfortable wearing them in the last couple months. She competed giants without them this season, and then eventually with them. Prior to getting them she had only ripped maybe 2-3 times ever. There are still certain skills she feels more comfortable without them, at least for right now. Front giants I think are a skill she prefers bare handed.

 

[GymDad9.9]

My daughter practiced with grips in Level 3 and TOPS. At her out of town meet to score out of Level 4, she left them home. She borrowed a pair from a teammate. It was not pretty.

 

[2gymmies]

Front giants I think are a skill she prefers bare handed.

My dd can't imagine holding onto a front giant bare handed! She can barely hold on in grips...

 

[e'smum]

our gym gave out grips once they were done with level 4 with good kips on both low and high bar and were going to be moving out of 5 into 6. then this year the lvl 4s got them earlier b/c some girls were 2nd year and they were all getting rips and having glide issues. this year the coach gave them out before states but i think only 1 competed with them at states.

so i think it's really on a case by case basis but they seem to want them to have good solid kips before adding grips.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Love reading this. We are a new to grips early gym.

Our coaches have had L9/10s not use grips. An Eastern Bloc if you will thing.........

Change doesn't come easy to them but they are open to change.

This past summer all the girls L4 and higher got grips. All at the same time. So they all broke them in together. All buckles, bars coach would of lost their mind with kids messing with velcro. Lower levels started with single buckle.

And there was a break in period. They had to relearn some of what they already knew. It was a funky month this summer on bars.............. And I think the coaches decided they would rather control that break in get used to them period at the lower compulsory level so they were used to them at bigger bar skill time.

We have some girls who just didn't/wouldn't/couldn't deal with them. They are competing L7 without them.

So our coaches have gone from wait to see "if" they need them. To L4, to get used to them.

So interesting.

 

[Taxidriver]

Our gym doesn't have any set skills they have to have but more on the number of hours they spend working on bars and how their hands are and how many rips they are getting, most of our girls get them before they have a kip. But it's my understanding that we spend more hours on bars than most gyms (well compared to other local gyms at least) and bars is the piece of apparatus that most time is spent on.

 

[sce]

We have one girl who finally decided she was willing to wear grips at L8.
My OG got grips the first time for Old L5, but hated them. That was 2010. This is 2017 and she has been using grips for about 3 WEEKS, lol. She got tired of getting rips right before big meets.

Grips don't stop rips. My ds is most likely to get a blister or rip the week of a meet. Just the way it happens.

 

[raenndrops]

Grips don't stop rips. My ds is most likely to get a blister or rip the week of a meet. Just the way it happens.

Where she rips, the grips are stopping them. Same spot every time.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

After the first year of level 4. is the norm but has exceptions

Agreed. One season of L4 without grips, then get a pair regardless of whether they're moving up

 

[GymMom4]

Our girls get them once they are kipping consistently.