For Parents Gymnastics equipment @ Home?

[ldw4mlo]

Regarding the trampoline. We had one. Very strict supervision, including a lock on the entry. And a parent always watching. No injuries in the 7ish years we had it. If you use as intended it is safe.

And when they (the neighborhood kids including my daughter) got to big and it became unsafe, we said goodbye to the trampoline.

 

[JessSyd]

It’s always intriguing seeing the trampoline discussions here, because in Australia trampolines are so ubiquitous. If you have a back yard and kids, at some point you’ll probably have a trampoline.

And despite almost every kid I know having access to a trampoline, I don’t personally know of any injuries from modern backyard trampolines (Trampoline parks are a different story!). I am sure they happen, but considering the number of backyard trampolines they aren’t very common. My dad was an ED doctor, and his hills to die on were rugby, rodeo, and motorcycles. He wasn’t given much work by trampolines even back in the 80s.

I’m fairly wary of them, having broken a bone falling off one as a child. But modern trampolines with nets make that a much less common injury now. The very few injuries I have heard of (not folk I know personally) seem to occur as the result of double bouncing of little kids, or poorly maintained nets. Easy enough to avoid both with supervision and attention to detail (nets need inspecting and replacing regularly here as they perish due to UV).

I drum it into my kids to jump as if the net isn’t there. But it’s nice to know it’s there and in good condition for if things go awry.

 

[WV Gym Mom]

I am amazed that there is a coach recommending a home trampoline on here. I believe that's a first in my roughly 15yrs here on CB.

From a parent's perspective, I personally have always been against home trampolines. Mostly for liability reasons. Even with supervision, they are injury magnets. Just ask ER personnel. If you live in a neighborhood, you are likely going to have other kids on it. As for the gymnast, it is too easy to allow 'just one' (fill-in-th-blank). Yes, kids with home trampolines tend to get the lower level tumbling skills faster but the other kids catch up and often surpass them at some point.

Trampolines, like anything else, can cause injuries, especially if not used properly. But I think they get a bad rap. Yes, injuries can happen on them. Yes, you are more likely to get injured on one than if you are not on one, of course. But if you look at the injuries statistically - as in, injuries balanced against the number of hours kids play on trampolines, than scrub the data for things like missing nets/not following proper usage rules/etc, its no worse than many other activities.
From the 2015 NEISS injury data report, here are the most common sports injuries for 0-15yr olds:
playgrounds (221,468 injuries)
Basketball (174,734)
Bicycles (168,471)
Soccer (106,231)
Pools (96,768)
Baseball (95,804)
Trampolines (84,959)

 

[JBS]

This might be true for extremely talented gymnast, but I've seen a lot of gymnasts who learned a bad tuck by themselves on a trampoline (with no set and extreme throwing the head back) struggling to fix it.

We teach all "whipping" first... so while that is not exactly "throwing your head"... it's not setting either... it's tumbling.

I have to say that we have almost no problem with kids with no set.