Coaches I feel really bad :(

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Invisible Duck

Coach
Gymnast
I have been coaching for 8 and 1/2 years and have never had a major injury with one of my kids...... until this past fortnight.

2 weeks ago today we were doing bars and practicing long swings. the girl I had up on the bar has been doing gym for several years and we have done swings plenty of times. when I told her ok jump down and slowed her swings instead of jumping off at the back she jump at the front, skidded on to her bottom and put her arms out behind her. She was crying and said her elbow hurt and we could see it was swollen. we called her mum who took her to the doctors and it turned out she had broken it :(

then..... tonight during warm-ups the girls (same group) were practicing their backward walkovers. One girl cannot quite do them by herself yet but told me she had been practing at home and had nearly done one. I told her to go and do some on the crashmat (something she has done many times) so off she went. all of a sudden there was a horrible noise of crying. I rushed over to her and the first words out her mouth were "i heard it snap". sure enough her forearm was swollen/bent. the poor thing was in so much pain. so we again called parents who have taken her to the hospital. I have not spoken to them yet but there is no doubt that she has broken it :(

so out of a group of 7 girls i now have 2 with broken arms! I cannot believe it. really what were two freak accidents in two weeks both resulting in broken arms. It is such a horrible feeling seeing the girls hurt while I am supposed to be looking after them, especially when they are in so much pain and i can't really do anything more than put ice on it.

anyway I just wanted to vent a little, so thanks for reading :eek:
 
I am sorry for both you and the girls. Sometimes no matter how careful you are accidents may and can happen to the best of coaches and kids. I am sure you feel bad as most coaches would. Dont be so hard on yourself. Follow up with the parents and the girls. The rest of their group may be a little apprehensive and need some cheering up as well as yourself. This may be a good time to review falling off and not throwing those arms back. IM sending a Cheering up fairy your way. Good- Luck
 
I am sorry that these accidents happened to you /your girls so close together makes it even harder.

You cannot blame yourself, they were accidents.
 
Laura you poor thing.

You know these were both accidents, and both of them could easily have happened at home or at school. I can understand that you feel terribe for the pain the gilrs went through and that is right and normal. Accidents do happens all the time and little girls in gym do get hurt sometimes.

It's not bad coaching, it is just one of those terrible gym things. If we never let the girls try things they'd still be spotted at the Olympics, simply not an option.

BWO girl had been doing it a home alone fine and bar girl landed badly, nothing to do with the skill. There was nothing you could do to stop this from happening.

Sending you a big ((((((((HUG))))))))) you deserve it for caring so much.
 
thanks you guys for you lovely kind words and for the hugs! :)

I know that they were accidents and not my fault but I still feel bad for the girls. Hopefully they will both be healed enough to participate in some form or another in our end of year display!

I just went to Hannah's (bwo girl) house to see how she was going today. She had managed to break both the bones in her forearm and needed surgery to straighten the bones and wire them together. she will have it bandaged for a week and then plaster up to her shoulder until mid december. (she gets it off on her birthday!) ..... i can't believe she did so much damage on a bwo! :eek:

hopefully this will have fulfilled my quota of serious injuries for a while and the rest of the group will be safe ;)

thanks again everyone for letting me share :)
 
wow!! 2 broken bones on a BWO = S
the only logical explanation for that is turning the wrist in or out to far.

im sorry to hear what happened. the others are right, they were just accidents and it just had to happen when you were coaching. i know someone who dislocated and broke her elbow doing a handspring front tuck, its the same concept, it happened and was just an accident.

Bruises broken bones and accidents are just facts of life. it just happens to be they more likely to happen in gymnastics !
 

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