WAG Kips,grips,and rips....OH MY!!!!

[motigymnasticsmom]

My dd is an XCEl silver this year. Her coach does not uptrain much. She insist that they perfect one skill before they can uptrain for other skills. Hence, she will not let them train kips yet and will not let them get grips until they get and perfect their kips. Well, yesterday, they were practicing squat ons and long hang kips and dismount on the high bar. DD comes home with hands all ripped up. I was just wondering from other mothers, coaches and gymnast alike; what is your gym policies about kips, grips and uhem rips.

 

[cbifoja]

Usually when they go to the new L4 and begin kipping regularly.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Our gymmies don't get grips until optionals. Until then they use tape grips...

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

No kip, no grips at our gym. rips or not.

 

[MaryA]

Same here. Solid kips first. And unfortunately grips don't prevent rips.

 

[happychaos]

Tape grips saved my DD a few times! Your coach can make her a set, and they can be reused. She just needs to tape them on at the wrists. DD's gym doesn't start grips until after L4, when kips are strong and they are beginning giants, clear hips, etc.

But yeah, learning kips and tap swings was a real killer on DD's hands too. Hang in there!

 

[CAGymmie]

I got my grips as soon as I started working on kips.

 

[motigymnasticsmom]

Rips were bleeding yesterdayNow, today, dd is asking me to do her written homework Because the writing hand hurts too much. I asked her how did she make it through school today. Thanks for the idea of tape grips. DD will definitely go tomorrow and request them.

 

[2G1B]

be sure that she has plenty of tape with her for the coaches to make them.

My DD just moved up to level 4 and all of the girls got grips when they moved up. A mom of one of the level 4s who is competing said that for those girls the gym didn't have the girls get grips until they already had their kips. I'm not sure why they changed.

 

[emilykatherine]

At my gym when you start training new level 4, but now while your in season once the season is over you get grips and if you dont have all of your skills for level 4 come season the grips go away

 

[raenndrops]

We have a L7 that doesn't use grips... she said she will probably start when she starts working on Giants next summer. Our other L7 has been using grips for 2 years (since she started L7). We have 4 L6 and only 1 wears grips... I don't recall any of our L4 wearing grips. Our Xcel girls are split... both Platinum and 2 Gold wear grips and the other 5 Gold do not wear grips. My YG is a L3 and she OCCASIONALLY wears palm grips... especially if they are spending a long time on bars.
The gym doesn't have a policy (Level related) because different girls might need to use them starting at different times (heavier gymnasts may need them sooner, for example).

 

[Deleted member 14190]

need a solid kip cast and a full season of level 4 at our gym. We don't talk about rips.

 

[my4buffaloes]

I think you are required to have them by optionals at our gym. My dd is a level 4 and does not use them and almost never rips. My other dd has grips and gets rips all.the.time. Your dd will get used to it and it will become a matter of fact part of gymnastics.

 

[sfts]

In the JO track (new L3+), grips are allowed at new 4 and nearly everyone chooses to use them. All our Optionals use grips.

In the Xcel track (Gold+, ages 12+), grips are allowed after getting a squat on, even if a gymnast is still working on kips, because tap swing practice begins to increase in intensity. At least ancedotally, the coaches have seen more rips with the older, larger-for-their-skill-level gymnasts. Grips won't prevent rips entirely, but they do seem to allow more reps before ripping.

Oh, and no bleeding on the equipment. Getting a bloody rip generally means spending the rest of the rotation on casts and floor bar handstands.

 

[Gymsanity]

Ok, I'll bite. Why wouldn't a coach or club allow grips anytime a gymnast wanted them? (and yes, dowels would be another story)

 

[rjb123]

DD just got hers after competing a full season of new 4. She is working new 5 now. Some girls got them throughout the season during new 4, but they tended to be older/bigger/etc. DD at first complained about rips, and used tape once or twice but then was told by one of her coaches that she was not to tape her rips unless they were bleeding right then, and that they were a part of gymnastics- if she couldn't deal with it, time to find another sport. I never heard another complaint from her, and she never used tape since then. When they told her to order her grips, she was told personally by the HC exactly what to order, where to order it from and if I had questions, to call them before ordering.

 

[gracyomalley]

Grips when HC says so, usually after solid kips, and more importantly big enough hands. Never in the middle of a season cuz of needing to re-learn skills with them. No one on DD team gets past old 6/new 5 without them (but DD only got her's end of old 6 due to size). On DSs team there is a fantastic now level 9 who was quite small and did through level 7 boys without either high bar or ring grips...

 

[Quadqueen]

At our gym, the girls used tape grips if they had rips. No grips until after competing a season with kips.

 

[beamer]

I'm with gymsanity!

I have always just taken the "no kips/no grips" standard gym edict (both gyms DD has trained at had some variation of this rule) upon authority.

But now that I think about it, I wonder about this hard-and-fast rule?

Is there a special feature of kipping that necessitates grips? Is it just that the higher-level bars skills take longer to learn (thus more time on the bars) and lead to more rips?

I will say that when DD was an (old) level 4, her team competed against gyms whose L4s wore grips and it did seem patently ridiculous...all these tiny little people doing front hip circles, casts and back hip circles wearing grips. It seemed like overkill.

On the other hand, would there be any sort of benefit to gymnasts learning kips with grips, as opposed to the girls having to re-learn this skill after they formally start wearing them?

Just thinking aloud here.

 

[wgymmom]

DD got her kip first, then got grips. The youngest gymnast in her group competed the whole season without grips, but I think she's supposed to start using them now for L5 uptraining.