Parents Level 8 vault causing wrist pain?

[MamaofEnS]

Hi All,

My DD is L7, and all but one girl in her group are training L8. Hence, during vault, she has not been doing many front hand springs, but the tsuks and the one where you do a RO first. (Is that a Yurchenko???)

Anyway, she started complaining of wrist pain on Thursday after workout. She said there wasn't a specific injury to it. It still bothered her on Friday, but she said the pain was about a 3 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst. I made her rest it on the weekend, and said we were going to the doctor on Monday if she still had pain.

She did her normal workout on Monday with no pain. Then, beginning today, she is complaining of pain again. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow.

I'm concerned, though, because 2 years ago, our gym's entire L8 team had injured wrists, due to vault. However, no one else in her group is having this issue.

Any ideas about this on again off again pain? Do you have experience with the L8 vault?

Thanks,
MamaofEnS

 

[gym law mom]

My gymmie is going through the same thing and she does the yurchenko. It is hard on the wrists. Does your dd have tiger paws? If not they would be a good investment.

After just seeing the ortho(who is wonderful), she was told she has "gymnast wrist" which is actually a real diagnosis. Plan is wear tiger paws when vaulting and tape her wrists. So now she tapes both wrists before practice and the doc said to leave them taped for all 4 events. Its only been a short time so not much change yet. I don't want to diagnose your dd----best to have her get her wrists checked.

BYW-- The yurchenko is the ro-bhs onto the vault table.

 

[ZZMom]

Ditto on the tiger paws

Older DD used these from the time she started back handsprings on the floor as a nine year old. Her wrists really, really hurt almost immediately. I bought her the tiger paws and kept her in fresh pairs throughout her career - up through level 10. She used them on vault, floor and beam. I've heard that some people think they cause wrist weakness but in E's case, she had some pretty severe pain pretty much right out of the gate that was completely eliminated if she used them.

Best Wishes,

ZZMom

 

[Granny Smith]

My dd had wrist pain a couple of yrs ago when she first started working the Yurchenko vault. Basically it was overuse (per Dr's evaluation). We would ice immediately after practice for 15 minutes, which did help and also invested in the Tiger Paws. She has not had wrist pain since she started to wear the Tiger Paws. She only wears them for vault.

Also it is not a bad idea to let the coach know, they might be able to cut back on the repetitions of vaults she is doing to help lessen the pain.

 

[justanothergymmom]

Last year my DD1 was training yurchenkos for L8 and ended up switching to Tsuks, partly due to wrist pain. Now she's back to training yurchenkos--she wears Tiger Paws and isn't having pain. Also, I think she may be coming into the vault table at a better angle now than when she was 1st learning them last year, so it is putting less strain on her wrists.

 

[gym monkeys mom]

DD had similar issues but they did an MRI to rule out fractures and other stuff.

Once she got the all clear it was gymnast wrist she had to sit out 6 weeks due to sevarity and then Tiger paws for 5 - 6 months. This helped her greatly. She is careful to not overuse her wrists and is a faithful Tiger Paw user for certain types of practice at the gym. We did ice and use ibuprohen also.

We were also told by MD that it is common I girls to have sore wrists as their growth plates close.

We got lots of great advice from the MD and I highly reccomned going there.

A horror story from our club about not sing MD right away is this :
One of our team boys waited 6 months before going in for shin pain thought it was shin splints. Turns out he had very serious stress fractures both shins was out for 6 months and may still not be able to do gymnastics. as his shins are flairing again. Coach told them early on go to MD parents did not follow his advice. This time coach said do you need me to take you!

Prevention is key to not being seriously hurt long term in gymnastics and life.

 

[MamaofEnS]

Update

Hi All,

So, DH took DD to the doctor today. Unfortunately, it was a new doctor that doesn't know her history. He just had her records. He isn't sure what it is, but is having her go in for an X-ray tomorrow. She wore a brace at gym today, and is in no pain right now.

Regarding the Tiger-Paws, I tried to save some money and bought a different brand when she was level 6. She used them once, but didn't like it. I also heard from other parents that the gym frowns upon L7's using them, but it is okay for L8's.

I'm willing to buy the Tiger-Paws, but I think I might have her tape her wrists first. Another girl in her group does that, and has been pain free.

However, we still need to wait to get a diagnosis from the doctor. Send positive vibes that it is nothing serious, and will heal quickly.

Thanks,
MamaofEnS

 

[gym law mom]

Sending pain free wrist fairies your way. If it gets to the point where the doctor says wrist guards(which would be tiger paws or something like that), have him write a note and give it to the coach. Its silly for a girl to hurt and lose time in the gym when there is a solution.

Tip on taping given to my gymmie by her physical therapist(former gymnast/coach). Tape twice around the wrist, but try not to do a figure 8 around the thumb. That works well in other sports, but in gymnastics girls find with the tape going around the thumb causes hands to slip on the balance beam. She also recommended having wrists taped for ALL events---not just the one that causes pain. So, my gymmie is taping her wrists at the start of practice and using tiger paws over the tape when vaulting. Alot certainly depends on how much pain they're having and what skills are being done.

 

[MamaofEnS]

More updates

It has now been 2 1/2 weeks since her wrist started hurting her. She is still wearing the splint at gym, and has not done anything on it for two weeks. She is supposed to go without the splint on Tuesday. She will have to wear either the wrist guards or tape her wrists, and if she has pain, back we go to the doctor. It hasn't helped that she has been sick with a virus this week, and missed a lot of gym and the first full week of school. Wish us luck for Tuesday.

MamaofEnS