WAG Practice bar at home. ...????

[ejmjpr]

It annoys me when mothers and coaches are so anti home equipment. I think it is so fun to have equipment at home and a bar would be amazing! I was looking up and I would be fine with a little one I think she would love it!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

It annoys me when mothers and coaches are so anti home equipment. I think it is so fun to have equipment at home and a bar would be amazing! I was looking up and I would be fine with a little one I think she would love it!

Possibly because we have been around the block and have seen the tragedy that fun can turn into, and as parents its our job to be the "party pooper" to keep the smalls safe ?

 

[TXCB2004]

We have a bar at home. It's fun for pullovers and little things. Which they can also do on our mounted chin up bar so big waste of money , trying to sale it but everyone keeps low balling lol

 

[skschlag]

We had a gymnasts whose parents installed rings in his house. The coach had to spend a lot of time fixing the habits he had learned at home. It took a lot of time that could have been spent better on more skills instead of fixing hte poor habits. That was the reason for no equipment in our house. WIthout a coach to teach, no need for equipment.

 

[mom2three]

We have had a mini bar and a low beam for about 2 years. Like a PP, DD's birthday/xmas list was always bar (for years), beam, mat, springboard, vault, etc. Didn't play with toys. That was her list. (It's now moved on to ipad, ipod, laptop, etc, but that's another story). I didn't cave on the springboard and vault though. She practiced a lot of old level 4 skills on it for fun, really did help that mill circle. But I didn't get it for her to improve, I got it because it's a toy. No different than the monkey bars at playgrounds that the kids are always trying to flip on. The mini bars are too small to do anything crazy on, IMO. And i'd rather her play on that bar than the top of old swingsets like I used to. She used it quite often for most of the 2 years (still uses the beam regularly). Now the 5 yr old uses it pretty much everyday. Good amount of use for the money, IMO. However, to answer the OP question, if she is the only kid who will use it, I don't think it's worth the money for a new level 4, not much can be done on it...

 

[wallinbl]

It annoys me when mothers and coaches are so anti home equipment. I think it is so fun to have equipment at home and a bar would be amazing! I was looking up and I would be fine with a little one I think she would love it!

Your opinions on a lot of things change when you have kids.

 

[Guenhwyvar132]

We have one for our daughter because I found it safer than her hanging on the stair banister she and her brothers hang on it all the time. Oldest brother is 7 and isn't a gymnast. The younger is two and a monkey so maybe. I will say all that hanging has made her strong.

 

[LizzieLac]

Our coaches really discourage gymnsatics at home, other than splits, stretching, and conditioning type of exercises. I can't tell you how many stories I have heard of broken arm from this and hitting head from that. Combined with the lack of real, technically knowledgable coaching, it is just a recipe for disaster.

If the average 11 year old gymnast added up the hours spent in the gym in a year, his/her parents would be begging that kid to spend more time with friends and doing normal kid things during their time outside of gym.

 

[raenndrops]

I agree with the majority that don't think you should waste your money. It could be better spent on Privates to work the kip and cast.

Let me preface the following by saying that I know how to spot and have been helping spot at the gym for 8 years.
My gymmies do have a floor beam that I made 5-6 years ago (4x4 8 feet long, covered with carpet and with 2 balancing "feet" aka 2x4s for stability.
Coach used to gasp when one of the girls would tell her that they were working beam (with it sitting on 2 old dining room chairs... which I did secure it to and then my brother and sister held the chairs... and we had matting underneath it.) They worked skills they were training- YG walking fwd, bkwd, and sideways, and kicks (she was 3-4). OG was practicing old L4 handstands, dismounts, jumps, scales (all things in her routine at the time). Since that time, ithe beam (down on the floor) has seen cartwheels and back walkovers... but that is as advanced as we get.
We also had a "vault stack" aka a twin boxspring with 3 regular style twin mattresses and a foam mattress on top. It was in the basement... low ceiling and approx 6 feet of "runway" so they didn't get much power. Mostly used it for heel drives and kicking up to a handstand-flatback - always supervised and something I could safely spot.
They still use the beam, but they keep it on the floor now since they are taller... and the vault stack was removed after the basement flooded.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Dd has a low beam (standard size just slightly raised off the floor) that she used lots when I first built it, now not at all. Well be keeping that because it is actually useful. She has a little bar that she begged for when she was in rec and working on her pullover. She got is for Xmas almost 3yrs ago and used it a lot the first year or so... She's now 9 and a L4 and hasn't used it for a long time, there isn't anything she can really practice on it. It's sturdy, but the only thing it's useful for now is working her straight arm "jump ups", that's it. She can't do anything else on it. She has a mat that goes under the bar and you could use for tumbling, however I don't allow her to practice her tumbling in the house (back tucks and BHS without spring floor..? No, I don't think so!). This mat is really only for say forward rolls etc, and obviously she's way past needing to practice those. Maybe it can be used when she does conditioning, but again, it's a rather useless piece of equipment at this point.
I keep telling her we need to get rid of the bar, some younger gymnast could have a lot of fun with it and it takes up a lot of room for something that is completely useless.... She isn't quite ready yet, but it will be going soon!