WAG age/skill level for grips?

[Lilly]

I believe girls should be required to demonstrate 25-30 leg lifts in a row with straight legs to earn the right to wear grips. If they can do that, they will be strong and will probably be able to do a kip anyway (if not they will be strong enough to learn it quickly).

 

[wrzos]

My dd is only L3, so I'm not sure, but I've heard rumor that the girls need to be L4 or higher to be 'allowed' grips at our gym. So far, she doesn't need them. She never seems to rip, and seems to be fine on bars. She is working on her kip right now...

 

[pamred4]

The level 1 squad at my gym have grips. I think they are only palm grips though but they could be dowels...

 

[GymMomCourt]

As soon as our level 3 season was over DD's coach asked parents to get the girls grips.

 

[laurene393]

At our gym, you must be able to complete a kip in order to get grips

 

[Gymnastics123456]

At my gym once you start training L4 you get grips

 

[Rainn14322]

At our gym they require you have your low bar and high bar kip with straight arms consistently then you can get grips.

 

[Pea'sMom]

Usually when training L4 at our gym...

 

[2G1B]

Training level 4 at our gym for girls. Boys it seems to be training level 6.

 

[GymMom4]

Once our girls have their kip consistently coach let's them order grips. DD was so excited together hers!

 

[caidpark]

Our gym it's a "right of passage". They all get grips when they move to level 5.

 

[2littlegymmiesmom]

My DD who is 7 and in a level 4/5 training group just got hers. The coach came out and spoke with the parents and said that she was at a coaching clinic and one of the best bar coaches in the country said they don't actually "need" them until they start circling skills (giants/free hips etc) but she would allow anyone who had their kip to use them if they wanted. No kip no grips was her exact words and then she proceeded to make all of them who didn't have a kip take them off. My DD rips a lot so she wanted to try them and see if they helped. So far she likes using them.

 

[tuckfull]

My DD got grips when she was training old level 5 and had a consistent kip. It was like a rite of passage and DD and her teammates couldn't wait to get them. Then of course once they did, they all complained for the first few weeks since they had to re-learn some of their skills using them.

 

[poodlemomma]

I made my daughter use grips at L4 because she was getting so many tears. How do you prevent tears without grips? She would love to go gripless, but her poor hands were just getting tore up.

 

[lovemygymnast]

I've been told by several coaches that it's more about weight and friction also? My DD is very small. They said they had another gymnast of her size that didn't have grips until L9. My DD is disappointed, since she wants them but we want to do what the coaches recommend. A lot of her L4 teammates have grips now because they got their kips, but she competed L3 with her kips and the coaches are still recommending against it, so I don't know if there's a set standard. I know it's not about the size of the grips because they said we could find them smaller but they prefer that she wait on them. She's obsessed with getting them though!!

 

[windydays]

Is there an 'appropriate' or average time for a gymnast to get their first set of grips?
DDs gym requires the girls to be a Level 5 OR a second year Level 4. I thought this was pretty standard, but I'm seeing a lot of posts about younger gymnasts getting them.
Is there are a difference between getting them younger vs. older? Or once they have a solid bar series/kip?

We got our grips when our bars coach told us it was time. I think it depends on the child. My girls went straight to grips while some other girls in the gym went to leather pieces before their grips.