Band around Waist

[hawaii_gymnast]

In lots of youtube videos I have seen gymnasts have a waistband looking thing on the outside of their leo, what is the point of this and what exactly is it?
Too me it looks like tape, but I have no idea why is would be there.
YouTube - Learning kip chs
If you look at about 8 seconds you can see another girl has it too.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yep...some moron coaches think that it helps the kids keep their stomachs in and have good posture. geesh...

 

[canadiangymnast_eh]

At my old gym we had to do this for a while. Honestly, it does nothing but annoy us and make us look stupid.

 

[MaryA]

The other day when I came into the gym, one of the brand-new teenie-weenie girls who are working towards competing level 3 next year was on bars wearing a neck brace. I first thought, "Wow, she hurt herself already?" Then I thought "She hurt her neck badly enough to need a brace and she's still at practice?" When she got off the bars she took it off and handed it to the next girl in line. Apparently it's suppose to teach them to keep their head straight or some such thing? Funny to watch!

 

[cher062]

at our old gym they had them and called them belly bands basicly a 2 inch piece of elastic sew to make a circle. We were charged $7 buck for this stupid thing and told The idea was to make them a little bit more than snug to remind the girls to hold in their tummys. It also is supposed to end up somewhere in the middle of the gymnast so it is a reference point to see if the girl is tumbling on a midline axis. The only thing I could see they were used for was a name tag as every girl had their name written on them in sharpie marker, it identified which girls were team and who was a rec kid and a way for the gym to make $7 bucks on one more stupid useless item.

 

[kflipz]

well hmm, i can remember doing this for about a month, but then i gave up and didn't see the point. I am now thinking, I wonder if it would work if you made the band a little bigger with an anti slip on the back, and you could use it for when a gymnast is not used to training without shorts to help them and it would cause there bodysuit to stay in place, potentially. hmmmmm got my thinking cap on this morning!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

The other day when I came into the gym, one of the brand-new teenie-weenie girls who are working towards competing level 3 next year was on bars wearing a neck brace. I first thought, "Wow, she hurt herself already?" Then I thought "She hurt her neck badly enough to need a brace and she's still at practice?" When she got off the bars she took it off and handed it to the next girl in line. Apparently it's suppose to teach them to keep their head straight or some such thing? Funny to watch!

this one is legit. it helps the kids to keep their head neutral when doing giants & clear hips.

 

[MaryA]

this one is legit. it helps the kids to keep their head neutral when doing giants & clear hips.

Well, these kids were a long way from giants or clear hips... they're a long way from front-hip-circles! But it's good to know that there was a point to it at least!

 

[GymSurvivor]

Well, these kids were a long way from giants or clear hips... they're a long way from front-hip-circles! But it's good to know that there was a point to it at least!

It also helps with back-hip-circles if the kid has a problem with throwing their head back.

 

[justanothergymmom]

My DD1 wears one of these around her waist in ballet...it is supposed to help the girls see when their hips are square and level for battement (so they are not throwing their hips into them), splits, leaps and turns...I have no clue why they would need it for doing bars though...and I think hers cost $12!!! LOL!!!!

 

[coachmolly]

Girls have been wearing those for years for all of the reasons mentioned above, but I think if it were really effective, the idea would have taken off a whole lot more than it has. Personally, I've never really bought into the whole concept and feel like it would have more of a mental effect, if anything at all.

 

[NGL780309]

Ugh, don't remind me about those stupid bands. DD had to wear one at her old gym. It was completely pointless. She was always putting her clothes on over her leo and accidently wearing it home and then forgetting to bring it to practice the next day. Then she would have to run the stairs for forgetting it. I said to the coach one time after the 100th time DD had done that, that perhaps it wasn't so effective since she didn't even remember she was wearing it. If it was supposed to help her keep her belly sucked in, it wasn't working because she forgot it was even there. Hers was really super tight too. Every time she had to use the bathroom during practice I had to go help her get it off and she'd have a mark around her stomach like when you wear pants that are too tight.

I was so happy to change gyms and get rid of that thing. About a month before we moved gyms she dropped it in the toilet, before flushing I might add, and they made her rinse it and put it on.

 

[mustlovejumping]

Well I'm a dancer and those things are mostly used in lower levels of dance so the teacher make sure the dancers are keeping their hips even (which is really important for good form, especially in barre work). It also kind of reminds the dancer to keep their stomach tight and their hips even. Definitely useful in ballet, but I really can't see how they could possibly be useful in gymnastics...

 

[Optionals United]

OKay ive never had to wear one and i dont plan on it. I feel like i would just forget that it is there. I mean everyone forgets somethings there after 4 hours. Unless you are constantly reajusting it because it is to big or small. I see the concept but doesnt seem liek it would work.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

It's a silly superstition among coaches who don't understand psychology.

Before you read the rest of my response, grab the nearest pen/pencil and put it up behind your ear. Seriously, do it.

...

No, I mean it. Don't read ahead to see where I'm going with this, just do it.

Ok, now to continue...

The theory behind it is that feeling the band there is supposed to remind kids to keep their belly squeezed. This is bogus, because it's a continuous and unchanging stimulus, and as such the brain tunes it out after a minute or so. We do this with any stimulus that is constant and unchanging. For example, I bet before reading his sentance, you were completely unaware of the hum of your computer fans -- you can hear it when you're thinking about it, but otherwise you completely tune it out. I bet you don't feel your clothes on your body, or the hear the hum of the air conditioner or the refrigerator in the other room -- if you focus on those sounds, you can pick them out, but otherwise you reflexively tune them out.

The same is true of these waistbands. Unless they're tight enough to be painful, the gymnast will completely tune it out after the first minute or so, and it will therefore be completely inneffective as a reminder of anything.

Want one more example? Before reading this sentance, were you still aware of that pen sitting on your ear?