Women Bar Adjustments for JO Levels?

[SlimsPickin]

My kid is starting level 4. We are at a very small gym with only one set of bars and the coach has them set to full height and wide distance. If my daughter is 4’4” (shortest on the team) is it normal for a coach to not be willing to adjust the bars? Is it safe for her to train at that height and distance? Or should she be training at a smaller height and spread?

 

[gymgal]

As a parent, I would not feel comfortable with this set up. And if the coach isn't there fully spotting every turn, I would most certainly not be OK with it. Will be interesting to hear from coaches here

 

[LJL07]

My kid is starting level 4. We are at a very small gym with only one set of bars and the coach has them set to full height and wide distance. If my daughter is 4’4” (shortest on the team) is it normal for a coach to not be willing to adjust the bars? Is it safe for her to train at that height and distance? Or should she be training at a smaller height and spread?

This is a great question. I will say I have seen teeny tiny girls compete on far apart settings. My youngest was a small 8 year old level 6 and did her routines with the bars all the way out (college setting). She got used to it. They want to move the bars in for 9 for the release moves and it is hard to readjust to giants after being all the way out for so long. And yes, it is normal not to readjust the bars. At meets, it gets tricky to reset the bars for individual gymnasts. I get it though. It used to worry me too.

 

[CuriousCate]

We had a similar experience to @LJL07. My ODD's team had one bars setting for level 4 through 6 and then two settings for levels 7 and 8. My kid was always the youngest and one of the smallest - like didn't have to pike or straddle on giants, could just swing straight bodied in between the bars. She adjusted pretty well after level 4. The jump to high bar for level 4 was definitely ...interesting.... she looked like she was flying to get there and other kiddos just had to lean forward to reach!

 

[gymjunkie]

It's common to have a single bar setting (or two), but it also has to work for everyone. If someone is too small for the width, it's more common to keep the height the same and bump the bars in closer for the kids who need it than to readjust the entire set of bars.

 

[CoachPow]

My kid is starting level 4. We are at a very small gym with only one set of bars and the coach has them set to full height and wide distance. If my daughter is 4’4” (shortest on the team) is it normal for a coach to not be willing to adjust the bars? Is it safe for her to train at that height and distance? Or should she be training at a smaller height and spread?

Very common. You'll waste a TON of time in practice and at meets adjusting the bars for each individual gymnast-especially at lower levels. If for some reason you feel your daughter is unsafe at those heights, you should talk to the coach. That being said, at level 4, I would hope she should be just fine. If she was a beginner or working paks/bails/etc, it would make more of a difference. Last season, only our top girl had her own bar settings, and by the end of the year she had acclimated herself to the team settings as she got sick of waiting for us to change the bars at practice...

 

[LucyRobinson]

I think we try to get Level 4s to swing on FIG (by competition season, so they can learn their routine at a smaller setting). We don't adjust bars in the middle of rotations, but they always have a spotter on the high bar. Honestly in Level 4 the bars don't need to be far apart. There are not skills that taller gymnasts could hit their feet on, so why not have them set small? Once the group is swinging giants or flyaways from a handstand, we have them on a wider setting.

 

[Aussie_coach]

We keep our bars at the sane height they are not easy to adjust. Though we have one set.

But I spot every kid every time they jump to high bar, until they reach a height and ability where I am satisfied they can do it safely. Generally I spot every kid to do it until level 6. Not help unless they need it, but enough to catch as needed.

 

[Scream4IceCream]

Our level 4s use two bar settings.

 

[jamieintexas]

This year I have 2 bar settings, fig and big. Next year I will have a ton of little girls that have to catch the high bar, so I will also have a little. No coach enjoys setting the bars a lot but my girls’ safety it the most important.

 

[JBS]

fig and big

Right on… that’s us too.

 

[pt coach]

Same for us with fig and "big." For practice, we keep at least one set of bars at each setting as we have kids in all levels that use both settings. At meets we either do blocked time by setting, or the coaches work really hard moving the bars during warm up.