Parents Bars for home...

[GymLife]

I'm curious, what do the coaches recommend for home at this level and how often?

I've over heard a few mom's at my DD's gym talking about their at home bars and I almost feel like my DD is at a disadvantage on bars because we don't have at home gym equipment and she doesn't get very much time in the gym at this stage. It seems strange to me that these have become almost the norm but I would like to get the pull up bar for at home conditioning for he whole family.

Bars are fun, expensive and frankly most kids grow out of them. But their resale is great. That being said, our coach said that she would prefer the girls have a pull up bar, a floor beam and a good mat.
Everything else, you're just asking for bad habits and injury.
In our experience the girls at home with bars and trampolines seem to have more bad habits, including throwing their head back.

Save that money. $400-800 on kip bar/mat could be better spent on dance lessons.

I think a lot of parents see all these kids with home equipment and feel like their kid is at a disadvantage, but really learning skills quickly comes and goes. There is a process to learning these skills and attaining the strength to get them. You may not see that long process because she's 5.

 

[Flyaway]

Our home kip bar quickly became a hanging rack for my other dd's ballet costumes. Sigh. That was an expensive clothes hanger.

 

[3rd_time_around]

I'm curious, what do the coaches recommend for home at this level and how often?

I've over heard a few mom's at my DD's gym talking about their at home bars and I almost feel like my DD is at a disadvantage on bars because we don't have at home gym equipment and she doesn't get very much time in the gym at this stage. It seems strange to me that these have become almost the norm but I would like to get the pull up bar for at home conditioning for he whole family.

Coaches say "Don't do it."

 

[gymmom2681]

We got our home kip bar from Craigslist in great condition when DD started preteam. She uses it for pull ups and conditioning now. I really think it helped her get her kip so fast. It's not really useful now that she can't do the skills she's training on it, but she still enjoys it. She knows to always have a mat under her and to make sure everything/one is out of the way!

 

[profmom]

Have you all seen the videos of kids peeling on tap swings? I highly recommend looking at some before purchasing a home bar.

 

[MuggleMom]

We have a kip bar and a pull up bar. The pull up bar was $10 used and gets WAY more usage than the kip bar. Plus its safer. Plus I don't have to stand there and watch her try a million kips lol. If you get it just don't spend too much money and have low expectations because it wont get used as much or help as much as you think it will. Pull up bar on the other hand a great investment

 

[Gymmom0824]

We have a pull up bar for strength and a beam. We don't let our DD do anything outside of the gym that isn't recommended by her coaches. She would be devastated as would we if she got hurt right before competing

 

[Faith]

Are you a coach?

Kips are all about technique. Don't even try to teach her unless you really know what you are doing. Otherwise you may regret it when she's 10 and getting hammered on bars because she can't kip without that odd wiggle up....

 

[gymnastmom05]

My DD got a Jr Kip bar for Christmas when she was 5. She was only at a small gym, taking rec classes. We were ignorant to the gymnastics world. Fast forward 6 months and we had moved to a new state, new gym, invited to pre-team (and we started becoming aware of the gymnastics world and the do's and dont's). She did her level 2 & 3 routines on her bar. Mostly the darn mill circle. She was great on bars (not saying having the bar at home really was a benefit but it also didn't cause her to have bad form - she was the "bar queen" of her level on her team). Never did she use her bar to teach herself a kip (even though that's the name). She found it harder to do a kip on her home bar than at the gym. We JUST sold her bar - 6.5 years later. We spent approximately $400 on it between the bar & adding the extension legs and better mats later on. Recouped $200. Outside of our overpriced and enormous swing set, I believe that will be one item my husband and I never regret spending the money on. What she was doing on it, wasn't any more dangerous than getting a gymnast on a playground with a metal bar. I fully expected to buy this thing and it becoming a clothes hanger after the new wore off. It never did and part of her would still have it but she knows her skills are too big for the bar now (Level 7). It was actually a little sad when my husband took it apart and loaded it up for the new family. Part of me was glad we got it before we knew it was a "no-no". Sometimes you buy your kids something and you never know if it'll be a hit or a miss. This was a hit and I will never regret having it (now the trampoline was a different story - that only lasted a season before it was out of my backyard!).

 

[twinmomma]

Are you a coach?

Kips are all about technique. Don't even try to teach her unless you really know what you are doing. Otherwise you may regret it when she's 10 and getting hammered on bars because she can't kip without that odd wiggle up....

This. Unless you're a coach who has been taught how to give proper corrections "spotting" isn't just about making sure she doesn't fall off. She's 5. Shawn Johnson was a late kipper as far as I understand. Didn't seem to hold her back.

 

[Louise Blanchard]

We have a Jr. Kip bar as well and I think it has been well worth the money. DD is L3 and doesn't use it to learn new skills, just practice ones she has and mostly for conditioning. It really does need sandbags as my DD's power quickly overwhelmed its smaller weight. But she does like it still. I CERTAINLY don't plan on working kips on it with her on my own. As much as I want her to move on to the next skills I have to trust the process and let her perfect one at a time the right way. We also have a floor beam and more mats than we know what to do with. DD is responsible and doesn't do more than she is allowed to do on them. For now, I'm glad we did it.

 

[Lilou]

I have a beam at home but draw the line on bars. Chin up bar ok, but not a kip or practice bar since kids can easily develop bad habits. And my DD is already in the gym so many hours that I like to force my daughter to stop doing gymnastics a bit (or else she'd be doing gymnastics all of the time).

 

[Jenn's Jam]

This is just my opinion, it honestly gets sorta aggravating how against people are about home equipment on this site- I was a gymnast for 12 years I got to L9 and I have no problem with my daughter doing tricks on the grass- but even people have a problem with it even on our trampoline! I get people's points that leave gym at home- it'll start bad habits ect ect.. But I believe if you know what you are doing and you know how to do the skill your daughter is working on or you are 100% sure you know the right form I say go ahead and spot her! If you know what you are doing and you are confident about it- don't like people get to your head and do whats best for your daughter. In my dds rec class last she was learning nothing- til I got a mat and we had a trampoline she started getting skills crazy fast with my help! Eventually, I got tired of her asking for a spot so I just sent her to open gym haha. So sometimes its best to learn skills at home because I have a strong feeling if we didn't she would not have been able to compete/be in the L5 group she is in now. Just my opinion no hate!


And for kip bars and stuff, I recommend a Tumbl Trak one, they are super pricey but they're worth it.

-Jen

 

[Teammom]

Thanks for the replies. I posted this on July 7th. I guess someone responded to it recently, so it popped back up as a new thread.

I purchased a tumbl track bar this summer. I know how to spot her back kip circle. She got it that skill right away!! She doesn't use it a ton, but I'm glad I bought it.

 

[3rd_time_around]

Thanks for the replies. I posted this on July 7th. I guess someone responded to it recently, so it popped back up as a new thread.

I purchased a tumbl track bar this summer. I know how to spot her back kip circle. She got it that skill right away!! She doesn't use it a ton, but I'm glad I bought it.

Its a back HIP circle.

 

[3rd_time_around]

This is just my opinion, it honestly gets sorta aggravating how against people are about home equipment on this site- I was a gymnast for 12 years I got to L9 and I have no problem with my daughter doing tricks on the grass- but even people have a problem with it even on our trampoline! I get people's points that leave gym at home- it'll start bad habits ect ect.. But I believe if you know what you are doing and you know how to do the skill your daughter is working on or you are 100% sure you know the right form I say go ahead and spot her! If you know what you are doing and you are confident about it- don't like people get to your head and do whats best for your daughter. In my dds rec class last she was learning nothing- til I got a mat and we had a trampoline she started getting skills crazy fast with my help! Eventually, I got tired of her asking for a spot so I just sent her to open gym haha. So sometimes its best to learn skills at home because I have a strong feeling if we didn't she would not have been able to compete/be in the L5 group she is in now. Just my opinion no hate!


And for kip bars and stuff, I recommend a Tumbl Trak one, they are super pricey but they're worth it.

-Jen

Besides all the very good reasons not to do this at home, the price is another thing. If you can afford all the home equipment, and other people can't, it actually leads to jealousy and resentment. I can just pay the tuition and fees, I cannot afford the ridiculous prices for the home equipment. But I can't tell you how often I heard from my dds about the girls who had all the equipment at their house, and why didn't we have it? And how it wasn't fair. I also know the girls who broke their foot on their home beam 2 days before the state meet, and broke their arm doing a back handspring on the grass during meet season, and broke their leg on the trampoline and missed summer practice. Those were the examples I used to change the subject.

 

[kayjaybe]

Besides all the very good reasons not to do this at home, the price is another thing. If you can afford all the home equipment, and other people can't, it actually leads to jealousy and resentment. I can just pay the tuition and fees, I cannot afford the ridiculous prices for the home equipment. But I can't tell you how often I heard from my dds about the girls who had all the equipment at their house, and why didn't we have it? And how it wasn't fair. I also know the girls who broke their foot on their home beam 2 days before the state meet, and broke their arm doing a back handspring on the grass during meet season, and broke their leg on the trampoline and missed summer practice. Those were the examples I used to change the subject.

I'm not sure that I agree that someone shouldn't buy the equipment because other kids might be jealous. There are always going to be people that have more than you have...and people that have less than you have. I think there are better ways of handling that then pointing out how the kids got hurt on that equipment anyway. JMO. (And this is not supporting buying it, but I can't imagine making a decision about what my family is going to spend money on because another child might be jealous nor would I expect other families to hold back from a purchase because my child could be jealous.)

 

[LindaS]

I've read on this site that some people are totally against gym equipment at home. But, I'd like to buy my daughter a kip bar for her to practice on at home (with me spotting!). She's 5 years old. Any suggestions?

Home equipment is good for practicing skills already learned and perfecting technique. Recommended that new skills be learned at the gym.