DD injured by coach a week from next comp...

[Kiwi]

DD (8) had her first competition of the season last weekend, she did quite well, coming 7th out of 27 in step 3. The second competition is next weekend.

So she went to training this morning and during the warm-up the coach pushed her too hard in a hamstring stretch and she pulled an inner thigh muscle and couldn't do anything for the rest of the training session.

I like DD's coach and I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt her, but I thought coaches were trained in how to safely stretch gymnasts. She made some comment about how DD hadn't complained so she thought it was all right. I thought they should be able to feel how far to take the stretch through the tension in the muscles, not just by waiting for kids to complain!

I have iced it a few times and she is resting it, but I have no idea whether her leg will recover in time to be able to compete next Saturday. Right now she can't even walk without limping. I'm feeling very grumpy right now.

 

[Optionals United]

Ohh no that is horrible!! I hope it heals in time. Sending healing faries your way.

 

[Kiwi]

Thanks, Optionals United! I had hoped a few more people might reply to my thread!

Took DD to the physio today - physio says she has strained hamstring, the inner one. Might or might not be able to compete this weekend, seeing physio again on Thursday and a decision to be made then. Physio gave us instructions for icing and massage and exercises for her to do. She was actually a lot better today and managed to do a little training, more than Saturday, although still not much. I'm not as grumpy today as I was on Saturday. It was great being able to get in to see the physio so quickly.

 

[mumoftwogymnasts]

Oh gosh that is rotten luck, hope she heals quickly.

 

[gymmom14]

Hope she is able to compete. Let us know. So sorry about her being injured. Has the coach had anything further to say?

 

[bribri514]

Ohmygosh that's horrible, hope she feels better soon! :hugs:

 

[stargazer]

Yikes that's awful! I hope she heals quickly. Unfortunately I have just pulled my inner hamstring as well, and even two weeks later it's not back to normal. It didn't keep me from competing this past weekend, but it's still quite sore and I'm terrified of pushing myself too far and re-injuring it. I hope she heals quickly!!

 

[MamaofEnS]

Ouch, that sounds painful. I hope she has a quick recovery. Has the coach said she's sorry?

 

[cher062]

That's not good at all!! I always grit my teeth when I see that stretching too. Really some of the coaches out there really haven't been trained in these stretching techniques and other who have. The ones that know how to do this I think wouldn't wait for a kid to complain before they stopped.

Sending healing faries your way for the meet but it doesn't sound very good that is a hard muscle to have recoop in such a short time.

 

[Kiwi]

Sorry to hear about your injury, Stargazer, I hope you heal quickly. Thank you for all your replies!

Our physio is also a coach at our club and knows DD's coach quite well, it sounded like she might have a talk with her about it. She explained to us about how you are supposed to stretch between two points of resistance, I think she called R1 and R2. I guess this can be difficult to judge.

DD seems to be improving quite quickly. She went to ballet today, and I told her to be very careful and stop if anything hurt, but she did the class with no problems. So at this stage I'm quite hopeful.

 

[my4buffaloes]

That is a relief that she is getting better. How frustrating that she was injured by the coach. I would be very angry as well!

 

[kflipz]

sometimes, when i have distractions such as injury during a competition it makes me do much better, because I am so concerned about my injury i dont even worry about the competition part! Good luck to your dd, i hope she feels better

 

[Kiwi]

Well, DD went to training yesterday, managed most of her beam routine, then tried her floor routine. After trying her round-off and cartwheels, she pretty much stopped and that was the end of it for the rest of the session, apart from a few conditioning exercises. It was obvious the cartwheels must have hurt her and it looked like her leg wasn't really functioning properly.

I had pretty much decided she wouldn't be able to compete, but she had realised that herself, too, and told me straight away afterwards. On the way home in the car she burst into tears and had a big cry. I think she'd been holding it in for the whole training session. As well as being upset because she likes competing, I think she also has fears that she will fall behind her classmates.

I gave her the option of going to watch her classmates compete, or to stay away if it would upset her too much to be there without competing. She has chosen to go and watch and support her teammates.

The next competition is five weeks away so we will focus on getting her ready for that. I'm hoping that will be plenty of time for her to fully recover from her injury and get all her routines back up to scratch.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Would she be able to do bars and beam in the competition and scratch the other events?

 

[gymmomof1]

:applause: Good for her going to support her team mates which is a very hard thing to do when you would like to be out there with them. Praying that she heals quickly and will be able to make the next competition. Being injured is not fun and my DD also thought she would fall behind and all I can tell you is that not only did she not fall behind she caught up quickly and did fine-- so tell her to hang in there and get well. She will do fine next time

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

I was thinking the same as Pineapple_Lump. If she could only participate in even one event, at least she will feel like she's contributing to her team and she can cheer on everyone on the other event?

 

[Kiwi]

Would she be able to do bars and beam in the competition and scratch the other events?

No, I think they were all hurting her leg, even bars and beam. She went along to the competition and enjoyed being with her team-mates before and afterwards. But during the actual competition while we were watching she would occasionally turn to me and say 'I wish I was out there'. Just hoping she recovers quickly now so she can put this behind her. Thanks to everyone for their support, it makes me feel better to know others understand and have got through this stuff before.

 

[CoachTodd]

I'm glad she's healing quickly but what does the doctor say about training? I'd think it would be do a lot less, some light stretches and just scratch the meet until the next one. I just have trouble with the idea of pushing through injuries to get to a meet at the beginner levels. I'm not saying she shouldn't work out (unless the doctor says so) I'm just thinking she may need to focus on rehab instead of the meet.

 

[Kiwi]

Thought I would update this with DD's progress. She competed at three competitions after the one she missed, with the hamstring mostly recovered but still bothering her in a couple of skills. It seemed like it had got to 90% recovered, but wasn't able to get any further. It has taken a while, but I think it is now about 99% there. We have been seeing a St John Neuromuscular Therapist, who discovered several twists and imbalances in her body. Her pelvic angle was rotated too far forward and different between left and right, and she also had a jammed up area in the middle of her back on one side. We adjusted her training to avoid hamstring stretches as much as possible for quite a few weeks, to give it a chance to heal without being stretched all the time. She has been doing lots of quad and hip flexor stretching, which has actually improved her hamstring flexibility, which seems paradoxical, but it seems to be working well for her. Recently she has had no more pain at the injury site and is finally able to do leg lifts on the wall ladder again. She hasn't lost any flexibility from cutting out the hamstring stretches, she still isn't very flexible, but no worse than before. I think the hamstrings are more relaxed and able to stretch now that the constant strain has been taken off them. The NMT is also working on her shoulder flexibility.

DD is also enjoying her training a lot now and I think she has qualified to move up to the next step, although we don't have the official word in writing yet. It was definitely a difficult season for her. It seemed like everyone else was improving their skills (and scores), while she was struggling to even get back to where she was at the beginning of the season. I feel like we are on the right track with this therapist to get her body as balanced as possible to prevent recurring injuries and hopefully help to improve her gymnastics.

 

[gymmomtoo]

That's great news! Glad she's doing so much better now.