dealing with pain

[Kendahl08]

I have never faked an injury though I have ignored them. Just little things like wrist pain I just do not talk about them. My coach also has a "suck it up" kind of motto. Last week we were climbing the rope in a straddle and several girls all at once got sick ( It was so funny) Unfortunately I had some "Lady Pains" if you know what I mean. It took me a while to get to the top but I did, because I didn’t want it to look like I was faking. My sister just about always hurts herself (wink wink) or gets sick during conditioning or UB because she does not want to do it. Her coach usually lets her sit it out and come back when she feels like it, My coach wouldn’t go for it though. I'm a L4 and she is a L3.

 

[ffliwt]

There's a girl in my gym who seems to WANT to injure herself. She will have some form of injury at the end of every single practise, and our coach knows it's all a show, but my coach plays along to please her cause my coach loooves her. It's a bit annoying cause the attention encourages her! It's like she wants to be able to say 'i worked so hard that i did this' or 'look at these dangerous skills im doing'. If she hasn't had a fall, she'll invent an injury ('i pulled this muscle' or whatever), and whatever 'injury' she has she will drag out for as long as possible. my coach plays along and gives her LOADS of sympathy, but at 14/15 she is getting a bit old to do the whole fake injury thing =/

I'm weird because i complain a lot about injuries but will train through it and refuse to stop! E.g. if i rip on bars i'll be like 'ouchhh... omg my grips are covered in blood.... my hands are soreee...' but i refuse to stop training! it must be really annoying for my coach now i think about it! i'll have to stop that
i do complain about pain but i'll still get on with it - in 11 years of gymnastics i've only ever cried once at an injury, that i can remember. infact it was last october, and i had the worst beam fall ever! i got right back up and tried to carry on, before realising i couldn't walk, and falling back off again!

 

[countrygymnast94]

As a gymnast, I never even tell my coaches about something hurting. Sometimes, if i am walking weird back from my vault from my knee, my best friend on the team will ask whats wrong and answer, "nothing." She looks at me with that 'yeah right' look. When she goes to vault, she tells my coach I am hurt. I sometimes am mad at her for telling because I dont want to sit out but then again, she is just looking out for me.

As a coach, I have a girl in a class i teach who LOVES to have ice. She usually fakes an injury and tells me she needs ice. I say okay but you will have to sit out. I went to the HC about it and he said that when I KNOW she is faking it, i play a game with all the other girls and then she automatically makes her want o join again but I have to say no because she is hurt. She has been cutting back a little bit since I started that. I hate to blame such a young girl of this because in a way it breaks my heart that she doesnt love it as much as me.

 

[gymgurl]

I have never out right faked an injury but i have leaned on the side of caution like I sprained my ankle about 2 weeks ago, not badly but it hurt to do a few things and with things like tumbling I would avoid as much as possible and did a lot of crash mat tumbling (my coach knows that if i don't want to tumble there is something wrong with me ). My coach is a very suck it up but if you have tape on it or a brace or something like that or it is a genuine injury she will sympathise and come up with an alternate strength exercise/drill/skill that you can do.

 

[2gymbratz]

I am a level 4 coach and each year there always seems to be at least one gymnast that something always hurts. This year there is a girl that her ankle always hurts but if she ices, she is good to go in under 5 minutes. That went on for about the first two months of the season. I suggested that maybe her parents should take her to the doctor. I just can't believe that after iceing for that short period of time that everything is ok then. I did also talk to her mom about it and she said that the girl was fine and to just tell her to suck it up. So, that is what I did and there has not been much of a problem since. We of course do have legitimate injuries in the gym as well and it is usually from something that didn't even happen at the gym, but our parents generally let us know before practice starts so that we are aware. I do realize that there are times when the girls hurt, probably most of the time, but trying to figure out whether it is an actual injury or just not wanting to do what is going on at the time takes some time to figure out. We do have a policy at the our gym that if a gymnast complains about something hurting we have to let them ice. If it is reaccuring we have to talk to the parents.

As a mom, I do have a level 5 that has acute tendinitous in her wrists and she does wear tiger paws. Her coaches are aware of the problems and after discussing it with them and her and the doctor. She does as much as she can but is advised to stop when they are hurting bad enough to ice. She is that child that usually pushes herself to tears before she stops. But, this year has gone smoother with being encouraged to stop and ice before that point. Even when she is iceing she will usually go ahead and do v-ups during that period so she isn't just sitting there. The fact of the matter is that she is the only one that really knows how much pain she is in. They also modify her tumbling some during practice as well. If they set up stations and have a backhandsping station for example. They only have her do 5 and then go to the tumble track, instead of the 10-20 that the other girls may do on the floor. You just really have to know the gymnasts and have good communication with the parents as well.

 

[sunshinegymnast]

I was level 4 at the time and I don't complain or cry so you can always tell if I'm being truthful. My level 4 coach would not believe me when I told her I was feeling dizzy and I had a stomachache...but it just so happened that we were in the middle of conditioning that my other team mates were struggling with so she didn't believe me so, I basically started crying and she sent me to the office and when I went in there, the other coach (who's currently my coach ) realized that since I never complain and she knew I was telling the truth...long story short, the coach got spoken too and now I'm working with one of the best coach ever :3 I hope i don't sound spoilt or anything :s

 

[Deleted member D3987]

are you ^^^ at bahama star or nassaunastics?