WAG Dominant/weaker side of a gymnast

[Muddlethru]

M daughter was diagnosed with patellar tendonitis of her left leg. Her medical doctor/physical therapist determined her left leg is operating on 3/4 the strenght of her right leg. I can't say I am surprised because if I understand it correctly, gymnasts typically perform skills with their dominant side. While conditioning is probably performed on both sides, drills and, skills utilizes more of a "preferred" side. As I had indicated in a previous thread, my daughter's beam coach had them do 50 switch splits. So that would entail (for my daughter anyway) taking off the right leg and landing on the right leg 50 times. Since she does not do switch split on her left, her left side never gets anywhere close to the exercises performed on the right. And there are many more skills performed only on the dominant side. So, it seems to me this practice would render one side of the gymnast's body much weaker than the other side. I wonder how this relates to injuries. One side could sustain more overuse injuries and/or injuries due to lack of strenght to perform a skill.

I always thought one of my daughter's side is weaker. Even in beam it seems to affect her because one side pushes stronger on her beam series and it makes it difficult to stay squared (she was never taught to use alternate hands and feet). I realize that no one has equal strength on both right and left but the gymnastics practice seem to only make the situation worse. I too understand that for those of us with less practice hours, there may not be enough time to do everything (i.e., condition adequately, address the artistic part of gymnastics, or just properly train). What does one do? I don't feel like having my daughter do more exercises when she gets home from gym, nor do I think she would want to. She will not do squats, leg raises, etc. Does this present a general problem for gymnasts? What do coaches do, if any, to avoid this?

 

[BachFlyer]

Interesting question, I've wondered about this before too. Would love to hear some insight from coaches on this.

 

[munchkin3]

My sons left arm is weaker and he always has tendinitis in his elbow ... I cut back on some hours and hired a personal trainer to even it out. Our gym is in a larger athletic complex so a personal trainer is realistic and right on location. But it is hard....it does seem to be helping though....low weight, 15 reps 3 times.
I do wish the coaches would make some adjustments here when the athletes clearly show an unbalance.

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

Very interesting question! I'm the opposite. I have patellar tendinitis in my left leg which was my stronger/dominant side. My tendinitis eventually turned to lateral tears which made my left side much weaker. But to begin with my left side was the stronger/dominant side.

 

[Muddlethru]

Very interesting question! I'm the opposite. I have patellar tendinitis in my left leg which was my stronger/dominant side. My tendinitis eventually turned to lateral tears which made my left side much weaker. But to begin with my left side was the stronger/dominant side.

It would make sense to have the tendinitis on the dominant leg, since it is used more. But I think my daughter's tendinitis in the weaker leg may have been caused by her double backs and vault where the stronger leg was able to take the stress of the landings and the weaker one could not.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

moderation. work both sides of the body. and management thereof.

 

[flipflopsalto]

I am a Gymnastics lefty (righty for everything else) the only injuries I ever had were on my right side.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

^^^ that's the point of the question.

 

[Muddlethru]

moderation. work both sides of the body. and management thereof.

Certainly, the solution seems simple enough, yet many gyms don't/can't do it. We constantly run routines over and over again using the dominant side. Even if we condition both sides, it still is deficient considering the number of routines ran or drills performed to get a skill (in your dominant side of course). If you moderate running routines and drills, will that not weaken or lower performance?

 

[gymdog]

Well, I'm a righty and my left side is stronger. But I also have scoliosis and I think that's what affected me more on beam.

Some people are affected by this more than others.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Certainly, the solution seems simple enough, yet many gyms don't/can't do it. We constantly run routines over and over again using the dominant side. Even if we condition both sides, it still is deficient considering the number of routines ran or drills performed to get a skill (in your dominant side of course). If you moderate running routines and drills, will that not weaken or lower performance?

no