WAG Encouragement for Broken Hand

[PalmTree]

One of my Level 5s just broke her hand doing a back handspring yesterday. She's done them for about four years and all of a sudden this happens! We have a meet this weekend and then five more before the season ends, and now she's out. It's such a bummer and I feel bad for her because she's little and was so close to getting all the new Level 6 skills. Does anyone have any encouragement or similar stories? I also feel bad as a coach, like maybe I did something wrong!

 

[Jabba]

You didnt do anything wrong, this is gymnastics! We try to defy gravity and sometimes gravity fights back. As coaches, we do everything we can to keep them to a minimum, but injuries are unfortunately a part of the sport. Just help her to keep positive and have her keep coming in the gym and doing what she can. Use this time to increase her flexibility or other things she can do and find creative ways to have her help you and the team at practice, so she still feels like she's involved. I had a Level 5 recently fight through an injury over the summer, and come back not only stronger than she was both mentally and physically, but also as much more of a team leader. She had dealt with the hardship of injury and what it takes to bounce back from it and now she knows how to encourage her teammates to push themselves when they think they cant. You'll be fine and so will your L5. Just keep positive!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

One of my Level 5s just broke her hand doing a back handspring yesterday. She's done them for about four years and all of a sudden this happens! We have a meet this weekend and then five more before the season ends, and now she's out. It's such a bummer and I feel bad for her because she's little and was so close to getting all the new Level 6 skills. Does anyone have any encouragement or similar stories? I also feel bad as a coach, like maybe I did something wrong!

nope, not you. they do something wrong and the body fails. happens to everyone.

 

[magymmom]

My dd is going through this exact injury right now and even though it is emotionally tough on her I also see that she is growing in other areas. She has been complemented many times on how hard she is working on her conditioning to keep her body in shape. Just know that as a coach there is nothing you could have done to prevent this and that she very well could come out stronger on the other side.

 

[Natasha]

My dd broke her wrist last year doing a BH on the floor beam...totally a fluke. THen she broke her finger. By the time she was able to compete, she absolutely rocked her floor routine because she had focused so much on improving her dance technique and her leg muscles for tumbling. Her coach was also great about keeping her challenged with learning some new skills that she could do...like she learned how to do the full turn on beam with her one leg completely horizontal.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

DD broke her foot last January doing a BHS on floor, just a freak thing. Her coaches kept her motivated by allowing her to train and condition as much as she could safely do, and she came back after 10 weeks as strong as ever.

Sending healing thoughts to your gymmie!

 

[coachmolly]

Not your fault at all, just one of those fluke things. I broke my hand doing a bhs on the low beam once and it was only a 4 week-ish recovery, so hopefully the turnout will be the same for your gymnast. And like others have said, it's a good opportunity to focus on conditioning, dance, jumps, leaps, and all of those little things. You can even throw in a few arm strength activities if you're a little bit creative. With all of that thrown in there, she should be able to come to the gym and workout with her team while seeing some progress and making her transition back to full practices even easier.

 

[iwannacoach]

I had a 2rd year optional kid who gave me a hard time towards the end of warm-ups for having a practice on a Friday the 13th. She giggled while telling me how un-lucky the day was, as if I didn't know, but then got serious and down to business doing back handsprings on the floor to warm-up for beam. She broke her finger less than 2 minutes later doing a bhs on the floor line.........

Imagine that! This kids had done over two years of back handsprings, like around 50 per dayX 450 practice days.....sometimes it just happens and there's no way to prevent it.

 

[gymcritter]

Hi my dd just got released from her broken hand thisbweek! She was doing back handspring backhand spring on beam landed it but heard a pop in her hand! She was at such a good point too. She was training level 7/8 looked really great on everything. Was ready to go to national testing for tops ..... She had 3 weeks in cast then twoon very modified things. Started back full swing Tuesday. I'm surprised.Her bars still look good! Beam she hasn't tried any tumbling on yet and very little on floor. I can see vault will be her biggest challenge but that's always been her week spot. I also know shehasto work back up some of strength like she can still climb rope pretty good but had trouble her first time doing pressers. (she was up to 17 in a row before this!) we thought it was the end. But things seem to be ok! Shehasto no pain and the worse thing we've dealt with is her wrist being sore from being in cast. She also still did all her hours and never missed even with cast on

 

[profmom]

Yep, that is the unfortunate reality of the sport -- even when coach and gymnast are doing things right, sometimes accidents just happen. For my DD, it was a fall on approximately her 4 billionth full turn on beam as she was uptraining toward the end of her L5 season. Broke her humerus, which required surgery to repair. Her beam coach felt awful, but we all knew it was just one of those things.

Conditioning, conditioning, conditioning and lots of encouragement -- DD's accident was about a year and a half ago and she was quite limited for three months, but this fall she's getting ready to compete L7.

All good thoughts to you and your little gymnast! You can really help her by being positive yourself and letting her know that if she wants to make it back, she'll be able to do it, probably way more quickly than she or her family believes!

 

[PalmTree]

Thanks everyone!! She came in to practice last night and her mom said she's been crying because she's sad she'll be "out" of gymnastics for a bit. I had her play around, do some turns and leaps, etc. Any ideas on things I can have her do to still feel a part of the team? Besides just conditioning and dance??

 

[Jabba]

Keep doing LOTS of conditioning!! and flexibility. You can never have too much of either. Also, have her help out. Maybe she can help correct her teammates (nicely, of course) on the things they are working on. When one of my girls was injuried, she did this and it was a real benefit to everyone. Kids sometimes take corrections better from their peers. Also, have her stay by you when you're coaching the rest of the girls on certain things, so that even though she can't learn by doing, she can learn what to do/not do (when she comes back) by listening to what you're telling others. Ask questions to make sure she is getting it: ex. "Did you see how she was arched, what position is she supposed to be in on that?" And anytime you have contests, have her keep track of things, so she's still a part of it. As for the dance, if she's got the L5/6 stuff she can do down, maybe have her try out connecting things into little "optional" passes.

There's ALWAYS so much they can still do! You just have to start getting creative with things. Glad to hear she's back in the gym. Just being there should help her a lot.