MAG enlarging finger holes on grips

[rosiekat]

I'm sorry to ask another grips question, but I decided this was better as its own thread. Grips are in, but the finger holes are way too small. (He can't even get the beginning of his fingertip through.) That makes sense, since I guess they need to fit the smallest person and can be enlarged. But is there a recommended way to enlarge them? The handout enclosed says use emery paper (sandpaper?), but these holes probably need to be about 1/3 again as large as they are. Thanks for your advice and your patience!

 

[Nikki4]

Our girls put sharpies in the holes over night.

 

[fuzi]

Wrap a pencil or similar in sandpaper. Then sand away.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

I guess it works the same for boys, so with scissors Maybe?

 

[GymMom4]

Wrap a pencil or similar in sandpaper. Then sand away.

This is what we did and it worked well.

They don't recommend actually cutting the holes.

 

[Azgymmiemom]

There's a bolt in the back of our gym(attached to some old piece of apparatus that doesn't get used) the kids use to whittle out the holes in their new grips. Maybe have him ask his teammates what's around the gym that they use.

 

[skschlag]

There's a bolt in the back of our gym(attached to some old piece of apparatus that doesn't get used) the kids use to whittle out the holes in their new grips. Maybe have him ask his teammates what's around the gym that they use.

This is what D said. He said on the pommel or hb there is a little knob-y thing that they use to widen the hole.

 

[rosiekat]

He's not training with the big guys for a couple more weeks, but that's a good thought for next time. I was actually surprised when I was trying to work on them in his absence - I compared our fingers so I could get a ballpark idea of when I was getting close enough, and his fingers are as wide/"fat" as mine are! Mine are fairly slender, but not freakishly so - and he's only 8!

Sandpaper around a Sharpie seems to be working, and I saw the idea of scraping them gently with scissors, too. (Not cutting, just using the blade to scrape.) We got the rings grips to where they are probably close (I'm being super careful not to get them too big), high bar still needs work. I figure if we can get them close, he can check with coach next week. I've also warned him that he needs to pay attention - next time, I'm willing to help, but he's going to have to do the bulk of the work. HE'S the gymnast, not me! My job is to be chauffeur and accountant! I was definitely not anticipating such a sharp learning curve here!

 

[2G1B]

My DD also uses some sort of bolt on equipment. She said it is something on the bars. DS hasn't had to do much to the finger holes previously; but I just ordered him new grips today and we shall see what has to be done to them. I will warn to go slowly. For one pair of grips I stuck a sharpie in and twisted it a few times and made the stupid holes too big.

 

[skschlag]

My DD also uses some sort of bolt on equipment. She said it is something on the bars. DS hasn't had to do much to the finger holes previously; but I just ordered him new grips today and we shall see what has to be done to them. I will warn to go slowly. For one pair of grips I stuck a sharpie in and twisted it a few times and made the stupid holes too big.

And, you can weaken the leather between the finger holes, decreasing the life of the grips. nothing like going through grips every 6 months when they rip between the fingers. (not fun going thru grips every 6 months because they are heavy and swing very hard on hb either, but at least that is legit!)

 

[dancemom]

My dd's teammates all used the metal pegs, used to adjust the UBars, sliding them up & down. But, everything I'd read said this would weaken the grips, so we wrapped sandpaper around a pencil ( course to fine grit) & slowly wore away at the holes ( they needed a ton of work).

 

[dancemom]

For my ds, I purchased this on Amazon, which was perfect!
Mercer Industries BCDRO08 Round File Bastard Cut Individually Sleeved, 8-Inch

 

[dancemom]

Here's the link. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to sand the grip holes with this.

Link Removed

 

[MAmom]

My ds brought his grips unopened to the gym and his coaches helped him with any fit issues. They had told me what to get and where. It was nice staying out of the loop with fitting. He is still on his first sets of both high bar and pbar grips. Did the coach tell him to make them fit?

 

[raenndrops]

I lucked out and my dremel multitool had a sanding attachment that was just smaller than OG's fingers, so I did the bulk of the sanding in 4 seconds. Then I did the sandpaper around a pencil to finish them off.

 

[GymLife]

Careful not to make them too big, DD'S first set of grips stretched really quickly. We had to buy new ones. This time they didn't stretch out at all after broken in. Same company same size. We just moved to a new brand and used a fat sharpie for a bit. Work perfect.

 

[rosiekat]

So, things I've learned. First off, my 8-year-old son's fingers are about the same diameter as mine. Mine aren't too big, but I'd still say they're probably around average for an adult woman. I couldn't believe his were actually that big around!

Second, having fingers about the same diameter makes it easy for me to repeatedly test if the holes are big enough without annoying him too much. I have made it very clear to him that this annoying task will be primarily his responsibility from here on out. I'm totally willing to supervise so they don't get too big or anything, but Mama's got better things to do!

He took them to gym yesterday, and the high bar ones are good and he liked wearing them. The coach said the holes on the rings one need to be bigger.

And I didn't even think about a metal file! I actually have a similar one, I'll need to remember that for next time. Oh, wait, I still have to make the rings one bigger...time to go find the file!

 

[Jeannie6]

I have my girls use sandpaper rolled up. Be careful not to make the holes too large. We also use the pulls on the uneven bars. Sliding the hole over them.

 

[rosiekat]

So DS had his first L6 practice last night. At our gym, that's where you join in with the bigger guys (L6-L10 practice together). He loved it! I was worried because it's the jump from 2 hour practices to 4 hours, but he was fine. The older guys were pretty nice to him and the other kid who just moved up that was there. (We have 3 others who moved up, but 2 are on vacation and 1 is recovering from a mild, non-gym-related concussion.)

I'm sharing this here because the ring holes still weren't large enough, so a couple of the other guys were helping him with them. The funny thing to me was that it took him forever to get them on - the ring ones are velcro fastening, and he just couldn't get the hang of it. (Interestingly, he got his double buckle high bar ones on pretty quickly.) I think he spent about 15 minutes trying to get them on, lol.

And no, I will not be making a habit of staying for the practices. I just wanted to stay last night because it was the first one (so I wanted to see how it was run), and because it had been DS's last day of school so I was afraid he might get worn out. The new practice time goes past the time he usually has been going to bed, but he was fine. We'll see if it's still fine with him once it's no longer new!