For coaches- adjustment of bars

[JZMOMMY]

My daughter went through a big growth spurt, she's 12 yr old and 5'5. She is the tallest girl in our gym, although not by much. A few of the girls are 5'3-5'4. Due to a nagging knee injury, she had a rough year and will be competing level7 for a third year. she has worked through the frustrations, tears and pain to get back her skills and the only issue she is facing is her coach refuses to move the bars. She hits her feet on giants, tap swings, etc. She came home with welts on her feet and could not practice for 2 days because her feet hurt.
When she asked and now begs her coach to adjust the bars, he responds by saying," you know, you aren't the tallest girl that has been through this gym".

Her giants are beautiful and bars have always been her strength, so I'm perplexed why a coach refuses to adjust bars to accommodate height. He has accommodated the smaller girls, but will not do it for the taller girls.

We plan on talking to the coach , who is also the owner of the gym but have been told by other parents, it's a waste of time, because he wont do it.
I feel he's putting her at an injury risk, adding a mental block and creating an unnecessary fear. I also feel, that this should not even be an issue to discuss and as a coach, he would see she's hitting the bar and simply adjust them, making it possible for her to do a routine.

If the coach refuses to adjust bars..what choices does my daughter , besides not doing bars?

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Where in the world do you live? If you live outside of the USA, chances are you have to deal with FIG rules which prohibit the bars going wider than 180cm.

 

[JZMOMMY]

We live in the USA

 

[Deleted member D3987]

without a long dissertation on the biomechanics of uneven bars, suffice that, the closer the bars are to FIG the better the technique. the further the worse.

only in the US are the bars allowed to be moved out of FIG. and you might be assuming that if this is done that your daughter will not hit her feet on the low bar. this is not so. elites do this from time to time and adjustments must be made in their technique. and show your daughter some college routines on youtube. she will see that the spreader is on an angle more often than the spreader being parallel or straight horizontal. the angle means that the setting is on a inward, not outward setting. the more inward or steeper the angle of the spreader means they are closer to FIG. i hope that this explanation is sufficient.

what should happen is that a 2" stinger mat should be placed/draped over the low bar. the mat is easy to move in between turns so as to not disrupt the flow of a bar work out. using this mat will give your daughter a sense of safety so that she can focus on the proper technique while not having to worry about smacking the low bar. she has a 'new' body and adjustments in technique are normal and required.

what usually takes place after a growth spurt is this. to properly fall at the low bar a gymnast must keep their head 'in' to neutral and look (line of sight) right at the low bar as they encounter it. when they 'see' the low bar they know precisely when to drop their feet in front and under it. this is commonly referred to as a hollow drop or shape. when a growth spurt takes place, their center of gravity or known spatial awareness changes off their usual axis just a bit. and they tend to put on a couple of pounds also. so what the gymnast 'feels' is that they are going around the bar slower. they want to go fast like they usually did. so, as the bars are not spread out further, the gymnast will begin to lift their chin on the fall or descent to the low bar. they attempt to throw or rotate their head in order to facilitate what they perceive to be rotation that they need and have lost due to the 'new' body that they are in. when they take their eyes off the low bar, and then lift and throw their head backwards simultaneously, is where a bad and inefficient angle takes place causing them to hit their feet on the low bar. this could also happen if the bars were set in such a way that they were as far apart as could possibly be done.

and you don't say whether she is performing a 'legs together' or 'legs straddled' at the low bar technique. sometimes, the gymnast must move to a 'legs straddled' technique to overcome the new body. this is also common in our sport.

If the coach refuses to adjust bars..what choices does my daughter , besides not doing bars?[/QUOTE]

answer: implement corrective measures to re-learn/re-adapt/adjust to proper giant swing technique.

 

[bogwoppit]

My dd grew a huge amount last year, she very quickly was shown how to straddle her swings, she has never had a problem since. SHe also straddles her kips. It looks fine and most of the tall girls do this to accomodate their length.

 

[BlairBob]

However, many coaches don't teach straddling in the back swing until they are learning to double back. Think past L8 and not for mere L7's.

 

[10.0]

Honestly it's laziness, although it would take the entire practice to put the bars where eveyone wants them back and forth, it does take a lot of effort. I have seen gyms that have more than one set (most gyms do) have one set further apart than another and the kids pick which set they go on, that seems to work out good. I have also seen a gym where the optional level coaches coach ALL optional levels and the kids range from 4'5 to 5'10" and they leave the bars at a wide setting and force the little ones to jump like crazy to get the high bar. So I think setting the different bar set can combat most of the problem. Granted yes she may need to learn a different technique, but she is a level 7 she probably just learned giants and having to compete on FIG equiptment may not ever happen.

 

[fishchimes]

I understand where you're coming from. I'm 5'7 myself. When we jump to the high bar, my coach tells me I have to jump otherwise I won't get credit, but I can only really do that on the bar set that's farther apart. If I do on the bar set for shorter gymnasts, it would look kind of weird.

If you have more than one set, it would be the most practical to have one set closer together and the other far apart. Depending on how far apart you have the bars set now, he might just be obeying FIG rules. If they're set quite close; for example, the younger girls don't have to jump far at all, then he might just not want to put in the effort.

I personally think it is not fair that the low bar is the same height on almost all sets, because even though it's possible for people my height to swing on it, it's not easy and gives little people an unfair advantage (more than they already have).

 

[marie83]

only in the US are the bars allowed to be moved out of FIG. and you might be assuming that if this is done that your daughter will not hit her feet on the low bar. this is not so. elites do this from time to time and adjustments must be made in their technique. and show your daughter some college routines on youtube. she will see that the spreader is on an angle more often than the spreader being parallel or straight horizontal. the angle means that the setting is on a inward, not outward setting. the more inward or steeper the angle of the spreader means they are closer to FIG. i hope that this explanation is sufficient.

what should happen is that a 2" stinger mat should be placed/draped over the low bar. the mat is easy to move in between turns so as to not disrupt the flow of a bar work out. using this mat will give your daughter a sense of safety so that she can focus on the proper technique while not having to worry about smacking the low bar. she has a 'new' body and adjustments in technique are normal and required.

Just wanted to add that all gymnasts hit their feet occasionally and it's usually to do with the timing. Even Beth Tweddle hits her feet sometimes! There are numerous vids on youtube!

In our gym we replace the low bar with toilet roll so if the girls do hit their feet, it just breaks! Once we are past the toilet roll stage, we cover the low bar with a 2" mat as described above.

We are in the UK though so can't move the bars out further anyway!

 

[emacmommy]

I agree and appreciate dunno's explanation. Giants swung in the correct shapes don't need the bars all the way out to superwide + in order to swing safely. Taking dunno's explanation you can use it to form your questions to your head coach. Ask in a tone of curiosity and he just might give you a reasonable and suitable answer as to why he doesn't accomodate. Accomodation often leads to continued poor habits with shapes. Obviously we haven't seen her giants and technique so we aren't one to pass judgement, but I bet he has a good explanation for her, and you.

I don't know the relationship your daughter has with the coach, but just as dunno suggests, see if she can ask if she can train with sting or a bar pad, over the low until she's adapted technique to her growth. More labor intensive visual aids is setting up a single bar with a prewrap stretched across to represent the low bar, but you have to measure the rise and run difference to put the prewrap to represent the bar. We do this with our strap bar alot. Lots of kick to handstand and fall to prone (as shallow hollow as she can hold) watching her feet as she hits the floor are great shape reminders.

 

[kflipz]

Im not sure if it is only Canada, but my coach told me I am aloud to compete with the bars on FIG + 1, at National level.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

the FIG rule is plus or minus 1 cm from 180. so that means as much as 181 or as low as 179.

 

[JZMOMMY]

Thanks for everyones input. Her giants are really good, her form is close to perfect and she does use a string mat on the low bar. She hits her feet on it too. We spoke to her coach and he won't move them.

My next question is this.. What is a good bar adjustment measurement for someone who is 5'5 with long arms?

 

[JZMOMMY]

We live In united states

 

[Deleted member D3987]

high bar and low bar on 3 clicks up. front spreader all the way up. main spreader on 5 showing.