How do grips work?

[LiveLoveTumble]

Just wondering, how do dowel grips work? I haven't seen them very clearly, so I am not sure how they fit on your hand and where exactly the dowel is. I would think having a dowel between your hands and the bar would make it harder to hold on...
My mom says she might get me some, so I am wondering how they work.

 

[Natasha]

check with your coach before you buy the grips. Some coaches do not allow girls to use grips until they reach a certain skill level as they often want girls to perfect certain skills before starting use grips. For instance, at our gym the girls are not allowed to use grips until they begin training giants.

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

check with your coach before you buy the grips. Some coaches do not allow girls to use grips until they reach a certain skill level as they often want girls to perfect certain skills before starting use grips. For instance, at our gym the girls are not allowed to use grips until they begin training giants.

They don't really care, there are girls with grips on a bunch of different levels, but I will ask just in case.

 

[wgagym]

I was also going to suggest talking with the gym. You really do not need them until you start training giants. If you are there, then go ahead but otherwise they are not a necessity at all.

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

Alright, I agree that I probably don't need them, but I am still curious about how they actually work.

 

[MeetDirector]

How do grips work? It is a piece of leather between the palm and the bar as the hand goes around the bar. It protects the palm. You do not need them until training circling skills multiple times a week.

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

Okay, but how does the dowel help?

 

[flipandtwist]

It's kind of hard to explain unless you have tried swinging with a pair. Pretty much, the dowel stops you from swinging off the bar because it will hold unto the bar. If you were to put on grips, put the dowel over the bar, and lean backwards slightly, you won't fall. You can also do pullovers without fingers or hands. It's hard to explain, but the dowel is another barrier before you slip off...kind of.
Sorry for the bad help, haha.

 

[CreateMagic]

It's kind of hard to explain unless you have tried swinging with a pair. Pretty much, the dowel stops you from swinging off the bar because it will hold unto the bar. If you were to put on grips, put the dowel over the bar, and lean backwards slightly, you won't fall. You can also do pullovers without fingers or hands. It's hard to explain, but the dowel is another barrier before you slip off...kind of.
Sorry for the bad help, haha.

I think that's a great explanation for someone who knows nothing about grips! Not technical but gets the idea across.

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

I get it now! Thanks!

 

[iwannacoach]

It's kind of hard to explain unless you have tried swinging with a pair. Pretty much, the dowel stops you from swinging off the bar because it will hold unto the bar. If you were to put on grips, put the dowel over the bar, and lean backwards slightly, you won't fall. You can also do pullovers without fingers or hands. It's hard to explain, but the dowel is another barrier before you slip off...kind of.
Sorry for the bad help, haha.

It's kinda like having finger "extensions" that increase the amount of reach you have around the bar's circumference.

 

[GymBee97]

It's kind of hard to explain unless you have tried swinging with a pair. Pretty much, the dowel stops you from swinging off the bar because it will hold unto the bar. If you were to put on grips, put the dowel over the bar, and lean backwards slightly, you won't fall. You can also do pullovers without fingers or hands. It's hard to explain, but the dowel is another barrier before you slip off...kind of.
Sorry for the bad help, haha.

That's about as good an explination as I could have done.

It help gymnasts have a better hold on the bar during circling skills and catching release moves. Many gymnasts have small hands, in relation to the size of the bar, and the dowel grip helps them maintain their grip on the bar better

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

What about baby giants? Do you need them when you start doing those?

 

[marie83]

We have our gymnasts in them from their first day in the development squad - purely so they can get used to them. We've found they make a huge difference to how skills feel. Of course there is an argument that their hands are already so small and don't need any extra barriers between their hand and the bar, but we've never found any problems. They make dowel grips pretty small these days!
Anyway, that is pretty irrelevant to you as you are not a 5 year old! If your gym says you are allowed them, and you want to have them, get them! They take a bit of getting used to and you need to break them in, so start off wearing them for the warm up/conditioning, then perhaps going back to bare hands for skills, then slowly build up to wearing them for the entire bars practice.
It is also very important that you get the correct size. Never ever buy grips that are too large. Get your coach to check first. I know here that grips come with a protective cover so that you can try them on, and if too small, you can send them back without actually touching the material. A bit like the protective liner they put inside swimsuits.

 

[GymBee97]

What about baby giants? Do you need them when you start doing those?

This is what we have always been told:

If you are getting more and more rips and it is getting to the point where it is interfering with your bar training, then that is one clear sign that it is time to consider getting grips. If you are definitely going to start or continue a gymnastics competitive career and you don’t want to have to relearn a lot of skills with grips, then you should consider grips And if you are starting to do circling skills like giants or even swinging at or above the level of the bar, dowel grips are a safety grip consideration.

Usually most gyms will let you know when they like to have their gymnasts get grips, which grip brands they like, and usually like gymnasts to start them at the begining of the off season so they can get use to them long before the meet season starts. In my area I see usually by L6 alot of gymnasts with grips about 2/3's. Some L5 girls will have them if they are older - I see about 1/4 of the L5 girls with them. All L7's and up seem to have them in our area but I'm sure there are some gymnasts that still don't use them.

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

I don't need them for the rips reason, because I use tape grips for that. However, they bunch up easily and get very uncomfortable after a while. I have pretty small hands, and whenever I swing out to do a baby giant, I am afraid I am going to fly off the bar.

 

[GymBee97]

I don't need them for the rips reason, because I use tape grips for that. However, they bunch up easily and get very uncomfortable after a while. I have pretty small hands, and whenever I swing out to do a baby giant, I am afraid I am going to fly off the bar.

tape grips are good for L4 and L5 for simple things but that is why they go to dowel grips to keep from flying off the bar the dowel is supposed to help keep this from happening but like everything else you have to get use to them. You have to change how you do skills somewhat with grips on. they have tiny grips called pixie grips for the really small hands but my dd has very long fingers and started out with size 1 and is now in size 3.

 

[LiveLoveTumble]

Do they make it harder to shift your wrists for kips? Because I am having trouble with that already, and I don't want to make it take longer to get it. I guess if I am going to get grips, I should do it soon, because competition season just finished (for us, anyways).

 

[GymBee97]

Do they make it harder to shift your wrists for kips? Because I am having trouble with that already, and I don't want to make it take longer to get it. I guess if I am going to get grips, I should do it soon, because competition season just finished (for us, anyways).

I don't know if its harder or not - my dd says doing skills in general is just different not harder or easier - For kips she says its not harder just different. it would probably be better to get the grips and just learn them with the grips so you don't have to re-learn how to do the skills with grips.

 

[gymgal]

My dd got her first set just as she was learning kips. We basically followed her HC recommendation to get them before she started learning big skills so she wouldn't have to "relearn" them with the grips. She had been close to her kip, then started using them and she lost some ground with the kip but not much. She said everything felt weird and it took a few weeks of getting used to the feel. But after that, she was fine.She's in the process of breaking in a new pair made by a different company - she went from velcro to buckle - and she is having a bit of a hard time getting used to the feel again. She mainly uses them for warm-up then switches to her old ones.