How do you feel about home gyms?

[Bella's Mom]

Thank you everyone for your responses to my post. I guess because my daughter is still at a low level and therefore not doing difficult tricks at home, I'm seeing the "home gym" thing through my experiences.

I don't allow Bella to do BHS on her mat at home. She can do them at the gym without a spot but it feels "not right" for her to do them at home. The biggest trick she can do at home is a back bend on the mat.

The floor beam gets used mostly for leaps and practicing her warm up. She will do handstands and cartwheels on it but she can't do anything more difficult than that anyway so it's a moot point for beam.

When the bar gets set up, I foresee her doing mill circles for now and if she sticks it out, eventually working on her kip. But nothing more difficult than that. And that's IF she uses it for gymnastics. I honesty think she'll use it more to hand upside down and swing from her bent knees most of the time.

If she ever advances to more difficult tricks, I can't imagine her being allowed to perform these skills at home. But as a L2, the difficulty just isn't there for me to worry about it.

 

[Sunobo]

I knew that big skills at home were a bad idea but I didn't understand the dangers of a home gym until an incident with a Level 5 girl at our gym while doing tap swings on the high bar. I would never have thought that tap swings could be dangerous.

She peeled off the bar and flew backward with feet higher than her head. She hit the low bar with her hips, did a parital flip and landed on her back on the mats. Other than being shocked and a little winded, she was okay but if that had been a bar at home it could have been far worse. I can only imagine how much that might of hurt if it had only been panel mats under those bars instead of the thicker mat that was there.

 

[3rd_time_around]

I knew that big skills at home were a bad idea but I didn't understand the dangers of a home gym until an incident with a Level 5 girl at our gym while doing tap swings on the high bar. I would never have thought that tap swings could be dangerous.

Oh, I KNOW they can be dangerous!! In Level 5, my dd was doing tap swings, and peeled off the high bar. Her momentum carried her up above the bar, and then she came straight down on her head. In a split second i thought she was dead, then paralyzed, then "she's ok." Her face was blue, and her elbow was broken. It messed her up for a year--4 weeks in a cast that ruined her arm; 5 months of painful, useless therapy; 2 different orthopedists; surgery; 10 more weeks of recovery. Her arm will never be straight (mostly due to the idiot "doctor" that treated her original injury). She is still an amazing gymnast, and still one of the best on her team, but I can only imagine where she'd be if not for that injury. Yes, tap swings can be very dangerous!! ITA with the above post.

 

[gymnastjess]

Thank you everyone for your responses to my post. I guess because my daughter is still at a low level and therefore not doing difficult tricks at home, I'm seeing the "home gym" thing through my experiences.

I don't allow Bella to do BHS on her mat at home. She can do them at the gym without a spot but it feels "not right" for her to do them at home. The biggest trick she can do at home is a back bend on the mat.

The floor beam gets used mostly for leaps and practicing her warm up. She will do handstands and cartwheels on it but she can't do anything more difficult than that anyway so it's a moot point for beam.

When the bar gets set up, I foresee her doing mill circles for now and if she sticks it out, eventually working on her kip. But nothing more difficult than that. And that's IF she uses it for gymnastics. I honesty think she'll use it more to hand upside down and swing from her bent knees most of the time.

If she ever advances to more difficult tricks, I can't imagine her being allowed to perform these skills at home. But as a L2, the difficulty just isn't there for me to worry about it.

same for me im a level 2 so im not DOING hard skills basically its safe to do every skill i know at home i do handstands and cartwheels on my beam, i also have a bar and some mats the reason for my 'home gym' is because i live an hour away so i only get to go once a week therfore i practice alot at home

 

[GGranny]

'HOME' equipment

My Grand-DD uses already-installed equipment in my home. A BIG SOFT arm chair.She has a great time doing splits across the arms, handstands over the side, split-jumps on the seat. I don't think she realized that the chair is for sitting because she rairly sits still anyway. She is having FUN and getting a little exercise at the same time. That chair is also the tickle-chair, every time GDad sits in it he has to tickle her. She is not perfecting or learning new skills at Granny's house, but, the memories she is making using her 'HOME' equipment are priceless.

 

[bogwoppit]

My Grand-DD uses already-installed equipment in my home. A BIG SOFT arm chair.She has a great time doing splits across the arms, handstands over the side, split-jumps on the seat. I don't think she realized that the chair is for sitting because she rairly sits still anyway. She is having FUN and getting a little exercise at the same time. That chair is also the tickle-chair, every time GDad sits in it he has to tickle her. She is not perfecting or learning new skills at Granny's house, but, the memories she is making using her 'HOME' equipment are priceless.

I had to stop my little one doing beam on the end of my bed after she "split the beam", wasn't good at all. Even the 14 year old still thinks my sofa is a piece of gym equipement, despit the fact she has a stress fracture in her back. DRIVES ME NUTS!!!

Your post above is exactly why kids don't need equipment at home, they will improvise not matter where they go.

 

[MaryA]

Oh, I KNOW they can be dangerous!! In Level 5, my dd was doing tap swings, and peeled off the high bar. Her momentum carried her up above the bar, and then she came straight down on her head. In a split second i thought she was dead, then paralyzed, then "she's ok." Her face was blue, and her elbow was broken. It messed her up for a year--4 weeks in a cast that ruined her arm; 5 months of painful, useless therapy; 2 different orthopedists; surgery; 10 more weeks of recovery. Her arm will never be straight (mostly due to the idiot "doctor" that treated her original injury). She is still an amazing gymnast, and still one of the best on her team, but I can only imagine where she'd be if not for that injury. Yes, tap swings can be very dangerous!! ITA with the above post.

Thanks for this... my dd has been on a mission to get me to move the pull-up bar in her door up higher so that she can swing from it. I had doubts but she's been very persistant. Now I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will NOT be happening!!!

 

[fuzi]

Oh, I KNOW they can be dangerous!! In Level 5, my dd was doing tap swings, and peeled off the high bar. Her momentum carried her up above the bar, and then she came straight down on her head. In a split second i thought she was dead, then paralyzed, then "she's ok." Her face was blue, and her elbow was broken. It messed her up for a year--4 weeks in a cast that ruined her arm; 5 months of painful, useless therapy; 2 different orthopedists; surgery; 10 more weeks of recovery. Her arm will never be straight (mostly due to the idiot "doctor" that treated her original injury). She is still an amazing gymnast, and still one of the best on her team, but I can only imagine where she'd be if not for that injury. Yes, tap swings can be very dangerous!! ITA with the above post.

Tap swings can be very dangerous indeed. I think at every Level 5 or 6 meet I've coached at, some girl doing scary tap swings has peeled off the bar. If she is lucky, her coach is there to catch her. If not, she gets taken out on a backboard. (I've seen it.) If your kid HAS to have a bar at home, let them do chin ups or leg lifts. If they are small and the bar is low with mats, maybe some mill circles of back hip circles. Save the swinging for under the supervision of a trained coach in a gym. PLEASE.

 

[3rd_time_around]

I've also seen 2 different girls at our gym over the years peel off backwards doing tap swings on the high bar. They both flew over the low bar: on landed on the low bar, then flipped over it onto her head; the other did a belly flop and knocked the wind out of herself. Freaked them both out pretty good, and gave every mom sitting there a heart attack. Another level 5 girl peeled off like my dd, same injury, and she quit. Her mom was too scared to let her make a comeback. Who'd a thought innocent tap swings could wreak so much havoc?

 

[Future Elite Mom]

I think home gyms are fine as long as you have mats and your child knows what she is doing. DD and I watch videos on YouTube and she like to try to imitate the skills she sees. It is cute watching her try an ariel on her home beam. She almost has it! Another couple of hours of practice at home and i bet she'll be surprising her coach at practice with it! She even got her front hip circle on her home bar - spent a whole weekend on the bar working on it until she got it.

So, anyway, at least for my daughter, the hours in the gym just aren't enough. She wants to keep practicing at home. I got her safe equipment to practice on and so she keeps working those skills at home! As long as shes careful, it is fine.

 

[gymnastbeth]

It is cute watching her try an ariel on her home beam. She almost has it! Another couple of hours of practice at home and i bet she'll be surprising her coach at practice with it! She even got her front hip circle on her home bar - spent a whole weekend on the bar working on it until she got it..

An aerial on beam at home is NOT a good idea...

 

[bogwoppit]

I think home gyms are fine as long as you have mats and your child knows what she is doing. DD and I watch videos on YouTube and she like to try to imitate the skills she sees. It is cute watching her try an ariel on her home beam. She almost has it! Another couple of hours of practice at home and i bet she'll be surprising her coach at practice with it! She even got her front hip circle on her home bar - spent a whole weekend on the bar working on it until she got it.

So, anyway, at least for my daughter, the hours in the gym just aren't enough. She wants to keep practicing at home. I got her safe equipment to practice on and so she keeps working those skills at home! As long as shes careful, it is fine.

You don't put videos on youtube by any chance???

 

[gymnastbeth]

You don't put videos on youtube by any chance???

I think I know where this is going, if I remember another thread correctly?

 

[CoachGoofy]

I think home gyms are fine as long as you have mats and your child knows what she is doing. DD and I watch videos on YouTube and she like to try to imitate the skills she sees. It is cute watching her try an ariel on her home beam. She almost has it! Another couple of hours of practice at home and i bet she'll be surprising her coach at practice with it! She even got her front hip circle on her home bar - spent a whole weekend on the bar working on it until she got it.

An aerial on beam is NOT a learn at home skill. An aerial ANYWHERE is not a learn at home skill.

 

[Future Elite Mom]

The beam is only 8" off the floor and it has a mat underneath it. She is almost making it already.

 

[ejgymmom]

It is cute watching her try an ariel on her home beam. She almost has it!

I'm hoping by "ariel" you mean cartwheel, but I'm guessing probably not. That honestly scares the bejeezus out of me thinking about a little one trying something like that just because they've seen in on YouTube! Wow...


I'll be honest and admit that my daughter has a bar and a beam (and a mat). I'll also admit that I was one of those parents who saw some potential in my little one and immediately jumped the gun and bought that stuff. She rarely uses the bar, so it'll probably get sold soon. When she did use it the only gymnastics skills she ever did on it were her pullover, back hip circle and attempting the mill circle...which she still isn't even close on. Other than that she just wanted to be a monkey and hang from her knees or swing on it.

The beam gets a little more use currently as they're just learning the level 3 routines in class now so she practices mostly the dance type moves on it, though she will try a handstand or the cartwheel dismount thing at times. We may keep that around for awhile but I could see us selling that in the future as well.

All that said, if I did it all again I'd probably just get a mat of some sort, maybe a softer one than the one we have so she can stop using my bed for practicing backbends or whatever. I probably wouldn't spend the money on the beam or bar. I don't feel that either are necessary in the least. I am actually not really liking having the equipment in the house because I find it way too easy for myself or my husband to start falling into the parent-coach trap and I'm starting to hate myself when I try to correct her on stuff. I know she doesn't like it since I'm "Mom" and not "Coach" but I can't stop myself from telling her to point those toes or straighten those legs at times...but gosh, I'm sure trying. I don't want to be *that* parent.

 

[hakunamatata]

I think home gyms are fine as long as you have mats and your child knows what she is doing. DD and I watch videos on YouTube and she like to try to imitate the skills she sees. It is cute watching her try an ariel on her home beam. She almost has it! Another couple of hours of practice at home and i bet she'll be surprising her coach at practice with it! She even got her front hip circle on her home bar - spent a whole weekend on the bar working on it until she got it.

So, anyway, at least for my daughter, the hours in the gym just aren't enough. She wants to keep practicing at home. I got her safe equipment to practice on and so she keeps working those skills at home! As long as shes careful, it is fine.

Just because your daughter is being careful doesn't mean she's invincible. Injury happens in gymnastics all the time, and it's not always because the girls aren't being careful enough. It's because gymnastics is a sport where falls just happen, period. ESPECIALLY when you're allowing your dd to try skills she has never been taught how to do. I admire her desire to learn all she can, but please be careful. I'd hate for her to end up with a broken ankle from slipping off the beam trying to do an aerial. You can safety-proof the equipment as much as possible, but falls can still happen. You said yourself, you think gym at home is okay *as long as your dd knows what she is doing.* Do you think she knows what she's doing when she tries an aerial on beam when the only introduction she's had to the skill is a youtube video? Probably not.

I am not necessarily against home equipment. Like I said, I had a beam growing up and I used it pretty often for a while. But I was old enough at that point to know that I shouldn't try anything I hadn't already perfected in the gym because that wasn't safe. Look out for your daughter, it would be really awful for her to have to be out of gym for six months because she got injured at home.

 

[gymdog]

Based on the other skill mentioned in the post, I'm guessing there's some misunderstanding of what an aerial is. The chances a child who is learning a front hip circle could learn, with no coaching, to execute an aerial at home on a beam is about zero. I learned to do a standing aerial with little to no time in the gym (was doing rec gymnastics at the time). I have a lot of fast twitch muscle and while I'm not overly flexible, I have pretty good active flexibility. Even that is and was pretty surprising to most people. So I learned how to kick myself over. Technique without specific drills and coaching for awareness was nowhere good enough to get it on a beam.

Besides, you're either landing an aerial on the beam or not...if you aren't close to landing it, you shouldn't be doing it. That isn't how we train aerial beam skills, because it's dangerous. There needs to be some degree of accuracy before it ever goes on the beam. It's not like trying a cartwheel or full turn on the beam.

 

[gymcoach26]

You don't put videos on youtube by any chance???

You totally beat me to this question, but it was exactly the first thing that came to mind! yikes :0

 

[Future Elite Mom]

We were not working front hip circles and aerials at the same time. She learned her front hip circle and mill circle on her home bar and worked her giants after DH bolted the bar to the basement floor.

I know what an aerial is. We watched a progression for it on youtube. She got it on trampoline, then in the back yard before we ever took it to the beam. She can land it some of the time with one or two feet on the beam so I know she will get it soon. She is very determined and doesn't give up until she gets a skill. We put lots of pillows around to make sure she doesn't run into anything if she misses.