Injury Causes

[notjustgym]

DH and I were talking tonight regarding causes of 'overuse injuries' such as stress fracture, tendonitis and others.

If a gymnast has 'perfect form' does every skill technically correct. could she get an injury? Or can the body withstand the pounding/twisting etc.

DDs HC views injuries as she is doing something wrong to get hurt and unless she fixes xy and z she will still get tendonitis (or whatever)

What do you think? IN a perfect world, could a robot gymnast never get injured or overuse issues?

 

[flippin out]

Very interesting question. While I really don't have an answer, I would have to guess that your DDs coach has his head burrowed up something .

I can see 'yes, if the form is perfect there would be less chance for injury' BUT not all injury can possibly be prevented. AND perfect form couldn't possibly stop overuse issues. I think he (your DDs HC) just doesn't deal well with injury, so.....there has to be someone to blame! Which is a little counter-productive. I'm in NO way agreeing or saying that he has a case with laying blame for all injuries (traumatic and overuse) - just saying that if he's Constantly blaming bad form for any/and ALL injuries, this could lead kids/parents to ask WHY they have what he views as bad form....since he is their coach and teaching the form.

Maybe Dunno has a position on this one? What you say Dunno? Do you agree with the OPs Coach....... Bad form is the cause of ALL problems and if you have Good form= never having any issues EVER?

 

[Kiwi]

I don't agree that all injury is from bad form or the gymnast doing something wrong. Everyone's body is different and gymnastics puts a lot of stress on many body parts. Sometimes, the way your body is made can predispose you to certain injuries, or it may be that the body has not adapted quickly enough to a repetitive stress, especially if it was not introduced gradually.

For example, earlier this year my DD had a foot injury, an impingement in a foot joint. The physio thought it may have been caused by her increase in training hours, i.e. her body just wasn't used to it. She had to avoid some things, e.g. vault for a while, but once her foot recovered, she was able to train normally. This kind of overuse injury could probably be prevented by introducing new activities, or big increases in certain activities more gradually so that the body has more time to adapt.

Another example, is my DD's hamstring injury, although I suppose not technically an overuse injury, caused by her coach overstretching her. We think her hamstring was pre-disposed to injury through several factors. She is not naturally very flexible, she also had a pelvic rotation which was putting stress on the hamstring, which may have been caused by muscle imbalances, which may have been caused by unbalanced conditioning at the gym. That is, they do lots of conditioning for quads, hip flexors and abs, and very little for strenthening glutes and hamstrings, the front of the body gets stronger and shorter, the back of the body is weak and pulled out of proper position. Because of the weakness in her glutes, she compensates with her back muscles, which rotates her pelvis further.

I don't know much about overuse injuries such as stress fractures, but my feeling is that a lot of injury has to do with the training regime devised by the coach. I don't think all coaches are thinking enough about training for muscle balance, using mats and drills to reduce repetitive jarring, spacing out repetitions of certain activities to allow body parts time to recover, and so on. Just my humble opinion. I have very little experience in this area, but unfortunately seem to be learning the hard way through my daughter's injuries. I would be very interested to see the thoughts of experienced coaches, e.g. Dunno.

 

[10.0]

We as human beings are not supposed to flip, have all our weight supported by our hands or land with the force we land tricks from. Part of it could always be form but a lot of it is simply from asking your body to perform tricks over and over again it is not really designed to do.

Like anything else safe and proper training, warm up and conditioning will help minimize the risks.

 

[my4buffaloes]

The thing is - what about when the gymnast is learning a skill for the first time - I doubt there could be perfect form. Also, take level 6 for instance. All level 6 gymnasts have their back walk overs at this point and should have at least near perfect form. But transfer that skill to the beam and they have to repeatedly do the skill every practice to get it right on beam. This leads to numerous back injuries - not from bad form, but from overuse.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

stupid coach. when you place extreme loads on the human anatomy, and then fight gravity, it would be next to impossible to prevent certain things from happening to the body. even when perfect form is present.

remember way back when (seems that way) when i 1st came on here at CB and a coach tried to argue with me how "easy" double backs were to learn and perform? i politely told this coach that they were mistaken? and i stated that a double back landing was the equivalent force of jumping down from a 2 (approx 20 ft.) story building?

so then, all things being equally "perfect", you can only practice so many double backs on a hard surface on a weekly basis until your body tells you that you may have done too many. but by then, you may have shin splints (or worse...compartment syndrome). or a sore low back. or the bones in your feet ache. AND your form was perfect at all times.

even something as simple as knitting...if you don't stab yourself...can cause carpal tunnel.

 

[gym monkeys mom]

I have nothing more to add except....how come all coaches are not as educated about things as Dunno

I know there are tons of good coaches out there and a few not so good ones....but not all are as educated about things as you Dunno. So glad you are here to help!

Hope you DD heals fast and coach pulls his head out!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

I have nothing more to add except....how come all coaches are not as educated about things as Dunno

I know there are tons of good coaches out there and a few not so good ones....but not all are as educated about things as you Dunno. So glad you are here to help!

Hope you DD heaks fast and coach pulls his head out!

because breathing methane gas is bad for your health...

 

[Kiwi]

even something as simple as knitting...if you don't stab yourself...can cause carpal tunnel.

So true, my mum is a violinist and also a knitter, she got carpal tunnel in both wrists. I got an overuse injury from using a computer mouse. Swimming sounds like it would be a low injury sport - all that water, no jarring, right? - I've heard that competitive swimmers get overuse problems in their shoulders. You can probably get an overuse injury from just about any activity.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

doing any sport to a reasonably high level is "bad" for our bodies. My husband was told by a vey nice South African orthapedic surgeon that he had two choices - he could carry on playing rugby or he could walk ? That was the time I took his boots away. Colin Jackson, our World record 110m hurdler, said hes never been as well now he has stopped competing at world level ! The hours and skills we ask our athletes to do are more that the human body is designed for - not just in gym but in most sports.

Unfortunately injuries are a fact of sporting life - we just have to take as many practical considerations as possible to minimise the risks.

 

[BlairBob]

http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/injuries/

 

[BlairBob]

Sorry about having to post twice to this but my browser (Opera) seems to input text very strangely whenever I post a link in a post. I could probably use another browser, but I'm sure they would be dog slow and it's enough of a pain as it is.

Bad form may lead to injuries but even exceptional form can lead to injuries and when it comes to gymnastics it tends to be overuse injuries. Not a lot of coaches out there know how to balance out all the muscles in the body.

Stress fractures are things that quite often build up over time. My friend in basic got one in his shin until it snapped. Tendonitis and tendonosis and arthritis are all inflammation which stuff like OsgoodSchlaters and Severs are also.

Swimming leads to shoulder injuries because it uses a lot of internal rotation of the shoulder.