Parents Kip before grips vs now

[Teammom]

My 8 year old level 4 had her kip before she got grips. She got it about a month before grips. Now that she has grips, she can’t do her kip anymore. She blames the grips but she won’t tell the coach. She is very shy. Should I wait it out or email the coach to see if she can do bars without grips? By the way, she homeschools so she is in the gym 20 hours a week starting in the next couple of weeks.

 

[JBS]

This is totally normal. Just ask the coach what their grip policy is. Some coaches want them in the grips to "convert". Some let them wear them half the time. Some let them save them for the future.

There is a 99.9% chance that she will need the grips sooner or later.

My daughter won L8 regionals without grips. This was not a good move as it took us a while to get her in them after that.

 

[raenndrops]

My 8 year old level 4 had her kip before she got grips. She got it about a month before grips. Now that she has grips, she can’t do her kip anymore. She blames the grips but she won’t tell the coach. She is very shy. Should I wait it out or email the coach to see if she can do bars without grips? By the way, she homeschools so she is in the gym 20 hours a week starting in the next couple of weeks.

There is a learning curve to doing bars with grips. I took OG 2 months to get her kip back solidly once she started using grips. I would wait it out a little longer.

 

[Carabistouille]

Grips take some time to get used to, it is perfectly normal.

The only thing you should be careful of is that your daughter does not become convinced that she can't do bars with grips on, so that it does not become a mental thing.

 

[jamieintexas]

Once my girls put on grips they keep them on unless they aren’t making their kips. Then they make 3 kips a day before they put on their grips.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

It’s so interesting how different gyms decide when girls get grips. Our gym girls don’t get them until after level 4 at the earliest. My daughter is learning giants... still isn’t allowed grips yet. She said they get in trouble if they ask when they are getting them. (Probably because 30+ girls are all not patiently waiting LOL)

 

[cogymmom2dd]

My DD1 hated her grips. She practiced with them and would often ‘forget’ her grips for meets because she felt like she competed better without them. Once she made it to Optionals and started doing giants and pirouettes, they are a necessity for her.

DD2 competed a straight arm kip on the low bar without them last season. This season, she is doing skills on the high bar and got them.There definitely is a learning curve with them. I feel like it’s a mixture of getting the grips broken in because they can be ‘stiff and re-learning a skill with a new piece of equipment. If she only had her kip for a month, it may take awhile before she gets it again but coaches should work with her. My DD has had a kip for over a year and it was still tough for her.

 

[Tmacs]

My daughter struggled for about a month. The coach encouraged her to go back and forth with and without so she wouldn’t get discouraged. She now is used to them and has her pretty kip again. We also just bought DRYbands for under the grips and she tried them Friday and said they were amazing! Might help with comfort.

 

[CoachPow]

Perfectly normal. Better to learn early and "lose" kips than bigger skills. If she keeps working at it, she will have them back in at most a few weeks. Biggest thing is for her to keep her chin up and not give up. In 17 years of doing this, I can only think of a handful of kids that seamlessly converted to grips.

 

[Klaws]

Our kids get them really early - about level 2-3 for both boys and girls. But they don’t have to compete in them or use them full time until about level 4-5. That way they’re comfortable with them. Seems to work well.

 

[Annikins]

I love the 'make 3 kips a day then put grips on' approach. My daughter lost her kip for 6 months after getting grips. I think this approach would have had her get them back much quicker.

 

[GymDadWA]

She is probably having a hard time shifting her grip with the grips on or grabbing the bar too tight because she doesn't have confidence that she can hold on. I'm sure the coaches are aware of the situation and will work with her to get comfortable again.

 

[Ppgmom]

DD started grips in L3. The whole team did Getting grips was a huge deal! They were SO excited. They wore them during certain things. I just asked DD, no one had an issue or went backwards because of them. She finds the question strange. Grips are not allowed to leave the gym except for meets. Forget your grips, you get scratched. No borrowing. Of course girls did forget and their team mates snuck them their grips so they could compete, but they had to hide it.
DD super lucky about her grips. She has to prepare new ones certain way. When she changed gyms the new bar coach thought during her grips was weird, but DD won't budge on it.

 

[Tmacs]

My daughter who had a beautiful straight-arm kip hated them for the first few weeks. Now, she loves them and is back to kipping well. DRYbands under her grips helped!

 

[Fina]

My daughter always complained at the dowel size for her small hands. She felt she could not hold the bar as well. We bought different grips but now that her hands are bigger, no proble.

 

[valval]

I'm a gymnast and when i first got my grips i could barely do anything on bars. But after about a month I got used to them and couldn't imagine doing bars with my bare hands again. Just let her take her time and tell her not be discouraged because once she gets her kip again, it'll feel great