mats ON the beam?

[canadiangymnast_eh]

Just curious, but how common is it to use mats on the beam? do you/your gymnasts use mats on the beam? if not, why not? What skills do they use it on? do they become attached to it when they cant use it at competition? what type of mat do they use?

We are allowed to use mats at our gym. most of our beams are SA so they are very hard compared to AAI beams. Some of my team mates use them for every skill! Most of us that use them have our own yoga mat, but I wish we had the green gymnova mats. I only use it on skills such as back tuck, side somi, front tuck, and now that I am starting backspring chest roll. I only use it to save my feet and I am one of the few people in my gym that is not dependent on it. I use it every turn, even warm up at competition then go without it when I actually compete.

Also, does anyone know the approximate cost of one of the green, multipurpose gymnova beam mats? My coach said if we paid for the cost, she would order one the next time she put's in an equipment order. I'm considering it since yoga mats can be slippery at times. especially on skills like side somi.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yes! mats are common. they save the feet. it's a good practice.

 

[marie83]

The green gymnova mats cost approx £155 (GBP)
They do specific beam mats which velcro around the beam for £66.00 - quite a saving!

We have 1 'pad' which we use on our beams. Our gymnasts are allowed to use it when they are beginning to learn a skill - we only have high beams, so our general practice is to stack mats underneath, right to the top, then put the pad on as well. Once all the mats have been removed from underneath the beam, the gymnasts have to put them all back in, but take the pad off and start again until there are no mats left underneath the beam. When they 'have' the skill, they usually do one or two warm ups on the pad every session until they are 100% confident in the skill. After that it is rare to see them performing a skill on the pad.
However, at our gym, the most difficult skill the girls are performing as bhs at the moment so there isn't really a lot of 'pounding' to worry about!
I have a gymnast who is almost ready to begin learning tuck backs on beam so I think we will be using the pad more and more for them!

 

[gymnastbeth]

We use sting mats on the low beam when JUST starting to learn a skill. When the skill becomes easier, we put bath mats on the beams. It seems to be more of a confidence thing for some people, especially girls just learning BHS's. They like to know that the beam is a little softer.

The bath mats work out pretty well for us.

 

[kimskids]

I have never seen the girls at our gym use mats on the beam.....we do have low beams, the one that sits on the floor and the one that looks more like a line on the floor that is just a little raised. My daughter who just started level 5 started on the floor one working on her back handspring and worked for quite a while on that one. Then they moved to the one that sits about a foot or so off the ground. After they did OK on that they moved over to the low beam with a spotter. I have seen them occasionally pull thick mats up to the high beam so girls could get a feel for the height but not be so scared to fall off during the harder skills. I have never seen mats actually on the beam itself though. Sounds like a good idea!

 

[marie83]

The bath mats work out pretty well for us.

When you say bath mats, do you mean the rubber ones with suckers on or carpet style ones that go on the bathroom floor - I'm thinking the carpet ones sound like quite a good idea!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

both work quite well.

 

[gymnastbeth]

When you say bath mats, do you mean the rubber ones with suckers on or carpet style ones that go on the bathroom floor - I'm thinking the carpet ones sound like quite a good idea!

We use the carpet ones, with the non-slide rubber on the bottom. They are great!

 

[marie83]

excellent, thanks! We have plenty of those in our pre-school cupboard! Never thought of using them before!

 

[cher062]

Yes I've always seen it especiallyl learning upper level skills or practicing upper level skills. When they get closeer to the meet season the sting mats disapear.