No Grips and No Rips

[lakshmi369]

I am writing to see if anyone else has a DD that does not use grips? My DD is second year L7 and has never desired grips. She actually said she doesnt want grips. I have talked to her coach and the response was that if she can do her skills without grips then there was no reason to get them. She is doing giants, etc... so I am not sure if going into L8 this Spring if I should approach it again or just let it ride? Thoughts?

 

[emacmommy]

I agree with her coach. If she can do her skills without grips than there is no true need for them. Many, many gymnasts and gyms are no grip gymnasts. The time to consider grips are when length and intensity of bar practices start to turn hands to meat (but even then grips aren't always needed as long as proper care is given to the hands and doesn't mind a temporary tape/nylon grip to help friction while hands heal) or when the weight of a gymnast and the aggressiveness of the tap swings start to develop faster than a natural grip of the hand without grips, particularly dowels. The dowel helps just as much the strength of grip of a gymnast as it does as a palm protector. This leads to the opinion of many gyms to introduce dowel grips fairly early because they would rather a gymnast be comfortable with the grips before they are truly needed for intense practices and aggressive swinging, rather than have to go through a frustrating adapting stage.

I encourage the introdcution and "test driving" of grips around the time the girls approach 60 - 80 pounds, are circling (even just back hip circling) fairly aggressively and with proper tight body technique (straight arm, wrist flick, etc), instead of bend the body in half and bent arms to get around. Most of my girls by then have had plenty of rips and have used the temporary tape grips with easy transition. We always experiment during the summer, starting with tap swings, back hip/clear hips, and kips. If the trial period doesn't take and the girls still have big issues with grips then we don't push the issue. I have older and "maturing" girls who refuse to adapt to grips (any kind except tape) and yet they rip and rip and rip and complain about feeling like they are going to peel/ping off the bar. They are growing faster than their hands/grip can keep up with and it is effecting them now. Hopefully lesson learned and we will attack the problem again this summer. One is Level 6 looking to make the hop to Level 7 this summer.

I personally didn't use grips until approximately Level 8 (we didn't have Levels back in my day). I learned my first giants and clear hip to hand, straddle backs, etc. with no grips. Then one summer my coach insisted we all get used to dowels. It was a big ordeal for the whole team to convert. Lots of heated practices and bad moods, but I'm so glad he insisted because I never would have developed the aggressive tap swings needed for Tkachev's, double layout flyaways, and twisting giants. I just wouldn't have been comfortable and would have stayed with average bars. So I am a big believer in dowels, but I also realize that many gymnasts don't need/use them. However take a look at the international gymnasts that don't... they are super small, super fit, and definitely have kept their grip strength up relative to their own body weight.

I hope my opinions help!

 

[lakshmi369]

Thanks that is some great insight. Our DD fits the small and fit gymnast mold for sure but as she grows and advances we will have to see if its time to make the leap to grips.
It is strange though that she almost never rips and is very aggressive on her bars work. Just tough skin I guess??

 

[gymdog]

Some girls do great without them. Most don't, once they hit a certain size and level. You're just not going to see average sized high school aged gymnasts doing the level 10 skills without dowels for the most part. They're generating more force and the dowels help with that. But smaller level 7s, most of them should be able to do it. The main advantage is getting used to dowels sooner. And I find this to be somewhat of a significant advantage, honestly, but when the gymnast and coach intend to make that conversion could be planned any time or if well planned take place over a longer time span and result in very little lost training. My personal preference would be to take some of that effort out of it and have the kids transition earlier.

There have been international gymnasts not using grips. My observation over the last quad is that these are becoming fewer and fewer. Looks to me like most of the Chinese team is in grips now, from what I remember (I don't watch gymnastics all that much, but I seem to recall noticing that). My own take on that would be now that the age limit has been 16 for a full cycle, we are seeing more and more training practices adapted for gymnastics to be able to peak later. If sr int'l competition will be at 16, 17, 18, it makes sense to get you grips at 14 or sooner now. At 16, 17, 18 even if you're pretty small you won't be 13 or 14. Look at Nastia, Chellsie, Beth etc. These are very fit gymnasts (and good at bars), but there's virtually no way you're going to be an 80 lb 19 or 20 year old, especially carrying all that muscle.

Also, as far as the rip thing, grips can help that but some people are prone to ripping and some people aren't. I got some rips in L7 when I started swinging, and after that I didn't rip once. It's been years since I've had a rip. I get up and play around swinging on men's high bar without grips and I don't get close to ripping. I don't do anything to take care of my hands, and I do a lot of the "nos" I've seen like putting lotion on (I hate the feeling of chalk soooo much). Some people wear grips from L5 on and continued to rip all through high school weekly, wrist rip problems, etc. I think a lot of times that variable can be pretty related to skin type. I have pretty dry skin on my palms. Grips don't really make a difference for me when it comes to ripping or any other hand problems.

 

[CoachTodd]

I know some former Olympic gymnasts that never used grips. My daughter also got through level 8 without wearing grips until she when to a meet that I couldn't get all of the chalk off of the bars for her. I think it's really a personal preference of the gymnast.

 

[minfriendz]

I never used grips until I started doing giants because my hands are too small that the timing for the shift was off. But I hated using grips because I would peel off the bars. It took me a long time to get used to using grips and breaking them in. They do, however, help with catching releases.

 

[gymbaby12]

i need to use grips. I'm only level 4 USAG but I rip if I do one tap swing and they help prevent them.

 

[hunde2]

My daughter never used grips until she competed level 9.She did great.The only problem I saw with that was that the bars had to be prepaired a different way and was time consuming when she was in the same rotation with gymnasts that wore grips.
I also think it helps hanging on to the bars when doing release moves in the higher Levels.

 

[hunde2]

She hasn't had a rip in the palms of her hands in a while but was practicing endos and had rips on her thumbs because it was a new skill and once she will get calluses she will not rip anymore.