H
Harv
We all know that any sport worth its salt carries the risk of injury, and gymnastics is certainly no exception.
In the mere 6 months that I've been observing my boy's workouts, I've been impressed with how few injuries really occur. With all the dozens of kids out there for hours on end, day after day, week after week, I find it truly remarkable that most of the owies and boo-boos are mostly limited to blisters, strained ankles, and bruised bottoms. Kudos to the coaches and staff for their emphasis on safety.
I've also witnessed the coolness of the veteran gymnastics parents who observe their children's mishaps with an experienced eye. They seem to be able to tell from a distance whether there's really cause for concern or it's just one of those character-building incidents. [Note: I am not referring to that callous SOB from another thread who sat and watched his daughter literally crawl to him from the floor exercise. ]
So far, I've witnessed only 3 episodes that had me a little concerned. The first one involved one of the level 9 girls who was practicing a vault she had performed many times. Somehow she got her feet tangled up on the approach and wound up running headlong into the vault table. She was clearly dazed (and embarrassed), but her mom, who was standing right next to me just said, "She's not hurt, just mad. Watch what she does now." And indeed, the girl was already making another run at it with a certain fierceness that produced an above average vault.
The second one impressed me by the extremely fine reactions of the coaches and staff. One of the higher-level boys, also on a vault, had a problem on top of the table (looked to me like his hand slipped). He came up short on the (second?) tuck and wound up landing literally on his face. Thankfully it was onto a thick pad on top of the foam pit. He was a little slow to get up, but otherwise appeared to be okay. However, the first words out of his mouth were, "My neck kinda hurts."
That started a flurry of action, the likes of which I'd never witnessed before. Several coaches converged and whisked him (gently) off to the side and laid him down. Within what seemed to be only minutes, the paramedics were there and I overheard one of them say, "Good call". They strapped him to a gurney with his head immobilized, and off he went to the nearby hospital for a serious checkup. Before the end of the workout we got word back that he was fine, although the doctors advised him to "stay off his face" for a couple of weeks.
I guess you don't mess around with possible neck injuries.
The latest one was so minor, it barely raised an eyebrow from anybody in the gym, but this time it was my kid, and my eyebrows went high enough for everybody. The coach decided that it's time for my level 4 guy to add the handstand to his p-bars routine. This was near the end of a pretty strenuous 3-hour workout, and his arms were already pretty shot. You can see from Link Removed how it turned out. He said he could feel his left arm starting to buckle, and when he tried to correct, well, the video says it all. Nothing but bruises and damaged pride. Took me a couple of minutes to get my heart started again, but I survived, too. 5 minutes later he tried again, without mishap.
I've heard of much more serious episodes, but these are the only ones I've seen with my own eyes. Do you folks ever really get used to watching them crash and burn?
- Harv
In the mere 6 months that I've been observing my boy's workouts, I've been impressed with how few injuries really occur. With all the dozens of kids out there for hours on end, day after day, week after week, I find it truly remarkable that most of the owies and boo-boos are mostly limited to blisters, strained ankles, and bruised bottoms. Kudos to the coaches and staff for their emphasis on safety.
I've also witnessed the coolness of the veteran gymnastics parents who observe their children's mishaps with an experienced eye. They seem to be able to tell from a distance whether there's really cause for concern or it's just one of those character-building incidents. [Note: I am not referring to that callous SOB from another thread who sat and watched his daughter literally crawl to him from the floor exercise. ]
So far, I've witnessed only 3 episodes that had me a little concerned. The first one involved one of the level 9 girls who was practicing a vault she had performed many times. Somehow she got her feet tangled up on the approach and wound up running headlong into the vault table. She was clearly dazed (and embarrassed), but her mom, who was standing right next to me just said, "She's not hurt, just mad. Watch what she does now." And indeed, the girl was already making another run at it with a certain fierceness that produced an above average vault.
The second one impressed me by the extremely fine reactions of the coaches and staff. One of the higher-level boys, also on a vault, had a problem on top of the table (looked to me like his hand slipped). He came up short on the (second?) tuck and wound up landing literally on his face. Thankfully it was onto a thick pad on top of the foam pit. He was a little slow to get up, but otherwise appeared to be okay. However, the first words out of his mouth were, "My neck kinda hurts."
That started a flurry of action, the likes of which I'd never witnessed before. Several coaches converged and whisked him (gently) off to the side and laid him down. Within what seemed to be only minutes, the paramedics were there and I overheard one of them say, "Good call". They strapped him to a gurney with his head immobilized, and off he went to the nearby hospital for a serious checkup. Before the end of the workout we got word back that he was fine, although the doctors advised him to "stay off his face" for a couple of weeks.
I guess you don't mess around with possible neck injuries.
The latest one was so minor, it barely raised an eyebrow from anybody in the gym, but this time it was my kid, and my eyebrows went high enough for everybody. The coach decided that it's time for my level 4 guy to add the handstand to his p-bars routine. This was near the end of a pretty strenuous 3-hour workout, and his arms were already pretty shot. You can see from Link Removed how it turned out. He said he could feel his left arm starting to buckle, and when he tried to correct, well, the video says it all. Nothing but bruises and damaged pride. Took me a couple of minutes to get my heart started again, but I survived, too. 5 minutes later he tried again, without mishap.
I've heard of much more serious episodes, but these are the only ones I've seen with my own eyes. Do you folks ever really get used to watching them crash and burn?
- Harv
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