Women Other dangers from trampoline parks

[aerialriver]

Besides the obvious of breaking your bones or getting paralyzed I have discovered a new danger of trampoline parks. Every day now I have a team gymnast say "Look what I can do now!" I'm like "OMG that was terrible! What was that? Where did you learn that????" of course the answer is the trampoline park. If I have to see one more "layout" that is a sloppy head thrown back high back hand spring gone wrong I'm going to puke. The problem is the kid is totally convinced they can now do really neat tricks and worse practice ones they are working on at the gym there and bring back a sloppy mess for me to fix only for them to go again on the weekend and mess it up again.

Then there are the rec. kids who can't do backward rolls who now can do a "backflip" "OMG coach Aerial watch what I learned at XYZ death trampoline park this weekend! As Dunno would say YIKES! Speaking of which he hasn't be around in a while.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there any way to convince these kids that it is not a good idea and hurts their form? They are kids so the are headstrong that what they are doing is amazing and get mad at me when we have to go back to the very simple basics to fix the problems they created. Any advice would be great!

 

[Gymsanity]

I don't condone home tramps or tramp parks, but I also don't deny their existence and the fact that millions of kids use them. My philosophy differs from most coaches, in that I don't believe you can fix a skill if they don't have it. So if they learn something new on their own or from another gym, I don't really mind if it's froggy or not technically correct. I don't seem to have as much of a problem as some with fixing that sort of stuff, so in a way I feel it actually puts me ahead of the game. But no, in a perfect world they would learn with proper supervision.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Besides the obvious of breaking your bones or getting paralyzed I have discovered a new danger of trampoline parks. Every day now I have a team gymnast say "Look what I can do now!" I'm like "OMG that was terrible! What was that? Where did you learn that????" of course the answer is the trampoline park. If I have to see one more "layout" that is a sloppy head thrown back high back hand spring gone wrong I'm going to puke. The problem is the kid is totally convinced they can now do really neat tricks and worse practice ones they are working on at the gym there and bring back a sloppy mess for me to fix only for them to go again on the weekend and mess it up again.

Then there are the rec. kids who can't do backward rolls who now can do a "backflip" "OMG coach Aerial watch what I learned at XYZ death trampoline park this weekend! As Dunno would say YIKES! Speaking of which he hasn't be around in a while.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there any way to convince these kids that it is not a good idea and hurts their form? They are kids so the are headstrong that what they are doing is amazing and get mad at me when we have to go back to the very simple basics to fix the problems they created. Any advice would be great!

thank you, Aerial. i'm around.

 

[Gymnastisism]

I've wanted to go to a trampoline park for ages! I would have to go during the day time when there is not a bazillion children flinging themselves around. I think kids want to show off their skills in front of other kids. I've seen videos on youtube of older teenage boys who either break dance or parkour, 'tricking' as they call it. i'e trying to throw triple twisting double backflips while there's small children running around.

I think it's important to emphasise that no gymnast (or anyone) should attempt new skills on their own without the supervision of a qualified coach, not at home, not off the diving board, not at a trampoline park. Emphasise that gymnastics is for the gym.

 

[Faith]

It's a problem here in the UK (IMO!) as everyone now has a backyard tramp. They're not even what I call tramps, they're basically rebounders. SO even if a kid has a lovely BT in the gym, the only way they can physically get round on a backyard tramp is to fling themselves, as they can't get the height.

There was a super talented girl we knew. Her parents were pretty much told to get rid of the backyard tramp for the reasons you say. The parents thought they were getting ahead of the game buying one- kid was practicing daily, getting very confident with skills, and teaching herself all sorts. The gym were spending all their time fixing BHS and single salto's, kid was going home and undoing it all, and trying to teach herself doubles. Parents couldn't understand why the gym wouldn't let her do her doubles and twists, and were making her do drills and basics!

Another reason my kids aren't allowed a BY tramp...

 

[my4buffaloes]

I work at our local middle school. They opened a trampoline park near us last year. The number of casts has increased tremendously and 9 times out of 10 when you ask what happened it starts with "well I was at XYZ trampoline park and …" I limit my kids from going there as much as possible.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

and there will be several more deaths before they become extinct again.

 

[Tumbellina82]

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is there any way to convince these kids that it is not a good idea and hurts their form? They are kids so the are headstrong that what they are doing is amazing and get mad at me when we have to go back to the very simple basics to fix the problems they created. Any advice would be great!

Ah yes. The garden trampoline is the bane of many trampolining coach's lives. I wish I did have a solution but unfortunately not. I have had very occassional successess in convincing kids that what they've learned on garden trampolines in not OK and they need to get the basics right first, or in convincing parents that they shouldn't let their kid attempt to somersault on garden trampolines, but for the most part it seems an intractable problem.

I'll relate the few successess I have. I don't think they'll be universally applicable but they may be in some cases.

In one instance a kid did a really terrible front "flip" when his mother was present. She couldn't see the problem with it and said that he had done that lots of times without hurting himself. It was completely whipped and his head came within about 10cm of the bed so I told her that it was a near miss and if he continued doing that there was a good chance he'd eventually break his neck. The reason she took me seriously was my sharp intake of breath and look of alarm when he actually threw it.

I spent weeks trying to get a kid to work on his front drops (starting from hands and knees which he was also diving forwards) when he was convinced he could front somersault. He was always asking why I wouldn't let him and I was trying to be reasonably diplomatic, telling him he needed to work on the basics first to improve his control so that he could learn to somersault properly and safely. Eventually his persistence in constantly asking why he wasn't allowed to somersault irritated me into losing patience and I told him flat out that his attempt at somersault was really, really bad. I pointed out to him one of the other kids who had recently learned front somersault and how his nice lifted front-drop had helped him to do that. From then on he started to focus on what he was doing and made striking and rapid improvements.

Telling childen their attempts at skills are terrible is not something I'm recommending as a universal panacea for this problem and even though it worked in that instance I still feel a bit embarassed at having done it. As a coach I try to use positive langauge and feel that cutting children down is generally unprofessional. However, that incident does show the risk that by couching our words in more positive terms to try to be nice there's a risk of not being sufficiently direct to be understood. Quite how you strike the balance is another matter.

When it is more of an issue of form rather than risk of serious injury or something that is so far off in terms of technique it doesn't really qualify at all it gets even harder. I've tried suggesting things they could do instead at home, e.g. practise straight front drops rather than doing front somersaults, but not with any great success. I've found it helps to hold out the potential prize, e.g. do this to fix the front somersault so then they can learn to barani, but children do find it difficult to make the connection.

Maybe taking video and showing it back to them would help, perhaps with some competition footage for comparison purposes. Or perhaps you could use those YouTube videos and compare them to competition footage to show how different they are so that you don't actually have to sanction their making an attempt so you can film it.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

George Nissen is convulsing in his grave.

 

[profmom]

Glad you didn't say "flipping," Dunno!

Why just yesterday, the very proud mom of one of our L4 boys posted a video of her son at a park doing a . . . barani? Arabian? . . . thing. The worst thing about it is that now all the crazy parents with boys in that group will drag THEIR boys to the park so that THEY can do it TOO. The only hope is that proud mom shows the video to his coach, who will, um, let her know that this is not OK.

 

[Bajanswife]

I had issues with DD doing all sorts of stuff outside the gym, but doing it in a sloppy, lazy way. I felt like she was doing things wrong more than she was doing them right (bent legs, banana back etc.) and that was negatively affecting her progress in the gym. I'm talking about simple handstands, back walkovers etc. She and her best friend used to have handstand contests, and they would do anything to keep their legs up, resulting in some really awful form! I couldn't control this, because I couldn't be with her all the time.

Interestingly, the one time we tried a trampoline park my DD didn't really like it. I was expecting her to do all sorts of tumbling on the tumble tracks, but she didn't feel safe. There were too many kids running onto the tracks all the time - she was really afraid she'd crash into one. In the end she didn't even jump that much, and went to play arcade games before her jump time was up.

 

[Sari]

Oops, I have a backyard trampoline. Better burn it!

But seriously, I've had kids in rec classes wanting to chuck back handsprings because they had done them on a trampoline. Not a pretty sight. So I understand the hate they get, but still... they're so much fun, haha.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

How is a coach telling parents, "no trampoline parks or backyard trampolines" not enough for parents? I still don't get how some parents still allow their gymnasts to use these. Put it in the contract/handbook and have punitive action for those that don't comply I guess. Although that way mom will be telling Suzy not to tell the coach you were at the trampoline park.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Oops, I have a backyard trampoline. Better burn it!

But seriously, I've had kids in rec classes wanting to chuck back handsprings because they had done them on a trampoline. Not a pretty sight. So I understand the hate they get, but still... they're so much fun, haha.

yes, it is fun until you attend a funeral or a spinal cord wing of a hospital for someone injured or killed on a backyard trampoline or trampoline park.