Pits at your gym?

[gymluvr33]

This is in response to another post about whether having pits affects your ability to do gymnastics at a high level. The poll is basically whether your gym has a pit or not. Feel free to expand below (like whether you didn't have a pit but now you do, or whatever else you want to post )

 

[gymnastbeth]

We have one small loose foam pit at the end of the vault runway, and a larger one at the end of the rod floor. Then we have a resi at the end of the tumble track, and another under one set of bars.

Our gym has a REALLY old, hard floor, and tumbling too much on it is bad for your limbs. Having a good rod floor, pit, and tumble track is a necessity. Without them, nobody could go past level 7, because of the floor.

As a side note, the hard floor does come in handy. The floors at meets always seem super bouncy!

 

[marie83]

we have this type of pit Link Removed

It's only small, but we manage to have part of our floor going into it - so that it is like having a tumble track attached to our floor, our vault, bars and tramp also go into it.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

We have 2 pits. One off the end of the tumbletrac that also doubles as the pit for the pit bar. We then have one at the end of the trampoline that doubles for vault and also the rings hang above it.

 

[Sunobo]

Dd's gym has one above ground pit at the end of the tumble trak. There is also some room off the side of the tumble trak that they can tumble into. For things like bar dismounts, they use the belt.

 

[Bella's Mom]

We have one big pit. The vault, one set of bars, and the tumble track all feed into it.

And it's still a gross gross concept.....

 

[All Chalked Up]

One rod floor strip + 2 DEAD (and I mean DEAD!) strips = our floor. It's 11 x 20 or something- our gym is something like 40 x 50. No tumble track, pit or fancy equipment for us! I do adore our gym though- the hard work makes up for it all in the end!

 

[GymSurvivor]

We have 2 in ground loose foam pits. One at the end of the vault runway and one that a pit bar is over. Neither is huge, but big enough.
We have an in ground resi pit that we have floor that you can tumble into (Like Spring floor)
And a couple above ground resi pits. One at the end of the tumble track and another random one that is often used for level 4 vault.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

No pits at our gym, but have a tumble track ( no mat at the end though, we stay on the tumbletrack when we tumble). I feel like it has held me back a little, but not too much. We have opportunities to go to another gym with a pit as there are many around us. I am about USAG L7/8 (Level 8 except bars which is about 7).

 

[gymluvr33]

I figured I should probably answer, too Our gym does not have a pit, but the optional girls go twice a month to a gym 30-45 minutes away so we can use their pit. They have a vault, single rail, and tumble trak that go into the pit.

Marie - That looks so cool! Do you like the pit?

 

[marie83]

Marie - That looks so cool! Do you like the pit?

It's brill. I guess it is like one big resi/porta pit. A big soft memory foam mattress.
The main advantages to a loose foam pit are that a) there is no drop from the apparatus to the pit, its like landing on the floor. b) No nasties can get into the pit, so much easier to clean! c) you can actually tumble on the pit so the younger girls have felt safe to go for their tumbles unsupported much earlier than they usually would! d) It's a lot cheaper!
Disadvantages would be that you aren't supposed to run or jump on it so no pit games! You also have to have mats on top of the pit to save the pit from wear and tear - these come at an added cost of course!
However, I'd say the advantages have far outweighed the disadvantages so far!

 

[canadiangymnast_eh]

we have 2 pits at our gym. one is under the bars with only a small amount of foam with a resi pit under the foam. we have a single bar, uneven bar "set" with a stack of mats as the low bar for learning high to lows, and a set of rings that go into it. we change out the single bar for the mens high bar too. Our other pit is much larger and we have the vaults, double mini, tumble track and edge of the floor that we tumble off of sometimes. We also have a rod floor that goes onto a big piece of foam so it is a lot like a resi pit. Sometimes we have also put beams at the edge of the floor when learning dismounts. So we have some way to use the pit on almost every event.