Parents "Protective" gear

[flipping_girls]

This is all wonderful information. Curious Is there an option for some sort of protective gear for the thumb in addition to the wrist? I haven't found anything that could be worn during practice.

 

[gymgal]

Yes, 100%. Levels 3-5 should not routinely need tiger paws. Great post!

Maybe not NEED them but having gone through all the levels now, I don't see the harm in wearing them early. They eventually are going to need them anyway (well, 75%+ will). I find this to be like the bar grip debate - do you wait until after they get their kip, their HS, their giants? Or start them off right away with them so they always learn with them on.

I will say this, if my dd had the been wearing tiger paws, she would not have broken her wrist in the first place. I know that is not true of all cases, but it was for her. And she was just a little rookie (equiv of old L3/4) at the time. After the fracture, I really struggled with not wanting her to rely on braces or taping, trying to get her off of the "crutch" as quickly as possible, to make her rebuild the wrist strength but looking back, it was a stupid debate I had with myself and the drs/coaches. So she needed supports? so what? Did it hinder her performance? no. If anything it kept her in the sport far longer than she would have been able to handle it with the wrist pain.

 

[LGnyc]

Maybe not NEED them but having gone through all the levels now, I don't see the harm in wearing them early. They eventually are going to need them anyway (well, 75%+ will). I find this to be like the bar grip debate - do you wait until after they get their kip, their HS, their giants? Or start them off right away with them so they always learn with them on.

I will say this, if my dd had the been wearing tiger paws, she would not have broken her wrist in the first place. I know that is not true of all cases, but it was for her. And she was just a little rookie (equiv of old L3/4) at the time. After the fracture, I really struggled with not wanting her to rely on braces or taping, trying to get her off of the "crutch" as quickly as possible, to make her rebuild the wrist strength but looking back, it was a stupid debate I had with myself and the drs/coaches. So she needed supports? so what? Did it hinder her performance? no. If anything it kept her in the sport far longer than she would have been able to handle it with the wrist pain.

I'm with you. DD developed mild gymnast wrist at the end of L4. But her coaches told her that supports would make her wrists weaker and she'd be dependent on them. So she never tried tiger paws or any substitutes. What did it matter if she had to use them for the rest of her career? Now she's L7, with significant gymnast wrist. Out for who knows how long. And having to start adapting to supports. It would have been so much better to have used them two years ago and be avoiding this now.

 

[LJL07]

I'm with you. DD developed mild gymnast wrist at the end of L4. But her coaches told her that supports would make her wrists weaker and she'd be dependent on them. So she never tried tiger paws or any substitutes. What did it matter if she had to use them for the rest of her career? Now she's L7, with significant gymnast wrist. Out for who knows how long. And having to start adapting to supports. It would have been so much better to have used them two years ago and be avoiding this now.

That's when I personally would start using them. I meant that if there are no issues, no complaints of pain, and appropriate wrist strengthening exercises are being used then it is not necessary to use tiger paws on levels 3&4. The number of hours in the gym and type of uptraining happening would factor in too. I saw a level 2 wearing them a few years back learning standing back handsprings, and I would be looking into exercises for the wrists before jumping to use tiger paws at that point. On the flip side, our old gym discouraged the use of tiger paws, and one of our level 8's had a stress fracture on the growth plate of her wrist from overuse. She should absolutely have been using tiger paws.

 

[duyetanh]

Was just about to post about this. DD healing from 2nd time wrist sprain. Wants tiger paws. PT and doc say can tape, use a wrist support type thing or tiger paws. Has no pain right now so unsure. She's 10 training lv 7. Hasn't hurt lately but both times was hurt on BHS on beam where you can't even wear tiger paws. So unsure about what to do. She's been taping and that has been fine so far.

You definitely can wear them for beam, there are girls at my girl's gym who do...only a few...but they need them!

 

[LGnyc]

You definitely can wear them for beam, there are girls at my girl's gym who do...only a few...but they need them!

And there are other wrist supports for beam that I have read about here, like Skids. These don't cover the hand at all.

 

[Mommyo2az]

Most likely, one girl NEEDED a brace, then all of a sudden, half the gym was in braces. STILL a crazy requirement.

Funny I just thought of this thread as I took my DD to her PT. Ankle was hurting, turned out it was sprained. DD brought a note to gym requiring ankle taping for 2 weeks.

 

[raenndrops]

Funny I just thought of this thread as I took my DD to her PT. Ankle was hurting, turned out it was sprained. DD brought a note to gym requiring ankle taping for 2 weeks.

Lol, OG does ankle strengthing exercises, but her ankles are small compared to her like sized (and even smaller) friends. She has the smallest ankles of them all - if they were long enough, she could wear toddler socks (we cut the toes out of a pair- it already had a hole- and the ankle part fit her fine... not tight at all). Because of this, she has weak ankles. She has 2 ankle braces and wears 1 for floor tumbling always - no option in the matter. She has a "history of sprains" - most not from gymnastics, but from clumsiness and she is following PT recommendations: exercise it and brace it for tumbling and exercise it and brace it
Her other brace is for when she feels a twinge in the other ankle (which she also exercises).

 

[Gymanna]

Does anyone's child wear tiger paws for on and off wrist ganglion issues in pre-teen gymnast? My DD is L4 equiv so not training those bigger skills.

 

[Ms.Pak-Man]

One of the best gymnastics PTs was just published. It's a case study on wrist pain in a gymnast that was treated with only physical therapy exercises designed for gymnasts: Link Removed.

I read it today and it's got some great info in there .

It's a great example of treating the root cause of the pain, instead of resorting to bracing. Tiger Paws cannot fix poor movement patterns, they just allow a continuation by making the wrists withstand more loading without symptoms of the underlying issues.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

One case study on one patient. Of course at the time of injury it needs to be addressed. Of course conditioning and strength exercise help.

And we don't really know if this patient is also or will be wearing wrist supports now or at some point in time.

And more importantly would the injury that needed PT even have happened if the patient had been wearing wrist support?

We all make the best decision we can for our kids and our family.

My thought process is simple. My kid's life expectancy is hopefully into her 80's and beyond. Her gymnastics career will max out at the longest what early 20s, likely before that.

And when I look at upper level college, Olympic level gymnasts. It is rare to see one who wears no wrist support at all.

Something that will provide additional support for a body part that she'll have well into her 80s. Yep we are using it. One injury was enough, thanks.

No one bats an eye at grips, and they are technically not necessary.

Sports evolve as does the equipment and support items used.

There was a time when wearing a helmet in hockey was a sign of just not being tough enough. Football pads and head gear have gotten much improved with time. NASCAR drivers safety equipment very different today then years ago.

Every ones opinions duly noted and I'm good with tiger paws for my gymmie.
Some one else might do it different for their gymmie but I'm comfortable with our choice.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I really struggled with not wanting her to rely on braces or taping, trying to get her off of the "crutch" as quickly as possible, to make her rebuild the wrist strength but looking back, it was a stupid debate I had with myself and the drs/coaches. So she needed supports? so what? Did it hinder her performance? no. If anything it kept her in the sport far longer than she would have been able to handle it with the wrist pain.

This

 

[profmom]

I will say it again. For lower level gymnasts who haven't reached puberty, bracing should not be necessary for them to continue in the sport. If you're seeing a lot of wrist problems with L4 and L5 kids (boys or girls) on your team and everyone's taped and braced up, the program probably needs to add wrist strengthening and prehab, and to do some reassessment of the repetitive drills that are particularly hard on the wrists.

If half the L5 team was out with stress reactions and back fractures, would you all be saying, "gee, I wish I'd started doing a lot more KT tape on her back when she was a L3!"?