Coaches Rules for Bar Chalking

[gymjunkie]

What rules do you have at your gym? We currently don't have any, but need some. The problem started this summer when we inherited kids from another gym who were used to chalkier bars. The optionals went back and forth between sanding and chalking the bars. We now have kids slipping and peeling when we never did before. As a result we also have fear issues we didn't used to have. What do you do when you have kids who need the exact opposite bar "chalkiness" trying to work together on the same sets of bars?

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Here is a suggestion. Chalk the bars at the start of each rotation, anyone that doesn't like it can go sit down and call mom and dad. By the end of the rotation the bars will be pretty much chalk free, anyone who doesn't like it can go sit down and call mom and dad.... They should have the hand strength and ability to swing on either and everything between. (again, not talking about completely stripped down bars, I think a little chalk is necessary).

 

[Deleted member D3987]

bwahahahahahaha ^^^^^^^^^^^ good one coachp. and then make them go climb rope with a bit of wd40 on their hands. hahahaha.

 

[Rocket]

You have to ask yourself, what happens when you get to a meet and don't like the chalk? Gymnasts need to adapt, beams don't have the same feel, bars don't have the same chalk, tables have different covers, floors have different bounce, or carpet. You have to be able to workout, practice and compete in a variety of conditions. I have to wonder if you went to Olympic games and did not like the bars would you wine or get up and compete.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

You have to ask yourself, what happens when you get to a meet and don't like the chalk? Gymnasts need to adapt, beams don't have the same feel, bars don't have the same chalk, tables have different covers, floors have different bounce, or carpet. You have to be able to workout, practice and compete in a variety of conditions. I have to wonder if you went to Olympic games and did not like the bars would you wine or get up and compete.

well, at least on the women's side, Marta would put you on one of their donkeys and tell you to gitty up and ride back home if you even breathed of what you mention above. and i suppose if the donkeys weren't available, then maybe you would be riding home on one of the other animals they have on the property. lol.

 

[txgymfan]

Dunno, Marta sounds like one of the most intimidating women on the planet. She gets results but it must take a really tough kid/young woman to see her year after year at camps.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

well, at least on the women's side, Marta would put you on one of their donkeys and tell you to gitty up and ride back home if you even breathed of what you mention above. and i suppose if the donkeys weren't available, then maybe you would be riding home on one of the other animals they have on the property. lol.

===
I think the peacocks would be hard to ride.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Our chalk rules

1. Don't eat it
2. You don't need to chalk yourself all the way up to your arm pits.
3. If you make a mess you know where the vacuum cleaner, brooms, dustpans and sponges are.
4. I have no idea how the jelly beam got in the chalk but don't eat that either
5. It's not a sand pit, if you are in the chalk bowl for longer than 10 minutes at a time then it counts as playing.

 

[gymjunkie]

So here is the problem I am having with the strategies above: right after I finish telling them that they have to be willing to work on less than perfectly chalked bars since you never know what you are going to get at a meet, the kid who wasn't even complaining gets up and peels off the bar. We never had a peeling problem before. The peeling started when the new kids started adding chalk. I no longer know what the right range of chalkiness is because what makes one kid slip is perfect for the next. How do I get them better at gripping when the bars feel slippery to them? We never had this problem before, so I really don't know what to do. It's not affecting each and every kid, but it is affecting about half of them. I am starting to dread the bar rotation.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Dunno, Marta sounds like one of the most intimidating women on the planet. She gets results but it must take a really tough kid/young woman to see her year after year at camps.

not really. Marta is just all business and all Team USA. it takes a tough kid to do the gymnastics that is being expected. and i suppose going in to the forest where there are lions...and tigers...and bears...oh my! is also a sacrifice.

Marta is an excellent leader and task master. as i've stated before, she gets a bad rap for no reason sometimes.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

So here is the problem I am having with the strategies above: right after I finish telling them that they have to be willing to work on less than perfectly chalked bars since you never know what you are going to get at a meet, the kid who wasn't even complaining gets up and peels off the bar. We never had a peeling problem before. The peeling started when the new kids started adding chalk. I no longer know what the right range of chalkiness is because what makes one kid slip is perfect for the next. How do I get them better at gripping when the bars feel slippery to them? We never had this problem before, so I really don't know what to do. It's not affecting each and every kid, but it is affecting about half of them. I am starting to dread the bar rotation.

okay. help me out here to help you out. you had a group of kids already at your place. and did these kids where grips? or do they go bare handed?? what kind of chalk??? (Taiwan, Chinese, what?) and do they use water????

then you have kids coming from another program. what about them? grips? barehanded?? water???

are YOU new to this gym? what climate are you in? like, where are you??

do you see any 'black' on the rails where the kids put their hands?

 

[GymMom&Coach]

I am the only person who can chalk the bar. I have some that like more and some who like little. So I mildly chalk it up and tell them to get in order of chalk lovers in front, chalk haters in back. If they dont have their act together by the time im done chalking, they have to deal with it! Im with the others. Every gym has different rules, will chalk differently, and have completely different equipment. I like to mix it up every once in a while and have my girls do and use the complete opposite of that they prefer. I know who likes what beams, so I make them spend the whole beam time on that one beam, no one likes They get the hint, and have stopped fussing when I tell them what equipment to use

 

[Gymsanity]

Don't want to over simplify a problem, but I have my girls that like lots of chalk on the bar catch where everyone else does. The girls that like less, catch in between the other hand prints on the bar where there is less chalk. If they are going to blind, they start in a place where they end up with the amount of chalk they feel like they need. That way there are very few bars we ever come across that we can't make work.

 

[gymjunkie]

okay. help me out here to help you out. you had a group of kids already at your place. and did these kids where grips? or do they go bare handed?? what kind of chalk??? (Taiwan, Chinese, what?) and do they use water????

then you have kids coming from another program. what about them? grips? barehanded?? water???

are YOU new to this gym? what climate are you in? like, where are you??

do you see any 'black' on the rails where the kids put their hands?

Thanks everyone for sharing how your gym handles bar chalking! To answer Dunno's questions: We live in a dry climate, and I am not new to this gym. Both the old kids and the new kids wear grips. The grip wearers are the ones who are slipping or complaining of slippery bars. There is no black on the rails. The kids spray their grips with water and apply chalk with a solid block of bar chalk.

There is another factor that I should've mentioned: we recently graduated a bunch of older optionals who chalked the bars to their liking, the coaches never did. I suppose this is the heart of the problem, we gave up control of bar maintenance a few years ago and need to take it back over. I'm not sure where to begin since we now have so many different preferences. One recent Saturday, the optionals who have been slipping spent half the workout trying to get the chalk just right so that everyone was happy, it didn't happen. Everyone was happy not too long ago so it seemed possible, but not any longer! We now have a group of kids who have extreme opposite chalk preferences and it is creating slipping and fear issues. Some of them can go grip-less on days they feel the bars are slippery, others are even more scared without grips. The fear issues are most concerning, because they are often self-fulfilling!

 

[aileenmaryf]

Don't want to over simplify a problem, but I have my girls that like lots of chalk on the bar catch where everyone else does. The girls that like less, catch in between the other hand prints on the bar where there is less chalk.

I agree with this. Chalk the bar in two areas a little more than hand-width apart. In my old gym, we didn't have to chalk the bars, it just naturally kind of happened, but this way if people don't want chalk, they can just swing on a portion that doesn't have as much chalk. Plus I personally think the bar should be more chalky rather than not chalky enough. Unless a bar is caked in chalk, its a lot harder to slip off.

 

[CoachTodd]

My daughter practiced her entire routine on the edge of the bars with no chalk and water on her bare hands. I put chalk on the bar for those that wanted/needed it and worked with them while the rest of the group did pit bar or drill. I wiped the chalk off the bars and worked with the other group while the previous group did drills.
I have also worked with groups on entirely different bar settings due to height differences. Same deal as above. Usually the little ones didn't use much chalk and the bigger ones were the add more chalk group. Most of them just made sure they had enough on their grips. If the bars weren't completely clean, it really didn't matter.

As far as the comparison of how the bars are at meets, I make them how the person competing wants them to be. If they want them coated in white slime (my bare handed daughter again), I coat them in white slim.
Make a lot more work for the coach but I'm here for the kids.