WAG Safe practice ??

[amberlyn737]

Is it considered safe practice for a gym to have young girls climb the rope, hang from 30 ft rafters, do pull-ups and then drop down into the pit below (while another girl is down in the pit”. Seems like unnecessary risk to me but the gym says it’s normal.
Is there some kind of guideline for what is and isn’t safe?

 

[gymgal]

seems unsafe to me but I have never like the gymnasts climbing the ropes. At least yours is over a pit though

 

[JBS]

Is there some kind of guideline for what is and isn’t safe?

What you typed would not be considered safe.

 

[amberlyn737]

What you typed would not be considered safe.

Is there anything I could cite to the gym or someone who I could get to vouch for this? I thought it was common sense. I know they take a USAG safety course but I’m not sure if this would specifically be covered.

 

[Coach Kate]

It should be common sense. I don't think any of the usag materials would specifically cover this. We stopped even having our girls climb all the way up the rope because it just seemed liked an unnecessary risk.

 

[GymnastPotterhead]

I feel like doing rope 2x halfway would also be as effective as doing 1x to the top. Pull ups that high is definitely weird and sounds unsafe, you could just use a high bar (thats what we and probably everyone else does). Also we would never jump into the pit when theres another girl in there - too unsafe

 

[Coach Kate]

Now I'm wondering if the Safety and Risk Management Course might have some guidelines to consider. It's been a LONG time since I've taken the full course.

 

[gym_girl.12]

at my gym we are only allowed to climb 5/6m up the 9m rope due to safety concerns. everyone at the gym knows this and every new kid who climbs rope gets it drilled into them. realistically the roof would be about 10m up, so that is definitely unsafe. and doing pull ups? you get exhausted climbing that high, so from fatigue and regular exhaustion, that's highly unsafe.

 

[Dahlialover]

Sadly, good judgement is not a requirement for coaching gymnastics!

 

[Aussie_coach]

Sadly, good judgement is not a requirement for coaching gymnastics!

It is in my gym!

 

[Gymsanity]

It is in my gym!

So in your opinion is it unsafe? And are the ceilings really 30' high? That is equivalent to a three story building! I can only assume that it must be a trampoline gym then?

 

[Aussie_coach]

So in your opinion is it unsafe? And are the ceilings really 30' high? That is equivalent to a three story building! I can only assume that it must be a trampoline gym then?

Well 30 feet, what is that in metres? (Only joking, I did look it up, it’s 9 Metres).

It is actually not unusual to have gymnasts climb the rope and drop down into the foam pit once they know what they are doing, not 9 metres though, part the reason gyms do this is to prepare gymnasts in case they ever fall, so the learn to do it safely. I don’t have this set up in my gym so it’s not even a consideration though.

But, no, I wouldn’t have a gymnast do pull ups in the rafters. The dust up there would make them very slippery and they are not designed to be hung onto.

And we wouldn’t have a gymnast climb the rope at all if another gymnast was in the pit below.

 

[amberlyn737]

So in your opinion is it unsafe? And are the ceilings really 30' high? That is equivalent to a three story building! I can only assume that it must be a trampoline gym then?

30 feet was a guess. It’s definitely more than 20. There is a trampoline right next to the pit.

 

[amberlyn737]

 

[GymAir]

View attachment 8794

Same answer: this is not safe. I would not try to convince them; just move gyms. If their judgement is off on this it will probably be lacking somewhere else too.

 

[sun]

when evaluating safety, I think about 1. what's the worst that could happen? and 2. how likely is it to happen?

best case:
If she drops into the pit from a dead hang and has enough experience/air awareness to make sure it's a safe pit landing with the kind of force a 20ft drop is gonna have behind it - it's pretty much completely safe. I don't think this would be unreasonable for a kid with lots of tramp experience.

worst case:
but what else could happen? just a little bit of swing will displace her landing by a whole bunch - does the kid know that? catching a leg on the floor could be a horrible injury. she could peel from her pullup, start a flip and land on her head from 20ft... oops paralyzed.

Then I would weigh the risk vs. the benefit.. is the benefit of this climb/chinup/death drop worth the risk? It looks kinda fun, maybe you're confronting some fear of heights... I'm struggling to come up with more benefits.

Definitely not worth it to me - if you're (the coach) gonna do something risky, it should come with huge benefits and you should curb the risk as much as is within your power. This is something I would expect kids to come up with themselves in open gym without supervision.

 

[Ty’s Dad]

Adult parent me: crazy unsafe and my kids bet not ever do that

Me thinking when I was young: ima bout to try and flip off this

 

[GymnastPotterhead]

Me thinking when I was young: ima bout to try and flip off this

Omg sometimes i really wanna do like a flip when im at the top of the rope lol. But we have a mat in the pit and I don't know if the rope would hit me during the flip or if i would need to push off smth lol

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Imo this looks scary, especially with the bar in the pit. if somebody falls a bit backwards it looks like they could fall with their back on the bar. I'd have serious concerns about this. Especially if you've pointed it out and they've dismissed you.

 

[CuriousCate]

Nope. My child would never be allowed to do this. Ever.