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September 26th, 2008 | bars, Gymnastics, horizontal bar, safety
Three weeks into the new season, at my gym we’ve been pretty successful at NOT ripping on bars.
original – flickr
Drills including pirouettes on floor bar, safety strap bar and mini-tramp under the low bar all help the kids avoid rips.
I just hope we can keep it up.
Ripping the hands is a significant setback for most gymnasts.
related post: preventing rips on the hands
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4 comments ↓
Wow, I’ve never seen ripping as a significant setback. I’ve had some kids get the occasional killer rips but they just come in taped up the next day and don’t complain one bit.
Maybe some of it is how they are coached early on?
p.s. I went three weeks without a rip until yesterday – one kid got a blood blister. Dangit!
Some gymnasts *raises hand* pretty much can’t touch a bar without ripping. I always preemptively bandaided and taped, used comfrey and antibacterial ointment, and got on with workouts when I was done bleeding. They’re not the end of the world unless you let them be, & practicing a bit torn up means that when you eventually rip at a meet you know how to deal with it.
I had these tricks of making a little tape grip inside the grip, to deal with rips. allows continued work without ripping further.
I used to rip all the time when I didn’t tape my hands under my grips. With proper taping I could swing bars pain-free even when I had several rips so I never saw rips as a setback to my training. Not only did I tape vertically up the hand in the typical tape-grip style, but I also taped horizontally across the hand to prevent the tape-grip from rolling up and shifting. It just took me a few extra minutes to get ready for bars.
I do agree that it’s a good idea to do more hand-friendly drills. But sometimes you just can’t avoid skills that are rough on the hands!
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