Most coaches DON’T for fear of (later) being blamed for contributing to disordered eating.
The do at University of Georgia. Four times a year.
photo credit – Kelly Lambert… Amber Trani, who competed in the 2008 Olympic Trials just before beginning her freshman year at Georgia, came from a gym where coaches kept a close tab on their athletes.
“Back home, my gym was very strict,” she said. “We’d have weigh-ins, and they’d expect you to maintain your weight. You weren’t supposed to go up. It was restricted in that we weren’t supposed to eat breads and pastas. It was elite though. It’s supposed to be strict. You have to stay in the best shape to stay on top if you want to go anywhere.”
Once Trani got to college, she had more freedom to eat what she wanted. She said it was harder to eat healthy meals without a watchful eye. She’s realized that she had to make healthier choices, but she doesn’t have to restrict herself as much as she did when she was an elite-level gymnast. …
There are not any food restrictions placed on the Georgia gymnasts. …
The Gym Dogs also have a snack bar available to them in the practice facility where they can refuel if needed.
“It’s just really nice and convenient when you’re going from class to class,” Tolnay said. “Even if you’re here late studying, it’s just nice knowing that you can get some nutrition in you.”
The snack bar is stocked with Balance bars, protein and nutrition shakes and Powerade. …
“Our girls work with the food and nutrition lab and research lab here on campus,” Yoculan said. “They do their body compositions four times a year with the emphasis on increasing lean muscle mass and decreasing body fat. In addition to that measurement, it also looks at bone density and bone mineral content.”
Yoculan said the coaching staff has found that the gymnasts are at their optimum strength and perform more consistently when they have a 10 percent to 14 percent body composition.
“We don’t like them to go lower than 10 because that can cause a lot of problems for female athletes in general,” said associate head coach Jay Clark.
If the gymnasts’ body composition is too low, they are required to go to counseling. …
Online Athens – Balance key to Gym Dogs’ fitness
(via honey bear page on College Gymnastics Board)
10 comments ↓
I’ve heard from sources that Abby Stack, Courtney Kupets, and Tiffany Tolnay have all had issues with food, but none of this was put on them by the coaches, Abby wasn’t even allowed to compete at one point during 2007 because she was so skinny
Courtney and Abby are doing fine now, but I’m still worried for Tiffany, she looked very thin at regionals, and if you compare her between now and in her freshman year, the difference is crazy
So, I think that is a healthy way to handle the weight and food issue. =) Daily weigh in with very competitve teenage girls participating in elite sports and eager to please the coach usually results in eating disorders. At least this is what happens in track (I am coaching the junior sprint group here). It is NOT easy to get rid of it without ignoring the importance of weight and low body fat in track or gymnastics.
I still like the idea of body fat testing, especially as it sounds like they are checking bone mass with DEXA which is even more useful than the BODPOD or hydrostatic testing.
I also like the fact they allow their athletes to snack. Our gym doesn’t allow our girls to which if you think about is a 3.5 to 4hr workout with conditioning at the end. Our boys do though I think our boys aren’t eating enuff since they are running out of gas in the workouts too early.
I’d be very careful about doing it with many juvenile gals unless I knew they were mature and sound enough in mind to take the repercussions. Can’t say many of the girls I’ve worked with are. I can remember the girl’s softball team in tears after just caliper testing.
They should. Problems exist both with girls that are fat (by the eye, beleive your lying eyes, look at McCool) and with girls that are anorexic.
I don’t remember our wrestling team crying after caliper tests. ;-0
I don’t weigh my athletes, but from an early age I start teaching them about food. They have journals that they write in and they add one food under each heading: protein, carbs, and fat. Then when they bring their book back to training we talk about the foods they put in and move them to the correct column if they were wrong. We discuss if the foods they put down are good or bad, why and what they make your body do or feel like. Then during the off-season I get them to try different Protein, Carb, Fat combinations for snack during training and have them write HOW they feel for the second 1/2 of training. That way during competitive season they know which foods make them energized for training and which ones don’t so I can get the most out of them.
It is much easier to TEACH kids how to eat right than adults. The kids will go home and tell their parents what they want packed for their lunches and snacks for gym and that “Miss Katrina said I have to eat this”. We don’t have weight issues (big or small) in my gym. They all look like healthy, muscular, young ladies.
But if something were to arrise I would probably go and talk to the parents and tell them that the girl needs to gain or lose weight for her to reach her potential. The excess weight is giving her a difficult time on the bars. Or the lack of some more fat mass is giving her difficulties on vault and tumbling. Then leave it up to the parents. I’m just trying to help the kids reach their potential.
kinda crazy to read bc i know from college track and field that we got weight before every race.
I really admire when coaches encourage body weight restrictions providing (here’s the key) that they not only keep their athletes below the “fat range” but still above the area where one is dangerously below what their ideal weight should be. Georgia should be an example for gyms everywhere, intense training plus malnutrition does NOT equal success. It creates injuries.
I remember this one kid on my HS wrestling team who was at 105 to get a top spot and looked skeletorish. I myself was lean at 136, but competed at 126 (not hard to do because you can count on about 5 pounds from dehydration, by not drinking the night before) and even made a run at 118 to get a starter spot, which was hard. Later in the season, I considered going at 138, to get a varsity spot, when our top guy dropped out, but my coach would not allow it, since some of those guys were natural 150+ guys and were significantly heavier physiques than me (even though I could defeat the second best 138 pounder we had to field).
We had calipers and weighed ourselves all the time. In general if you were smart about it (tactical), it was pretty safe, and did create an athletic advantage (or if you ignored it created a disadvantage). These gals losing some wieght has got to be pretty similar. bodyweight is much easier to cut a little than strength to gain. I’ve even seen it with male gymnasts that were on the borderline for getting some moves done.
That is one ugly dog on the wall.
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