The World of Gymnastics posted an article called Are Gymnastics Shorts Harmful or Helpful for Your Gymnast?
Often a controversial issue.
First, I will start with the positives. Many girls who wear shorts feel like they need them; wearing them can give them more confidence and make them feel more comfortable with their body. The shorts keep the gymnastics leo in place which helps prevent wedgie picking.
Now for the negatives, shorts are NOT technically part of the gymnastics attire. When working out, the gymnastics shorts tend to twist from side to side. This causes the gymnast to have to stop what they are doing and fix them every time they twist (which is A LOT). Many gymnasts tend to hide behind their shorts. They can’t do gymnastics without them (so they believe). They rely on their mini bike shorts way too much and get very uncomfortable if they
are made to take them off. But worst of all, once they are off the wedgie picking doesn’t stop. Without shorts their gymnastics leotards “ride up” even more. For this reason you may think shorts are great because they stop this problem but this IS NOT THE CASE! At gymnastics meets or gymnastics competitions your gymnast CANNOT wear shorts. Since they are NOT use to this, they may forget and pick their wedgies in their routines which will cause them to get a 0.05 deduction for each and every time they do it. This can add up and cost them their placement for an award!
I do not believe gymnastics shorts benefit a gymnast in any way. When my gymnasts ask me about wearing shorts I ask in return, “do you wear shorts over your swim suit when you go swimming”? Of course the answer is always “NO!” Then I tell them, “There is no reason to wear them here either.”
Keep in mind, you should practice the way you compete; this means No gymnastics shorts; at least not for those that participate in gymnastics competitions or gymnastics meets. They can be more harmful then helpful! If you have a correct fitting gymnastics leotard you shouldn’t have problems with picking wedgies anyway.
A good compromise is requiring leotard during routine training but allowing shorts the rest of workout.
Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
22 comments ↓
I get the point that leotards ride up more without shorts, and I get that when you’re not used to that you are more likely to spend time feeling uncomfortable and pulling your leotard out of your butt.
However, how stupid must a competitor be to pull their leotard down mid routine in a competition more than once, if at all? I have always trained in shorts and always will and I have never once pulled my leotard down in competition because I know that I will lose points. Simple. I do my final warm ups at the comp without shorts and if my leotard is riding up then I apply leotard glue and I’m done with it.
This person assumes that gymnasts are stupid if they believe that they will consistently pull their leotard down in competition.
I agree w Misseducated, Nastia & the other WOGA girls train in shorts… and we all know it has not affected their success. It sounds like the person who wrote this wants to be an expert at something & spout off. Please, there are many other things to focus on in our sport than bike shorts.
My older kids wear them, but I do not allow them to wear them for the week before the meet, so they get used to just leotards. There has never been a problem in meets w/ wedgies- its all part of the training they get not to pick wedgies.
my guess is the poster is a young male who has never worn a leotard or had to deal w/ “female issues”.
Now, a lot of the gym shorts worn today are in fact short, very, very short and to me seem to defeat the purpose because they are nearly riding right up there with the suits, but, “back in my day” we wore shorts that were like actual bike shorts, mid-thigh or tights that actually came below the knee, gasp! Prior to competitions we had to go without tights all together. Generally no problems with that and I can’t actually recall why we wore tights…just because perhaps?
I do have a funny story about tights in the gym though…
I remember being about 7 and at that time all us little ones (pre-competitive) wore our tights UNDER our gymsuits (maybe being the mid 1980′s had something to do with it).
So, one day all us minis are at bars when all of a sudden the competitive head coach comes over (he was having a bad day I suspect?) and starts freaking out about us wearing our tights under our suits! I remember it vividly as I was wearing a yellow and black striped suit and black tights and looked like a bumblebee, hehe…
Needless to say he scared the crap out of the group of us (I’m sure a number of us started crying), but never did we wear our tights under our suits again.
When I did gymnastics if we baulked for a skill we’d lose our shorts. Since baulking can be extremely dangerous and girls love their shorts, they’d go for their skills pretty quick in order to get them back.
Oh and when it came to competitions I had this : http://www.ten-o.com/xq/asp/deptId.236/PAGE.1/ID.864/qx/product.htm
basically glue to keep the leotard in the right place. worked like a charm.
Ha, kj.
I never thought of that one. Cruel, but effective.
…I don’t get this. I think every athlete should be allowed to wear what’s safe for the sport chosen. Fitting shorts are safe for gymnastics. If the girl is more comfortable wearing her shorts – let her wear it. I coach track and weightlifters and nobody would argue there that you “should train in your competition attire”. Everybody trains in the clothes that are comfortable and safe. A coach suggesting that “You loose your shorts because you are afraid to do this skill” would be considered crazy there at the least… (we are talking national elite level here, juniors – that is 16 years up).
[...] in response to the pros and cons of bike shorts post, linked to the butt glue she used in competition. Gymnasts the world over are plagued by [...]
Absolutely ridiculous! The shorts are tight so they don’t get in the way of learning new skills nor do they inhibit spotting by the coach. They make the gymnasts feel just a little bit less exposed. I think they are a positive. Not every gymnast is comfortable running around in “just” a bodysuit.
Back in the early 80s we would train with our tights over top of our suits and even a t-shirt overtop. You wouldn’t catch us with less unless the gym was sweltering. Did it make us pick wedgies? Not in the least. We weren’t stupid, we knew about deductions. Give the girls some credit. Maybe the little guys might forget but the older girls won’t.
Shorts can make all the difference to an older girl reaching puberty. Give it some thought. We lose a lot of girls at this point because they get pretty body conscious. If a little pair of shorts will keep them in gym, so be it.
When coaches become this controlling over shorts I think it sounds like a bigger problem. Give the girls a break. All of their favourite gymnasts where shorts to train. You can’t tell them it will stop their gymnastics success when they can go to a top level meet and see all of the best training with them on. Once again don’t assume kids are stupid and think it’s different for them or your gym. Can you imagine NCAA girls not being allowed to train with these shorts today???
The gym we came away from had the no shorts rule. They also have no older girls left in the program. Hmmm… I’m sure there’s no connection,eh?
Also, it’s a bit of a fashion statement.
I am the one who wrote this and I guess I should have been more clear… I am not talking about elite gymnasts here… I am talking about little level 3′s, 4′s, 5′s and 6′s…. Girls that have no reason to wear shorts… like 6-10 year olds!!! The young kids that will push their hair out of their face if it falls in the middle of their routine…They do pick their wedgies at a meet…BELIEVE ME…So our rule is a week before a meet the shorts have to go!
There are clubs Jessie, including some of mine, that only allow bike shorts during warm-up.
The girls, even the older girls, do get used to it. It does seem to help them be less concious of their body image.
… But the trend seems to be more girls wearing shorts more often, at a younger and younger age.
I’d be quite happy to see girls compete in shorts. I like that look. …
Shorts…As a male coach I believe that female athletes, especially those who are pre pubescent or have started their periods etc. have the absolute right to wear shorts during training. This is for the protection of the male coach and to show respect for the young female athlete whose body is undergoing tremendous and rapid changes. Some of the female athletes may feel very comfortable with these changes and come from nurturing familieswho explain life/body changes but many others are not comfortable and do not come from nurturing families who do not. Wearing of the shorts during this time I believe can only help with their self confindence during this changing time in their lives.
I agree with Anweiler. Once your female athletes reach a certain age, wearing just a leotard during practice can be a humiliating experience. For your older female athletes, say, high school aged girls, competitions are only a few hours long and “female protection” isn’t as big of an issue. For a girl going through puberty and is in the gym for seven hours at a time, 6 days a week, their periods are reason enough for her to be able to wear shorts to practice.
If my male coach were to ask me to take off my shorts just because he didn’t like them, mentioning the “p” word is usually enough to make a man squeamish and stop asking questions.
Another benefit of shorts and probably another reason why they’re worn so much is so they can shave “down there” less often.
That and tampon strings/pad wings are not a good look
Wow, Gem. I’ll skip that. Kudos to Don.
I think Jessie was dead on that it’s the younger girls that will pick at them and just want to show my support for her in that opinion. Even the boys will do it too. There are now the boy cut unitards but not all gyms use those yet. They should, really. I feel bad when they tell me they ride.
Does the butt glue really work? I only took tumbling classes when i used to be a cheerleader and never had leotard issues, but always wondered how butt glue could be expected to work what w/all the movement and such. One second your right leg is in front of you w/your foot above your head, the next your left leg cranked up your posterior side as far as humanly possible, the twisting the turning, the bending; it just doesn’t seem like any adhesive could prevent a wedgie…
I’m indifferent to rules about wearing shorts and such, but do feel that if regulations are in place for when shorts can and cannot be worn, they must be established and understood from a young age so that when one does reach puberty or any age where the wearing or not wearing of shorts becomes as issue, there are expectations for what happens. Therefore having to remove shorts at certain times would be totally normal and routine and not some type of punishment of humiliating experience.
Thanks Blair Lowe:)
Some of my young girls will even salute the judge then pick before they start their routine! Obviously I tell them not to but it does make me chuckle inside, they just don’t get it sometimes!
I know from experience in our gym that many of the younger girls who wear shorts over their leotards do it because they don’t want their underwear to show. Since many of the cheaper leotards dont come with lining, undergarments are necessary and many parents don’t think about that when they purchase the leotards…. I have seen girls with their underwear completely out of their leotards (they were only 4 or 5 yrs old, but still)- this was because the parents bought underwear that were too big, knowing the girls would grow into them. I am personally a fan of the biketard for practice (available in CH XS- Adult S/M depending on the brand) – you can buy it bigger so they can wear it longer… but they can still create wedgies once they get too small.
We have a new, young, male coach at my daughter’s gym who will no longer let the optional girls wear shorts. I find this troubling for several reasons.
1st for the reason that several of you have mentioned, the girls are more comfortable wearing them especially around the time of their period.
2nd It is more sanitary to wear shorts. Some of the younger girls have stopped wearing underware because it isn’t easy to find panties that will work under leos in their small sizes, except through some place like GK, but that gets expensive. When they do moves like straddle rolls on the beam you know they are spreading more germs around than they would with shorts on. I’ve heard that a couple of the girls have had vaginal infections since the new shortless policy has been in place.
3rd As a mom I find it makes me uncomfortable with this coach. Personally I think he just want a better look at their butts, he tells the girls he’s an “ass man” and has flaunted his girlie magazines in front of parents and gymnasts when traveling. My daughter loves gymnastics and this gym is the only option we have for gymnastics in our area, so what’s a mom to do? (The owner of the gym won’t stand up to him about anything, I think she is afraid of him.)
I don’t feel like I’ve heard a single good reason for not letting the girls wear tight shorts, I’m not buying the argument that they will do better at competition.
Yeesh. Red flags are going up all over the place, LDV.
Best document your concerns in writing and give them to the owner of the club.
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