Sho Nakamori had a ring grip break after only 2-days use.
He was lying on the ground after peeling off on a dismount before he discovered what had happened.
The manufacturer is Reisport, as good as any of the competitors, I’d say.
Over the years I’ve seen many Reisport grips break in only a matter of days, but never Ring grips. Horizontal Bar grips normally get stretched and break sooner.
Solution?
Dave Bucci in a comment on Full Twist said this:
NOT unheard of. Our friend, Mario West, had the exact same thing happen at the Winter Cup a year and a half ago — High Bar was his first event, and it happened during warmups. It didn’t injure him badly, but it affected the whole meet.
Since then, he’s been going to a gentleman in Gaithersburg, MD named “Tien” (not sure of the spelling), who handcrafts his grips. Apparently, the Japanese and Chinese national teams both buy from this craftsman as well, and Mario seems to have more confidence in his grips.
Leave a comment if you have any advice on where to get gymnastics grips more durable than Reisport.
9 comments ↓
Paul Hamm was tearing grips and Fabian sent him a box of better ones.
I stopped using Reisport long ago, because I would go through them fairly quickly. I can’t remember what I switched to though.
This quote from SN’s blog cracked me up:
“Can’t tell ya if it’s the mad cow disease that’s making the leather all weak but this needs to be fixed ASAP!”
Who knew there were folks that made handcrafted grips?
I switched to reichelsport (http://www.reichelsport.eu) some time ago. Not for any specific reason though. But i’m pretty pleased with the quality…
Someone told me Reisport grips are the best for elite gymnasts but are made for gymnasts lighter than 50 kg /110 lb. Jaegers sport grips are more durable, however I don’t know wheter they ship internationally.
I had a pair of Bailie’s (or something along that line). They had rally stiff leather and took quite awhile to break in, but once they did they were absolutely fantastic…..I wore the same pair for over 5 years as my 1st pair and then continued to wear them as my spare pair for another 3 years after that. Who knows if the company even exists anymore (they were ordered off an add that was in IG magazine in 1993), but they were far superior to any other pair I had, including reisport and 10.0
That is way too coincidental. I co-coached with Tien. Cool dude, lots of knowledge. Glad to see he’s making a name for his grips.
[...] This post is in response to Sho Nakamori’s blog about his Reisport Ring grips tearing after 2 days of use that I first read about on Rick McCharles’ GymnasticsCoaching.com. [...]
We have had three reisport ring grips break this year. there certianly seems to be a problem with them. dangerous to say the least. What grips are of higher quality and strength?
Leave a Comment