Tiger Paws

Every gymnast that has been in the game long enough knows that injuries are a part of the sport. In fact, most gymnasts have probably experienced more than one in different areas of their body. For me, it was always my knees that gave me problems. To this day, they crack all the time and cause me pain periodically. In addition to my knee pain, my wrists often acted up as well. The older we got, the more tiger paws started showing up on my teammates hands. Whether you have wrist problems in the past or not, tiger paws are great for vault, floor, and beam because it lessens the strain on the muscles. Stretching your wrists before practice is so important because if you think about it, they take a lot of the blow in the sport of gymnastics. Almost every skill requires your wrists to hold weight. With tiger paws, the risk of injury lowers. Also, I find my gymnasts more confident when they are wearing the tiger paws because they know their wrists are supported. These wrist supports come in fun colors and designs that help my girls tell them apart. The can be worn in completion as well. Your gymnast should be properly fitted for these guards and it should be made sure that they are not too tight and or to lose. I strongly recommend these guards because you cannot predict future injuries you can only plan for them.

http://www.tigerpawwristsupports.com/

Grandma Knees

Gymnastics is a sport, therefore it comes with the terrible territory of injuries. They can be easy enough to heal with rest and ice, and they can be enough to put you out of the sport for good. My guess is that once a month one of the seventy team members of our gym has a serious injury that requires physical therapy and time off from the sport. Injuries are crushing, especially in the midst of meet season or when states is around the corner, it just is not fair. Do not be fooled however, as a coach you see injuries all the way at toddler level. All it takes is a four year old tumble bee not to tuck their head in a forward roll and BAM they have a sore neck. Basic ways to prevent injuries: Stretch! I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times but here’s it a million and one- if you come into practice late you MUST sit and stretch. A solid twenty minutes is best for team members and advanced tumbling, rec classes only need ten to fifteen minutes since they have shorter practices. Next: Strength, And I’m not trying to trick you into doing more pushups then necessary I promise. The stronger your muscles are, the more resilient they will be and the easier it will be to catch yourself.

My favorite story has to be during my first year of coaching, one of my little girls came up to me and claimed that her eyebrows were hurting. As a coach, determining if a gymnast is faking or not becomes a weekly task. My best advice is to talk to other coaches, talk to the parents, but give credibility to the gymnast and take all injuries seriously. I find knee injuries to be the most common, especially around the new USAG level five. This is the level that flipping is introduced, which entails hard landings from punch fronts and back tucks. Also, the handspring vault and the fly away dismount is an easy way to hyperextend either knee which is extremely painful and can put you out for a week or two. As a gymnast, my knees were always one of my weaknesses and to this day they crack often as if to remind me. My right one put  me on crutches when I was in seventh grade and my left one blew out my senior year and took me out of a promising meet season. What I found was that my patella, the circular knee cap held by cartilage was just not able to handle impact like it should have been. It was my senior year and I wanted to go out with a bang, so I got a knee brace and did not miss a single practice. It was difficult to walk and practices were mostly strength, but it was important for me to compete at states my last year. The DonJoy Lateral J Patella Knee Brace was my life savior. I was back doing my normal practices within a couple weeks. This is because the brace allows the patella to be completely secured while the gymnast does tricks. It straps the knee so tightly that even the hardest landing did not phase my grandma knees.

http://www.betterbraces.com/donjoy-lateral-j-patella-knee-brace