my grand daughter (15 yrs old) is a gymnast--I have been working with her on using inner corset and protecting her neck. At her last meet I watched 3 girls injured--it is a scary sport! So far she has done really well with only a bruised thigh when falling off the beam. Her shins have been aching so I got her compression socks to wear. The neck injuries are the scariest to me--one of the girls on another team went down hard. Any tips I can use to help my girl to avoid serious injuries?
gymnastics
January 24, 2013 - 9:19pm | 2 posts
#1
gymnastics
7 years 9 months ago
05/03/2016 - 11:39am
Unfortunately, the best advice for avoiding serious injuries would be not to engage in serious sports :(
The second best option is to give your kids the strongest postural foundation to start with. Kudos—it sounds like you're already doing that! Having a strong postural base will help with balance and aving strong muscles around the spine will help protect it, but the flexibility required in gymnatics can undermine that.
Other than that, all I can recommend are the usual suspects: hydrate, warm up/cooldown, use grips, guards, belts and pads, and don't let the coaches push her to do things she's really uncomfortable with.