Get a Grip!

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah gymnast Georgia Dabritz doesn't wear grips, resulting in large callouses on her hands. Thursday February 6, 2014 in Salt Lake City.

 Dabritz:

Gymnasts typically use grips on the bars to protect their hands and improve their hold. But Dabritz, who is just 5-foot-1, couldn’t fit her hands into the grips when she was first learning her gymnastics skills.

She tried them again a few years ago and it was a disaster.

"I peeled right off the bar," she said. "After that, I wasn’t dying to try and use them again. I didn’t want to have to relearn all my skills."

Instead, she took the unconventional route and built up callouses on her hands through hours of practicing. There have been plenty of rips and tears through skin, but neither she nor her coaches would have it any other way.

"I don’t know of anyone else who does it," Utah coach Greg Marsden said. "It works for her, so we aren’t going to mess with a good thing."

 Of course, "traditionally", Romanian, Russian, and Chinese gymnasts at varying points have been reputed to not wear grips.  The explanation that seems to be commonly told is that when they are young, they cannot afford the grips; and as they get older and make it onto the international scene by which time you'd think their federation could get them grips, the gymnasts simply aren't used to them and decide to do without.

Video description, posted February 2009:

Gymnasts Anastasia Karpova and Kristina Kruglikova (Russia) and Moldir Azimbay (Kazakhstan) test out their first pairs of grips while training for the Nadia Comaneci International Invitational in Oklahoma City. The gymnasts normally practice uneven bars barehanded.

 Romanians reported in 2012:

Mariana Bitang declared … the reconstruction of the team in view of the next quad has already started with Romania’s weakest apparatus: all gymnasts have started using grips on uneven bars.

… “We tried starting using them before, with a few girls. But if one of them didn’t get used to grips, she would give up and thus, in a team, in a meet it’s hard to prepare the bars because they are done differently. For instance for working with grips the bar has more chalk whereas for bare palms is prepared with honey, chalk and water and there must be uniformity in the team.”

… ”The one who tries to convince me she is unable to work with grips is Diana Bulimar but I told her that, at any risk, even if it means not going to any competition this fall, we will not take them off. …

Bea Gheorghisor – The Romania Update; Grips, Gym Changes and Hot Frocks

Check out some of the comments here.

My old boss Al Luber had some of our girls try using gauze like tape grips underneath their regular grips.  


Al Fong on "grips or no grips?":

Well...it depends on what country you reside. In the USA most all gymnasts wear leather grips starting from Level 5 on up to elite. Why? Because we can! (Financially speaking) In other countries, grips are hard to come by due to lack of availability and cost. And chalk is expensive so gymnasts around the world become resourceful. Some use gauze, others use a honey and chalk mixture, and a few use nothing at all. There’s no doubt leather grips with dowels are a big advantage to those who can afford them. In our country we don’t even give it a second thought. We’re lucky that way.  

But there are some coaches in the US who don’t allow their gymnasts to wear grips because they see a few top international gymnastic stars not wearing them. They think it’s cool to copy them. Totally not necessary and actually not a good choice.  

This kind of reminds me of a few coaches who have girls tap above the low bar with no clear reason or satisfactory explanation as to why, aside from basically "It's trendy".   That's not a good answer.

I'm also reminded of Bruce Lee by way of analogy talking about how a one-legged martial artist gains a reputation for being a fierce fighter.  Martial artists flock to him to learn his secrets.  Suddenly he is surrounded by students all standing on one leg, trying to fight like him. 

FYI...should any of you ambitious age group coaches want to put your athlete(s) on the USA National team, you better make sure you endorse dowel grips. Why? Because as a USA team going into an international team meet like the World Championships or the Olympics, there’s no time to chalk the bar up for those wearing grips and unchalk the bar for those who don’t in a timed warm up. It’s too time consuming. If you don’t understand, you’ve already put your promising athlete at a disadvantage in trying to become a USA national team member.

I've seen young girls who are excited to get grips because it makes them feel like the big girls- a status thing; and then once they put them on and start swinging, some become disillusioned very quickly before they've fully broken the new grips in and gotten used to them because of various discomfiture.

Small kids may have hands too small for using grips.  Coaches like Neil Resnick and Tom Forster seem to like utilizing men's pipe for teaching bars skills for such small hands. 



To the following question:

Why wouldn't a coach or club allow grips anytime a gymnast wanted them?

Coach Perry's response:

I am sure people have different reasons, here are mine.
First is grip strength/hand strength. I like for the kids to spend a few years developing hand strength, as opposed to just putting grips on. Advantage

Second is, I want the kids to actually be able to swing with rips and never think twice about it. I have seen and had kids in the past get a rip the night before a meet or worse yet during warmups and completely shut down. Currently (past decade) my kids don't even think about a rip when working out or competing. big advantage.

Third, getting a feel for the bar and learning to swing and execute tricks without the use of grips makes kids less dependent on grips and gives them a better understanding of the mechanics of swinging/ shifting etc... another big Advantage

Fourth, putting grips on a child too early in my opinion and in my experience can lead to injury. These kids have no idea how to swing on the bar and now they have a piece of leather in the way. Safety

Lastly and most important is peel factor, when you take into consideration that the four examples I gave you can actually cause a peel then you can conclude that a lower peel ratio is the result of spending at least a couple years with bare hands. This is the biggest advantage of all because a safe kid is a healthy kid.

Conclusion, the pain of a rip is worth a lower peel ratio and a well rounded swinger.

Koko Tsurimi without grips, 2009 Tyson American Cup:

You can see some slow-motion playback of her hand placement as she swings in this video.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah gymnast Georgia Dabritz doesn't wear grips, resulting in large callouses on her hands. Thursday February 6, 2014 in Salt Lake City.