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Part II: Is Gymnastics more dangerous than other sports?

Obviously there is an inherent danger in doing gymnastics. As with almost any endeavor, there is risk of injury and even death. But gymnastics is not any more dangerous than other sports. Studies show that with proper equipment, spotting, and coaching, gymnasts will not run a higher risk of injury. In an excellent article about gymnastics for preschoolers, Myrna Beth Haskell reports this…

“In the March 1999 issue of Technique magazine (a USA Gymnastics publication), Dr. W.A. Sands discusses a study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on the number of people visiting emergency rooms and subsequent percent of admissions with sport-related injuries. Gymnastics ranked lower than 23 common sports and activities, including bicycling, climbing on playground equipment and swimming in pools–activities most children participate in. Sands mentions that the information represents “all of gymnastics, including injuries that occur from striking the furniture while performing in the living room.” Obviously, in a controlled and supervised environment, injury is less likely.”

Therefore a parent should not hesitate to enroll their child in gymnastics. It is vitally important, however, that a parent be aware of the training environment and inquire about the coaching techniques and philosophy before enrollment. These factors are crucial to safety in the sport. Here are a few key things (not an exhaustive list by any means) to look for when enrolling your child in a gymnastics class. . .

• Do all the coaches in the prospective gym have current safety certification?
• Look around the gym. Is it clean and orderly? Are the mats stacked evenly? This will indicate what type of workout environment is fostered.
• Coaching Technique. As Haskell reports, “The focus [in gymnastics] has changed from learning skills as quickly as possible to stressing proper conditioning and skill progression.” Make sure this is the case with a potential coach. For more information on proper skill progression, see below.**
• Coaching Philosophy. Is the coaching emphasis on building confidence, perseverance, and discipline or on fast improvement at any cost?

One should insist on safe training environments for their kids and excellent coaching. Failure to do so will likely lead to frequent injuries. But with the proper things in place, gymnastics is as safe as any other sport.

**Skill Progression: All skills should be taught in proper progression with quality matting, safety devices (such as spotting belts, training pits, trampolines, etc), and done at a rate that is comfortable for the gymnast. Once a gymnast has mastered the skill in the training environment and feels both mentally and physically capable, they should begin to transfer the skill to the regular equipment.

Here is an example of the safe progression for learning to do a back handspring on the high beam. First a gymnast learns to do a back handspring on a line on the floor. In doing this, they learn proper hand placement and how to perform a back handspring in a straight line before they even get on the balance beam. Next the gymnast will attempt the skill on a low beam (a few inches off the floor) with mats on each side of the beam (completely level with the beam) so that neither hands nor feet will slip off. This way the gymnast gets comfortable with the feel of landing on the beam. Once the gymnast is consistently landing their back handsprings on the low beam, the mats will be removed in increments until they are completely comfortable performing the skill without the mats. Then they will move to the high beam and repeat the process of stacking mats up to the height of the beam and then removing the mats one by one until they have mastered the skill. This should all be done under the direct supervision of a coach, with spotting when necessary.

Part III: Does Gymnastics put too much pressure on young athletes? …coming soon