really i like my hair hard and secure but hair spray partys are the worst!!!!!!!!!!!!![/COLOR]

You want to land flat-footed, and bend your knees a little to absorb the shock for your round-off on beam - it's kind of different than round-off on floor because on floor you want to land on your toes to rebound/connect to your next skill! Are your hips square with the beam? Because if you land incorrectly that will hurt your feet also! Keep tight, lift your chest up as you are landing your[ Read More... ]

Khorkina's from Russia. A lot of the Russians and Europeans, Asian, well like non-U.S. lol don't use grips - it's more common than the U.S. that they don't use grips. I did hear of a couple clubs in the U.S. though that told the girls not to use grips; their coaches aren't orginially from the U.S., I think Russia.

svetlana khorkina never used grips at all :]

I'm in level siven and can't stand grips! Or chalk really.

The 'grips' that aren't the common leather type grips with the dowel, etc. are 'homemade' ones - with tape, or guaze like Daria Zgoba uses.

she didnt use the common grips,she used some that were pretty thin,like she had nothing in her hands,and sometimes she didnt use anything.On the olympic games for example,she sisnt use none type of grips.

Thanks for the link. Looks like she ripped a rip she probably already had more. Grips can help for ripping and also the grip you get on the bar.

i have a video where you can see danielas hands at this link: see my profile at you tube post stelafan and search the video called "sad numbers".

i searched on the romanian gymnastics web page and it doesnt appear anymore because it was an old news...

yuck, popped and probably ripped rips. do you have the pictures?

but some elite from romania like nicoleta daniela sofronie who finiched second on floor and was a great uneven bars worker,she didnt use grips for the Olympics,and some other competitions....Then i saw some pictures at a romanian gymnastics fan page,where her hand was injured,with blood and pus when she took off the bandages that she had on her hands.

maybe the coaches who tell their gymnasts not to use grips even though they have access to them never have done bars with grips - grips are really great!

grips are great! all the high-level gymnasts at my club wear grips. everyone actually starts wearing the dowel grips from like level 4.

most gymnsts in u.s. use grips, but there are some gyms here in the u.s. that actually have the gymnasts not use them. none of the ones on t.v. yet... :-) grips are great for the grip it gives on the bar.

anyone here compete optionals or elite without grips? seems like all the gymnasts at the high levels in the usa use grips for bars.

we use the flat kinds at my gym too. the younger girls use the 2 pound pair and the bigger girls use the 5 pound pair ones. just for conditioning. we don't do skills in them.

there's like a hair spray party in the girls bathroom before practice and meets. smelly! i use clips instead...and water too sometimes lol :-) they actually use hair spray and clips. i agree with u ndfj, soft hair is nice!!