The other day during one of my ring routines, I swung down to go for my dismount and boom!  Lights out, my hand slipped right off the rings and I went through a side-winder/bucking bronco flip straight to my back.  Honestly I couldn’t figure out what had happened until I looked down at my hands and saw that my left grip had torn right as I had gone to do the dismount. Yikes…

For those of you who are unfamiliar, gymnasts use a special hand guard made out of leather that not only helps us grip onto things but to also protect our hands from getting torn up while we swing on the rings and the high bar. Every once in a while, accidents do happen and they can tear after you’ve worn them out.  Generally, they last for a couple of months.  That said, it’s unacceptable when they tear on the second day of using them.  Yup, that’s right.  I tore them just after two days…

My two-day old ring grips

However, it seems like this has been an issue everywhere.  My teammates at Stanford have experienced the same thing, and some friends in Japan have had similar accidents.  If it was just a one time thing, it wouldn’t be such a big problem, but if they’re tearing after only a couple of turns in gyms all over the world, then there is a problem.  It’s not only expensive to replace them, but there’s also a big safety issue involved.  Can’t tell ya if it’s the mad cow disease that’s making the leather all weak but this needs to be fixed ASAP!