While groms are a hot topic is anyone else concerned about the excessive loads being put on our groms bodies because they are prematurely feeling obligated to unhook so that they can achieve results in comps. Personally I would prefer them to remain hooked in but the comp scoring criteria favours powered unhooked tricks. Should juniors be scored differently to save their bodies.
Qualified comments would be appreciated.

Interesting...There is some merit to that argument. It isn't worth dismissing straight away.

What I would say is if that is a concern (and if the judging doesn't change) there are two things you could do:

1) don't enter them into competitions until you judge the body is strong enough to unhook.

...enter them into big air, wave comps maybe for now.

or

2) Get the Grom to work on the basic unhook, load and release routine and technique. I mean do it over and over and over.....and over... again...until that basic part is so well ingrained unhooking the basic Raley (even to revert with surface pass) is as safe and as easy as doing a simple jump hooked in. Get the basics really sorted and ask them just to do that, even if in competition. Execution is more important it seems than difficulty (well that's what I picked up anyhow).

Then hopefully when the difficulty increases they have a really solid base to work from.

But yeh...again there is definitely a decent argument to be made for your concerns, it does cross my mind quite a bit to.

Is it an issue ? I don't know,but kids same age wakeboard,water ski and cable park all ride unhooked always. Do they suffer shoulder injuries?

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towradgi said..
Is it an issue ? I don't know,but kids same age wakeboard,water ski and cable park all ride unhooked always. Do they suffer shoulder injuries?

It's not really unhooking but more the fact that they feel that they need to hand pass

Wakeboarding is similar in the way that you have to set yourself up correctly and grab the bar/ handle to ride away and I've never heard of anyone in a comp complaining of having to make the pass

Get these whingers off the water and helicopter parent's back to the couch as the Doctor would order.

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Fly on da wall said..
Wakeboarding is similar in the way that you have to set yourself up correctly and grab the bar/ handle to ride away and I've never heard of anyone in a comp complaining of having to make the pass

Get these whingers off the water and helicopter parent's back to the couch as the Doctor would order.

Here we go

Thanks for your input in typical seabreeze fashion.

It's an interesting question. When I was in junior ice hockey we weren't allowed to play slapshots just because the risk of getting hit in the face was too high. My niece as a junior gymnast would push herself to the point of vomiting with anxiety and just missed Olympic qualifying. The parents didn't push her, but foolishly didn't stop her either, she was injured from missed landings. I really think this could go either way but given that it's 2019 and my kids could be the up and comers I wholeheartedly encourage you to push for a sport with less physical attrition.

Tbh , if you push the boundary's of kids physical capabilities early on then they'll pay for it later on with injuries, in most sports a kid showing huge talent and pushed can end up with serious injuries before they've fulfilled that promise
During the early 80s my school was a provider of talented players regionally to premier league clubs or 1st division back then, I had a trial run , at 13 we trained as hard as the full squad, some of the crew I was with recieved serious injuries , a lad called phil quinlan was tipped to go to the elite level, at 18 he was pretty much furked
At 15 I joined an advanced forces program, jlr , basically we were meant to be elite soldiers in our selected regt having a couple of years start on a normal sign up, from memory 50 plus signed up and close to 20 passed out, the rest were either medically discharged through injuries , mainly knee issues ( crumbling patella) and split shins, both common with developing / growth
On the kiting side young tom bridge who's been doing ridiculous tricks from 9 years of age has picked up some serious injury recently, he was tipped to be world champ by most pro riders , personally I think kids shouldn't be over pushed physically , yeh go hard and no cotton gloves attitude but at their not your pace

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Fly on da wall said..
Get these whingers off the water and helicopter parent's back to the couch as theDoctor would order.

I don't care, I could watch kids hurt themselves all day long, not my kid, I don't give a fuque

Bahahahhahahahhaa