Many children at some point experience burnout in an activity they are participating in. How the adults in the situation handle issues has a great amount to do with whether the burnout is a permanent issue, or only temporary. Appropriate guidance can result in a return to the activity, while meddling and pushing can have the child running for cover.

You should always first consider the personality of your child. Many children who are shy do not enjoy gymnastics much because of the amount of attention they receive as well as the clothing that is worn. A self-conscious child will likely be miserable the entire time but possibly agree to take the classes just to make a parent happy. This can result in a child burning out much sooner, rather than later. If you suspect this is the problem with your child’s burnout it may be best to avoid gymnastics until they decide they are ready to return.

For parents of children who normally rush and run to the car to ensure they are on time for practice and lessons there needs to be a special time when other activities are arranged. Whether it is a day at an amusement park, visiting a museum, or even hanging out with friends away from the gym everyone needs a break on occasion to help them rejuvenate and keep their spark. While your child needs time to practice in order to improve, you should never push them to only practice, rather than allowing them some time to have fun.

Parents are also guilty at times of turning gymnastics into a chore for their child rather than a fun activity or hobby. If you are guilty of this, you may be doing serious damage to your child’s love of gymnastics. In order for a child not to burn out quickly, they need to enjoy the activity. If they feel as if they are being forced to go, and are unable to really enjoy it they are going to quickly lose interest. Instead, while gently providing the support your child needs the idea of gymnastics should be fun and entertaining first, and a powerful lesson in sportsmanship, strength training, and fitness second.

If you suspect that your child is on the road to a burnout quickly take action. Whether it involves taking a fast trip to a miniature golf course or even a round of shopping at the mall, find another activity that your child enjoys for them to spend some time on. This can help quickly combat a burnout before it fully sets in. In addition, just fitting a few other activities in can help ensure that burnout stays at bay.

For the sake of scheduling purposes and also to help provide everyone with plenty of time to rest, you should determine one day a week that is devoted to rest and relaxation. This means a movie day, spa day, or even just lounging by the pool working on a suntan. Make a rule that there is no gymnastics, no workouts, nothing that requires great amounts of brain thought so that your child can rest their entire body, mind and all for the rest of the coming week.

By taking some proactive steps to avoid burnout you can help your child continue to improve, while still enjoying gymnastics. Proper steps taking in advance means a much healthier and well balanced lifestyle for your child as well which leads to a much happier adult. Remember, large amounts of stress can quickly contribute to burnout and should be avoided. Your child is counting on you to help them recognize and combat the signs before they become a serious problem.

Published with Blogomator

Competing and participating in matches is something that most gymnasts really enjoy. However, the process still tends to bring out the worse cases of nerves possible. Gathering your nerves together and pulling off a seamless routine is entirely possible with some help. It is important to control your nerves or you could end up sabotaging yourself and this is never an ideal situation for anyone. So sit down, relax, and learn how to master your nerves in time for the next meet.

Start by ensuring you get plenty of practice. A gymnast who knows their routine inside and out will be much calmer than someone who suddenly learned a routine in a single day and did not practice. With this idea in mind, avoid making changes to your routine at the last minute. Changes should be made at least a week in advance if at all possible so you have enough time to practice the new routine.

You should get at least 8 hours of sleep before a match. It is easy to feel as if a situation is out of control when you are tired. To help combat this getting plenty of sleep will allow you to calm your nerves so you can sleep and allow you to be your energetic best at the meet itself.

Pack your bag the night before the meet. This avoids the last minute rush and panic searching the house or hotel room the morning of the meet while minutes are few and precious. Packing your bag the night before ensures that everything you need to take goes along without causing a huge mass panic to run through you.

Upon arriving to the location for the meet, take a few minutes and look around. Find the drink machines, phones, water fountain, bathrooms, and locker rooms. Ensuring that you know where everything is will allow you to calm down and relax rather than feeling as if you are walking around in the middle of outer space. Familiar surroundings are always more relaxing than strange ones.

Spend at least 30 minutes warming up before it is your turn. You do not want to rush through your warm up. It can open you up to injury and increase your nerves. Slow and steady movements are best for your warm up exercises. If you like yoga then this is a great time to use yoga to warm up since it helps you center your mind as well.

Before you perform your routine, take a few moments to yourself to clear your head and breathe. While everyone is going to want to wish you luck, for many this can stir up the nerves they have fought so hard to control. If necessary, avoid talking to anyone until after your routine to keep down the nerves.

Once it is your turn, smile, look confident and enjoy yourself. If you happen to make a mistake accept that it happens on occasion and keep going. You should be there to enjoy yourself and have fun first, then worry about placing well in the meet second. Consider that this is only a hobby, rather than a competition that you must win is another way to help ease nerves and allow you to focus on having fun and looking confident rather than frightened and afraid.

By following these tips and suggestions, conquering the nerves that appear before a meet can handled in a mature and professional way. Regardless of the level of meet, gathering your nerves is a skill that you can use through out gymnastics and life as well.
Published with Blogomator

Many coaches train gymnasts to use methods such as visualization to help them visualize a technique or movement before they actually physically try it. This helps the gymnasts determine exact body placement, as well as how fast they should be moving to successfully complete the task. To make things easiest it is necessary to take this up a notch and use several steps working together to make the visualization process much simpler and help your own little gymnast learn the skills much easier.

The first step is always stopping and relaxing. People are not able to learn as easily if they are stressed out no matter what they are trying to do. Relax and breathe deeply to let the tension go. Once you feel the stress melting away and have taken several deep breathes you can move along.

Your next step is going to imagine your self performing the technique flawlessly. How do you look? What did you do? What was the reaction of the crowd? What was the reaction of your coach? How did you feel while you were doing the position? What were your hands doing? What about your feet? Did you feel comfortable in your mind? All of these details will help you determine exactly what your body should do and when to achieve the best result.

Next, you need to step back from yourself in your mind and visualize yourself doing the technique several times. This allows you to have a stadium seat in your head and really get a good view of your body. Watching the technique several times will allow you to quickly learn how your body should be placed and where you should be in relation to everyone around you and how your entire body should be in relation to other parts of your body.

Your next step will be to actually try the new technique. You should have visually run through the entire process several times in your head at this point and should be well versed in what you are doing. Without this knowledge and intimate idea about how your own body should react, you would be much further behind. However, using your own knowledge from your imagination as you performed the technique continuously will help you to achieve the best result possible the first time.

While your initial physical attempt may not go as smoothly as you like, continuously practicing will allow you to discover the best results possible. In order to truly achieve the success that you want, you can continue visualizing and repeating to actually try the technique until you get the result that you ultimately want for your entire routine.

The idea that practice makes perfect goes along perfectly with this technique. By carefully studying and analyzing, any mistakes that you make you can focus your visualization on these aspects to continuously improve your movements until you have found the perfect technique for your actual physical performance.

Of course, if you have any questions you should ask your coach. You may not realize you have any questions until you visualize the move and notice that it looks different. If you see anything either in physical movements or in your visualization that does not quite look right, ask questions to ensure that you know exactly what you are working towards. You cannot achieve perfection if you are too shy to ask questions so feel free to ask.

You should notice that by using visualization techniques you are able to achieve greater results much quicker than if you simply practiced the same moves over and over again. While physically practicing the moves is essential to mastering them, it is also important to be able to visualize and understand exactly how your body should move. Combining the two techniques together will have you sailing through moves in no time and mastering techniques and tricks quite quickly. In time, you will come to always use the mediation techniques to help you master each and every technique.

Published with Blogomator

Gymnastics offers many great benefits to the athlete who is involved. With many benefits that are only physical and many others that are also emotional and developmental, there are so many things that make gymnastics worth the time and effort that is required. From the first class until the very end of your career, you are sure to enjoy the benefits that gymnastics can provide to you.

One of the biggest benefits if the ability to slowly groom yourself into excellent physical shape. Because of the strenuous nature of gymnastics, it is important that all gymnasts be in the best physical shape possible. The natural movements of gymnastics works to groom fitness levels slowly so that overall conditioning as well as strength training is entirely possible without huge problems.

Additionally, gymnastics has been shown to greatly help improve confidence levels in children particularly. While many children particularly girls are quite shy when they are younger, gymnastics helps them come out of their “shell” and be an active part of the world and connect to friends from all around the world. Because gymnastics is a sport that can adjust to the skill level of each gymnast, it is amazingly easy to feel almost immediate senses of pride.

Another major benefit to gymnastics is the need to create goals and a schedule for meeting those goals. Athletes who fail to make goals typically do not succeed very quickly which results in a serious loss. However, if you work quickly to create some attainable goals and start actively working towards the goals then it is possible to once again help learn how to create and follow your goals in order to be successful. Because gymnastics is so flexible in the opportunities that are provided it is a wonderful sport to use to learn how to make modifications to the goals as skills improve.

Gymnastics also has the ability to help teach responsibility. Each gymnast is ultimately responsible for his or her own results. By putting forth effort and practicing moves and techniques again and again, it is possible to determine just how successful you are going to be. This is not a sport that places the success factor onto the coach. While a coach is highly instrumental in learning the skills necessary, it is up to the individual gymnast to practice the skills and put them to good use.

One thing that many gymnasts really like is the ability to be judged based upon their own individual accomplishments rather than the accomplishments of those who are around them. Coaches work with each individual athlete to determine the best course of action. Some may discover that they need to increase their strength training while others focus more on flexibility training. Others may have greater difficulty in mastering techniques and tricks. Gymnastics are highly customizable for each individual person, which makes it very easy to measure the individual success as well as the success of the individual compared against the group results.

Many gymnasts also enjoy the ability to travel with their teammates whom become very close friends to various locations. Many competitions and meets are even held in exotic and exciting locations. This allows many gymnasts to see more areas than what they originally ever intended to see. While lower level gymnasts tend to stay closer to home, those who are in advance, elite and even professional levels are able to travel the country and even the world.

The final benefit is the ability to actively engage in a highly rewarding sport. Rather than relying on the ability of all of your team members to be successful, you achieve the results you desire. This makes it a very satisfying sport for many people who enjoy being able to control their own growth and results. If you are interested in being responsible for your own development, growth and potential then gymnastics is the ultimate sport for your individual needs.

Published with Blogomator

Gymnastics is a sport that relies heavily upon selecting the correct coach as well as the appropriate gym. In order to achieve the best results possible it is necessary to have several components that work together to ensure that you set yourself up to be successful right from the beginning. While not all components are 100 percent necessary to everyone, you should look for a gym that has as many of the components as possible.

You should first look for a gym that is clean. Never sign up with a gym that you have not personally visited at least once. If you do not know how the gym is maintained from the looks of it then it is likely to be well kept. You should not see a nasty gym in a good program. It should be maintained, all equipment should be functional, bathrooms should be clean and it should have a friendly atmosphere. You do not want to study gymnastics at a gym that is dirty, if they are unwilling to devote time to keeping the gym clean, imagine the condition of the equipment.

If you are interested in studying gymnastics to a level of competition then look for a gym with a highly competitive team. This ensures that you have the greatest opportunities available for expanding your knowledge and can learn about competition strategies in a safe and secure environment. This is not always as easy as it seems since not all gyms offer competition teams.

Look for a program that is organized. You do not want to participate in a program that cannot provide you quickly with the names of coaches, instruction levels, dates, classes, and other relevant information. If they are unable to provide you with information before you sign up, they likely will not be able to help you after you sign up. Take first impressions seriously and avoid any gyms that you are not comfortable with.

You should also look for a gym that has multiple pieces of equipment. There should always be more than one type of equipment. Time wasted during practice waiting on equipment to open up is merely a waste and is not valuable at all. A proper gym should be well aware of this and have plenty of equipment to avoid wasted time and increase training opportunities as much as possible.

You should also look for a gym that will allow for individual practice time. Whether you have to pay for the time or it is free is dependent upon the gym. However, these times are important to work with equipment on your own to work on mastering skills that are not always easy to conquer. Without the ability to practice in the safe protected gym, your risk of injury increases as well. Realize that most gyms do not offer coaches during the practice hours though, so you are essentially on your own to practice.

In addition, it is very important to select a gym with a fitness and strength program as well. While gymnastics training is important training the entire body is vital to success as well. Good knowledgeable gyms are well aware of this fact and will work to ensure that you are properly trained from head to toe. This means spending almost as much time training with weights and conditioning exercises as practicing gymnastics at first for most people. This is perfectly normal and should be expected. You should actually question any gym that does not require conditioning and strength training as a part of their gymnastics program.

Finding the right gym is possible. If you live in a large area, your options are likely to be much larger but it is still possible to find the perfect gym for your needs even when you live in a very small area. It is not necessary to move to a new town or state to find a good gym. They exist almost everywhere and most are good and reputable. Following these guidelines ensures you only work with the best for your entire gymnastics career.

Published with Blogomator

If you have ever attended a gymnastics competition you know that there is more than just a flawless routine involved in receiving a good score. Between appropriate dress and looking the role of a winner, you can help give the judges a good impression of you by following some simple steps and practicing your routine until you have it perfected.

Aside from the obvious idea of practicing you should always make sure you get plenty of rest before competitions. While you are going to be nervous, excited and probably have trouble sleeping it is important that you take the time you need to rest. Get at least a minimum of eight hours of sleep before a competition to ensure that you are well rested. Slacking on sleep means you will not have as much energy to devote to your routine and can look quite run down. This is never appealing to judges no matter how well you perform your routine.

You should always ensure that you smile. Not smiling can make you look sad, grumpy, or even tired. Not exactly the star traits that the judges are looking for. No matter how bad your day is going, put a smile on during your routine and try to make sure it does not look forced or faked. A small natural smile will go so far in winning over the judges and help cast your entire routine in a positive light.

Stretch and stand up straight. Never, ever walk out onto a mat while you are slouching. This is a huge faux pas and gives the judges an awful first impression. Impression is everything and you want to portray perfection just in simple tasks such as walking. So stand up straight and lift that chin. Never show that you are scared or afraid, try to keep your emotions bottled up, which will help you appear much calmer as well.

Look confident the entire time you are in front of the judges. This includes before and during your routine. You can look confident by always standing straight, keeping your legs straight, and keeping your chin up. Dropping your chin or bending your legs can make you look weak and unsure of yourself. You want to portray to the judges that you are the best they have ever seen. Keep your routine flowing and always recover quickly if you make a mistake. Make sure your movements are sharp and crisp and avoid slow and sloppy movements.

Make sure you stretch thoroughly before doing your routing in front of the judges. Never wait until the last moment to warm up either, you should start warming up a minimum of 30 minutes before your turn in front of the judges. This will allow you plenty of time to warm up your muscles slowly. Rushing through a warm up to hurry and perform can leave you injured and upset. If you rush through your warm up it can also have the negative effect of shaking your nerves. When in a competition you must remain calm, this means a slow warm up, taking your time getting ready and avoiding all stress as much as possible. A slow warm up is relaxing while a rushed warm up will leave you stressed.

Your last step should be always tuning out your competition as much as possible. Someone will always be better than you, and you will always be better than someone else. This is the facts of competition, accept it, and instead of focusing on the competition focus on doing your best.

Published with Blogomator

If you are looking to really help your child develop gymnastics into something more than just a random rare hobby then there are a few steps and tips that can be quite helpful, especially for parents who have never ventured into the world of gymnastics before. Working together with your child’s coach can be a very rewarding experience, but most coaches are not able to hold the hands of parents, which leaves many parents wondering what they can do.

To start with the first step you should take to help develop your little gymnast is to seek out a coach that they feel comfortable working with. If your child is scared of the coach for any reason, it may be a good idea to change coaches no matter how good the coach is supposed to be. Your child will not develop to the best of their abilities if they are frightened and afraid so ensuring your child is comfortable is a very important step.

You should also look for a coach with many years of experience. If the coach is fairly new it increases the risks of injuries, and nothing can kill the dreams of a fantastic gymnastics career faster than a severe injury. Working with someone who is experienced can really help to reduce the risk of injury and also ensures your child learns the best and safest methods for all techniques and tricks.

Listen to your child. If they say that there is a problem, you should listen to what they have to say. It may be a problem with their leotard, it may be a problem where they are hurting, or they could just be tired. Anytime your child has a problem you should listen and work to resolve the problem. If they are tired, make sure they are getting plenty of sleep; if they are hurting see if you can figure out why as well as how to stop the pain.

Consider changing programs once your child has developed the skills and desire necessary. While not all parents have this problem, many parents face the issue of their child outgrowing the coach or the gym. Never a pleasant experience, this means it is time to start looking for a new coach to handle your child’s development. While nobody likes the ideas of leaving a coach whom they are comfortable with, it must be done sometimes in order to find a coach who is able to help your child continue their development, rather than get into a rut.

Never jump into moving your child across the country immediately. This is not usually a good idea for your child, and is a decision that takes a lot of careful consideration. While it may seem best to move across the country to work with a particular coach, think about what your child is going to give up in the process. They are going to lose their school, friends, home and possibly even more. This can sometimes make the idea of moving for gymnastics seem like a horrible punishment, rather than as the opportunity to grow and improve.

Finally, you want to ensure that your little gymnast has the medical treatment they need when they need it. This means often taking seemingly unnecessary trips to the doctor for check ups and treatment. What may seem to you as a small and insignificant injury can actually develop into a serious problem if not properly treated. This is especially important in the muscles and tendons of a gymnast. If an injury results in the development of scar tissue, then the gymnast has lost some of their flexibility that they cannot regain. Which is critical since gymnastics puts great emphasis on flexibility as well as strength.

Keeping your child as happy and healthy as possible is one of the biggest steps that parents can take to help their child develop. Remember, doing nothing more than spending all of their time locked away inside of a gym is never an idea situation for your child and should be avoided at all costs. Instead, look for ways to get them out of the house and stimulate their minds as much as their bodies, which will help them, concentrate even more while they are practicing or competing.

Published with Blogomator

It is the responsibility of the parents in any sport to ensure that the child knows what to expect. Gymnastics is certainly no different; the only difference is the moves performed rather than running dozens of laps or swimming for hours. Ensuring that you teach your child a few things can be a great help to their overall success in gymnastics as well as your sanity as the parent.

You should teach your child immediately that they are going to make mistakes. It is how they handle these mistakes that will determine their success. If a child is determined, that each time they try a new routine it must be perfect without fail then they are going to ultimately harm their self-esteem. It is important to understand that mistakes are going to happen, but accepting that fact and moving along to learn from them is very important.

Additionally, it is a wise idea to help your child decide what is most important to them in their life. Set up a schedule for their activities that reflects this. Whether their goal is to become an Olympic athlete or even just use gymnastics as a simple hobby having some specific ideas in mind about what they want to do in the future is often helpful in keeping young gymnasts focuses on the major goals that they have.

Another important lesson for your child is teaching patience with the dozens if not hundreds of repetitions that are necessary in order to truly master a skill. Many gymnasts practice a skill as many as thousands of times before the movement feels completely natural and flowing to them. This is not unheard of however; most children really do not have the patience for this and need help in learning this skill. It is important to really give your child the help they need in ensuring they practice enough. You can never do too many repetitions of a new skill.

Help your child prepare for competitions by expecting the unexpected. This means packing a complete first aid kit that can handle everything from rips to scrapes. Additionally having an extra uniform and even spare change of clothes is helpful. You should also ensure that you child has an extra pair of grips, and plenty of chalk to ensure that they are fully prepared. In addition, working with your child to practice their routine with music stopping in the middle and other stressful situations can help them relax and fully prepare for the competition.

One last step that all parents should take that is often overlooked is setting up a schedule that includes time away from gymnastics and school. Your child needs plenty of time to practice gymnastics of course, but it is also very important that they have the opportunity to rest and enjoy themselves as well. Working and pushing too hard can result in your child burning out or injuring themselves, which is never advisable.

Working together with your child’s coach none of these things are difficult. Working towards your child’s success is well worth the small amount of time that is necessary to ensure that you are setting them up to be a success rather than a failure. While everyone has different ways of handling schedules and stress working with your child to help them plan and adjust quickly is one of the best things you can do for your child.

Never be afraid to ask your child’s coach for help. If you have a problem and you are unsure of how to handle it, such as helping your child calm down before meets your child’s coach can usually help. They have the knowledge and experience to make your job as a parent much easier. Use them to your benefit, rather than avoiding them. They are here to help you and your child attain the exact results that you desire rather than leaving you frustrated and confused.

Published with Blogomator

If you are looking to improve your flexibility then you are looking to improve your overall performance as a gymnast. If you are looking for a way to dramatically improve your skills then improving your flexibility is the single most important thing you can do. This means that simply changing your stretching routine can have a huge impact on your overall abilities.

If you are working towards improving your flexibility there are several things that you can do to improve quickly. One of the first is realize that if you improve your flexibility you are also able to improve how quickly your body learns new moves. This means improving your flexibility is a pressing need.

If you are looking at flexibility there are two ways to improve, the first is statically and the second is dynamically. Dynamic is also called active, and examples of that include split leaps and kicks. Examples of static flexibility include scales and other similar exercises. It is very important to mix up the type of exercises that you do to ensure that you are getting the maximum benefit possible.

If you are working on improving flexibility, the use of your natural body weight is a great way to help you improve as well. This allows you to carefully put controlled pressure on the muscles and ensure that you are capable of improving your flexibility slowly and without causing an injury. Using body weight to help improve your flexibility is a very simple method to use.

Additionally it is necessary to work on building your strength in each stretched position. This is important because many gymnastic positions require you to get in positions that are stretched and hold them for a few moments. This is a very difficult skill if you do not have the muscle strength necessary to hold the position. Slowly working to build this strength is best, and one of the best ways to do it is by continuously working and practicing the moves.

It is very important to understand that in addition to leg and back flexibility being very important it is also important to have flexible shoulders and arms so that acrobatic positions look proper and feel correct. If you do not have the flexibility necessary to move in required positions then it is very difficult to control movements and to perform a routine correctly.

One of the best ways to improve your flexibility easily is to carefully work out a plan to inject a bit of stretching into almost everything you do in normal life. This could be something as simple as doing a few stretches while you watch a couple of minutes of television, or even stretching while you are in the shower, or walking up stairs. Looking at each thing you do in a day as an opportunity to stretch will allow you to use some creative thinking and make the most of your flexibility while improving your levels slowly.

It is especially important to build good levels of flexibility so that the judges can clearly see the positions that you are trying to execute. In addition, judges do notice when someone has an exceptionally high flexibility level and do tend to award them higher marks than those who are not as flexible. While having flexibility of 180 degrees is all that is required, going a step further and above and beyond the minimum requirements is also looked upon favorably.

Published with Blogomator

Gymnastics always has the ability to leave people breathless and amazed at how simple the routines look, while being amazingly quick moving. Yet in the real world of the gymnasts performing, it is not easy to perform at all. Gymnastics is a skill that takes many, many years to master and many end up retiring their gymnastics careers before they ever master all of the skills.

During the course of a gymnastics career there are likely to be several injuries ranging from mild and easily healed to those that are major and can potentially end a career quite early. Sometimes the difference between a minor injury and a severe injury depends on the type of planning that is put into each routine and practice. For example, following some simple guidelines can help you avoid as many injuries as possible.

One of the first things that all gymnasts should be taught is how to properly fall. This is because falling is almost as much a part of gymnastics as the actual tricks and routines themselves. Having the knowledge and training to help control your fall can often mean the difference between finishing a routine or being carried off of the floor. Practice on occasion the falling techniques that you are initially taught to ensure you are still capable of helping yourself.

A gymnast should never attempt any trick that they do not fully understand first. Always watch several times and ensure that you understand the exact order that steps are performed before you try yourself. Once you have a general idea of what you are doing, always ensure someone is with you in case you are injured.

Ensure you always have a firm idea of how your body should feel, as well as look during a trick. You should immediately stop if something does not feel right. For example, if you feel that you foot is pointing in the wrong direction stop and find out why. Some gymnasts have discovered that they injured themselves and their leg was sprained or even broken as a result of feeling the position did not feel right. Never be afraid to stop and try again, rather than pressing ahead and making a potential injury worse.

Take some toning and conditioning classes. These will help you strengthen all of the muscles in the body to help reduce the damage that can occur from weak muscles. Taking two short classes each week is generally sufficient, however some gymnast prefer to take classes much more often. The choice of how often is ultimately up to you, but at least two a week is highly recommended.

You should always focus when performing tricks or practicing routines. While talking to others may seem like fun, being able to walk away at the end of the day is even more fun. Talk to your friends after doing the routine or trick, rather than while you are attempting the trick.

Never practice without the appropriate clothing. Gymnasts are required to wear leotards for several reasons. First, they allow coaches an unobstructed view of the body and how it is moving, and second because there is nothing to be accidently caught while in the middle of a trick. Wearing sweatpants, jackets, or other clothing can be an accident waiting to happen.

Finally, you should remove all jewelry before practice or competition. This is important because rings, bracelets, earrings, and even necklaces can cause serious injuries if they are hung on something while you are moving. Remove them and store them safely in your bag rather than risking an injury.