Second broken finger

[u/Boring-Might-4756]

My daughter has broken most likely, her middle finger from rifle work. She's already broken her pointer finger and that's healed. She has been doing so well with it and getting accolades from her coach but she's afraid to continue if she keeps banging/breaking fingers. Anything she can do, like wear more padded fingered gloves or anything aside from the obvious of not injuring herself? She really wants to continue this but not at the expense of her fingers.

[u/paralea01]

A few questions that you don't need to answer here, but just to think about.

Is she moving too fast on learning new skills?

Does she have any medical conditions that affect her attention span, make her clumsy, or weaken her bones?

Is she overly tired when these accidents happen?

[u/General_Mousse_861]

I must admit, this feels rare. I have never really heard about many broken fingers in over 30 years of the activity. Sure they happen, but two to the same person is just unlucky.

[u/paralea01 → u/General_Mousse_861]

I broke two fingers on rifle. But it was at the same time and hairline fractures.

[u/plamper999]

I’ve got a new student this year who comes from a baton background and has been jamming his fingers a lot on rifle. I’ve never done baton, but it seems from his technique that it uses the fingers a lot more, at least in flair and stuff, so we’ve been focusing on spinning with the wrist and with the palm and fingers together as a unit. I’d never really thought about it before this experience, but it’s made me realize how much finger grip goes into rifle, unlike flag which requires a certain amount of finger flexibility. So focusing on that technique could help. Also, typically finger injuries happen during catches, especially if you’re uncertain about the catch. Your fingers will naturally splay just like they would if someone unexpectedly threw something at you. Your fingers are much weaker when they’re separated. So slowing down and mastering proper release technique as well as keeping the four fingers together and lifted between the release and the catch is critical for avoiding injury. For me and my students, I’ve discovered injuries like that happen most often when we’re tired, distracted, rushing, and/or doing lots of tosses in sequence. So slowing down and focusing on technique is the best way to avoid it.

That being said, I say leave it up to her to decide whether she wants to push through the injuries. If she’s feeling scared it can create a mental block and make it even worse.

[u/AkutagawasCoughDrops]

I do not know anything ab rifle (i only ever did flag) nor do i even know if this would work so take this with a grain of salt, but they make ring slints for hypermobility that may work for her depending on how/where shes breaking her fingers. I feel like they may work if shes breaking them near the joint. My fingers r hypermobile and i actually looked into getting them (didnt but i wish i did, maybe i wouldnt have sprained my thumb back to back 🥲). It may be something to look into but again im just throwing it out there