It is becoming increasingly evident that there is a great deal of confusion surrounding the Division III New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference proposal to reinstate the "safety exception" in gymnastics. It is difficult enough to attempt to inform 400 institutions of our specific safety needs in gymnastics without complicating the issue with misinformation and confusion. The bottom line is that we gymnasts simply want to feel safe when we choose to practice outside of our competitive season.

The most common confusion regarding this issue relates to spotting. There is no other NCAA sport that needs a qualified spotter to ensure safety like gymnastics. We simply need our coaches there in case something goes wrong. In most other sports the opponent is removed during practice, or the intensity is decreased to make out-of-season practices safe. In gymnastics, neither of these two options are appropriate. We reduce injuries by being spotted. I can't do a back flip on the beam at a lower intensity without landing on my head. The other thing people don't seem to understand about our sport is that you can be injured just as easily at a low performance level as you can at a higher level.

The NCAA Injury Surveillance System corroborates my concerns. Women's gymnastics leads all NCAA sports when it comes to the percentage of injuries occurring in practices and games. Further analysis indicates that game injuries are much less prevalent in gymnastics, while injuries occurring in practice are at the top of the chart. When comparing injury rates while being spotted and without, it becomes clear that spotting is a valuable tool in the prevention of injuries.

The other problem is that spotting by itself is not enough. The Division III Management Council has stated that a coach/supervisor can be present and spot in an out-of-season situation that is open to all students. This is a start, but if the coach can only catch me when I mess up, I'll continue messing up until one of us gets hurt. We need our coaches to spot us, but we also need them to tell us how to be safe. It is a moral and legal obligation of a spotter to supply information to the performer that will help prevent incidents. I can't even begin to understand why any one would stop a coach from preventing injuries.

Another common misconception about the proposal to reinstate the safety exception is that it will in effect lengthen the season. Gymnasts just want to be able to practice safely when they decide to practice. It's false to believe that the current legislation limiting the official practice and playing season was designed to prevent students from practicing if they wanted to. If the intent of the ruling was to limit all athletics, then runners couldn't participate in 18 weeks of cross country, plus 24 weeks of indoor and outdoor track, for a total of 42 weeks. Athletes would be limited to participation in only one sport. Football players couldn't wrestle and field hockey players couldn't play lacrosse.

The current legislation is designed to give Division III athletes the opportunities to be involved in other activities. The NCAA does not state that those other activities need to be nonathletics activities. The NEWMAC proposal seems to be falling victim to the misconception that the NCAA doesn't want its athletes involved in activities of their choosing. This interpretation is a mistake.

The athletes who are promoting the proposal simply ask Division III delegates at the January Convention to think in terms of preventing injuries in gymnastics. An effective spotter is all we want -- we want to feel safe again.

Krystal Kaminski is a gymnastics student-athlete at Ithaca College.