Gymnastics

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of sequences of movements requiring physical strength, flexibility, balance and kinesthetic awareness, such as handsprings, handstands, forward rolls, aerials and tucks. It developed from beauty practices and fitness used by the ancient Greeks, including skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and circus performance skills. In ancient times the term implied exercise taken in the nude by men in a gymnasium, a venue for intellectual and physical education.
Gymnastics is considered to be a dangerous sport, due in part to the height of the apparatus, the speed of the exercises and the impact on competitors' joints, bones and muscles. Artistic gymnastics injuries have been the subject of several international medical studies, and results have indicated that more than half of all elite-level participants may eventually develop chronic injuries. In the United States, injury rates range from a high 56% for high school gymnasts to 22% for club gymnasts. However, the rates for participants in recreational or lower-level gymnastics are lower than that of high-level competitors.

Disciplines

Modern gymnastics, as regulated by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique incorporates seven distinct disciplines:
Artistic gymnastics (further classified as Men's Artistic Gymnastics and Women's Artistic Gymnastics)
Rhythmic gymnastics
Aerobic gymnastics
Acrobatic gymnastics
Trampolining
General gymnastics
Power Tumbling
Of these disciplines, the two sub-disciplines of artistic and rhythmic gymnastics are the best known, having been part of Summer Olympic Games competitions. Individual Trampoline has been included in the Summer Olympics since 2000.

Artistic gymnastics

Artistic Gymnastics is usually divided into Men's (MAG) and Women's Gymnastics (WAG), each group doing different events; Men compete on Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and High Bar, while women compete on Vault, Uneven Bars, Beam, and Floor Exercise. In the past in some countries women competed on the rings and the high bar too, at least at the national level (for example, in the 1950s in the USSR). Though routines performed on each event may be short, they are physically exhausting and push the gymnast's strength, flexibility, endurance and awareness to the limit. In the past,at the international level, competitive women's gymnastics consisted of two different categories: compulsory and optional. At the compulsory level, the gymnast performs routines that are pre-choreographed for all gymnasts. At the optional level, the gymnast performs routines that she herself choreographed or choreographed with the help of a dance choreographer. Every gymnast's routine at this advanced level will be different. Different countries may use compulsory and optional routines at their discretion in the training of young gymnasts.

Rhythmic gymnastics

The discipline of rhythmic gymnastics is competed only by women (although there is a new version of this discipline for men being pioneered in Japan, see Men's rhythmic gymnastics), and involves the performance of five separate routines with the use of five apparatus — ball, ribbon, hoop, clubs, rope — on a floor area, with a much greater emphasis on the aesthetic rather than the acrobatic. Rhythmic routines are scored out of a possible 20 points.

Aerobic gymnastics

Aerobic gymnastics (formerly Sports Aerobics) involves the performance of routines by individuals, pairs, trios or groups up to 6 people emphasizing strength, flexibility, and aerobic fitness rather than acrobatic or balance skills. Routines are performed on a small floor area and generally last 60-90 seconds, being judged out of a total of 10 points.

Trampolining

Trampolining consists of four events, individual, synchronized, double mini and trampoline. Only individual trampoline is included in the Olympics. Individual routines involve a build-up phase during which the gymnast jumps repeatedly to achieve height, followed by a sequence of ten leaps without pauses during which the gymnast performs a sequence of aerial tumbling skills. Routines are marked out of a maximum score of 10 points. Additional points (with no maximum) can be earned depending on the difficulty of the moves. Synchronized trampoline is similar except that both competitors must perform the routine together and marks are awarded for synchronicity as well as the form of the moves. Double mini trampoline involves a smaller trampoline with a run-up, two moves are performed and the scores marked in a similar manner to individual trampoline.

Acrobatic Gymnastics

Acrobatic Gymnastics (formerly Sports Acrobatics), often referred to as acrobatics, acro sports or simply sports acro, is a group gymnastic discipline for both men and women. Acrobats in groups of two, three and four perform routines with the heads, hands and feet of their partners.

History

The Ancient Greeks, physical fitness was paramount, and all Greek cities had a gymnasia, a courtyard for jumping, running, and wrestling. The Greeks tried to introduce gymnastics to the Romans, but the Romans found it immoral and banned the practice. For centuries, gymnastics was all but forgotten. In the nineteenth century, however, interest in gymnastics soared, and a men's gymnastics competition was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Over the years, gymnastics has undergone many changes. Originally, men's competition included swimming and running events, and did not acquire its present form until the 1924 Games in Paris. During the 1920s, women organized and participated in gymnastics events, and the first women's Olympic competition was held at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam. Both men's and women's gymnastics now attract international interest, and excellent gymnasts can be found on every continent. The first person to win a perfect ten in gymnastics was Nadia Comaneci, a Romanian gymnast, who now is married to Bart Conner ,a retired gymnast, and they now have a baby boy named Dylan. They live in Oklahoma. However, in 2006, a new points system was operated. Instead of being marked out of 10, the gymnasts' start value depended on the difficulty rating of the exercise routine. Also, the deductions became higher: before the new point system developed, the dedution for a fall was 0.5 and now it is 0.8. The point of a new point system was to decrease the chance of gymnasts getting a perfect score.
The first "perfect ten" was awarded to Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Olympic Games held in Montreal, Canada. She was coached by the famous Romanian, Bela Karoli. Nadia had practiced for these games since she was only six years old. Her practice paid off when she became the first gymnast to ever achieve perfection. According to "Sports Illustrated", Comaneci scored four of her perfect tens on the uneven bars, two on the balance beam and one in the floor exercise. Unfortunantely, even with Nadia's perfect scores, the Romanians lost the gold medal to the Soviets. Nadia will always be remembered as "a fourteen year old, ponytailed little girl" who showed the world that perfection could be achieved.