A History of Gymnastics: From Ancient Greece to Modern Times

By Michael Strauss

The sport of gymnastics, which derives its name from the ancient Greek word for disciplinary exercises,
combines physical skills such as body control, coordination, dexterity, gracefulness, and strength with
tumbling and acrobatic skills, all performed in an artistic manner. Gymnastics is performed by both men
and women at many levels, from local clubs and schools to colleges and universities, and in elite national
and international competitions.

Gymnastics was introduced in early Greek civilization to facilitate bodily development through a series of
exercises that included running, jumping, swimming, throwing, wrestling, and weight lifting. Many basic
gymnastic events were practiced in some form before the introduction by the Greeks of gymnazein,
literally, "to exercise naked." Physical fitness was a highly valued attribute in ancient Greece, and both
men and women participated in vigorous gymnastic exercises. The Romans, after conquering Greece,
developed the activities into a more formal sport, and they used the gymnasiums to physically prepare
their legions for warfare. With the decline of Rome, however, interest in gymnastics dwindled, with
tumbling remaining as a form of entertainment.

Modern Gymnastics

In 1774, a Prussian, Johann Bernhard Basedow, included physical exercises with other forms of
instruction at his school in Dessau, Saxony. With this action began the modernization of gymnastics, and
also thrust the Germanic countries into the forefront in the sport. In the late 1700s, Friedrich Ludwig
Jahn of Germany developed the side bar, the horizontal bar, the parallel bars, the balance beam, and
jumping events. He, more than anyone else, is considered the "father of modern gymnastics."
Gymnastics flourished in Germany in the 1800s, while in Sweden a more graceful form of the sport,
stressing rhythmic movement, was developed by Guts Muth. The opening (1811) of Jahn's school in
Berlin, to promote his version of the sport, was followed by the formation of many clubs in Europe and
later in England. The sport was introduced to the United States by Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, who taught
gymnastics in several U.S. universities about the time of the Civil War, and who is credited with inventing
more than 30 pieces of apparatus. Most of the growth of gymnastics in the United States centered on
the activities of European immigrants, who introduced the sport in their new cities in the 1880s. Clubs
were formed as Turnverein and Sokol groups, and gymnasts were often referred to as "turners." Modern
gymnastics excluded some traditional events, such as weight lifting and wrestling, and emphasized form
rather than personal rivalry.

Modern Competition

Men's gymnastics was on the schedule of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, and it has been on
the Olympic agenda continually since 1924. Olympic gymnastic competition for women began in 1936
with an all-around competition, and in 1952 competition for the separate events was added. In the early
Olympic competitions the dominant male gymnasts were from Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland,
the countries where the sport first developed. But by the 1950s, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the
Eastern European countries began to produce the leading male and female gymnasts.

Modern gymnastics gained considerable popularity because of the performances of Olga Korbut of the
Soviet Union in the 1972 Olympics, and Nadia Comaneci of Romania in the 1976 Olympics. The
widespread television coverage of these dramatic performances gave the sport the publicity that it
lacked in the past. Many countries other than the traditional mainstays at the time — the USSR, Japan,
East and West Germany, and other Eastern European nations — began to promote gymnastics,
particularly for women; among these countries were China and the United States.

Modern international competition has six events for men and four events for women. The men's events
are the rings, parallel bars, horizontal bar, side or pommel-horse, long or vaulting horse, and floor (or
free) exercise. These events emphasize upper body strength and flexibility along with acrobatics. The
women's events are the vaulting horse, balance beam, uneven bars, and floor exercise, which is
performed with musical accompaniment. These events combine graceful, dancelike movements with
strength and acrobatic skills. In the United States, tumbling and trampoline exercises are also included in
many competitions.

Teams for international competitions are made up of six gymnasts. In the team competition each
gymnast performs on every piece of equipment, and the team with the highest number of points wins.
There is also a separate competition for the all-around title, which goes to the gymnast with the highest
point total after performing on each piece of equipment, and a competition to determine the highest
score for each individual apparatus.

Another type of competitive gymnastics for women is called rhythmic gymnastics, an Olympic sport since
1984. Acrobatic skills are not used. The rhythmic gymnast performs graceful, dancelike movements while
holding and moving items such as a ball, hoop, rope, ribbon, or Indian clubs, with musical
accompaniment. Routines are performed individually or in group performances for six gymnasts.

Scoring

Gymnastic competitions are judged and scored on both an individual and a team basis. Each competitor
must accomplish a required number of specific types of moves on each piece of equipment. Judges
award points to each participant in each event on a 0-to-10 scale, 10 being perfect. Judging is strictly
subjective; however, guidelines are provided for judges so that they can arrive at relatively unbiased
scores.

Usually there are four judges, and the highest and lowest scores are dropped to provide a more objective
evaluation. Gymnasts try to perform the most difficult routines in the most graceful way, thus impressing
the judges with their mastery of the sport.
Gymnastics is a sport that requires balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and endurance. The
movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back,
chest and abdominal muscle groups. Alertness, precision, daring, self-confidence and self-discipline are
mental traits that can also be developed through gymnastics.[1] Gymnastics evolved from exercises used
by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus
performance skills.

Most forms of competitive gymnastics events are governed by the Fédération Internationale de
Gymnastique (FIG). Each country has its own national governing body (BIW) affiliated to FIG. Competitive
artistic gymnastics is the best known of the gymnastic events. It typically involves the women's events of
vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise as well as the men's events of floor exercise,
pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.

Other FIG disciplines include rhythmic gymnastics, trampolining and tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics,
aerobic gymnastics and parkour. Disciplines not currently recognized by FIG include wheel gymnastics,
aesthetic group gymnastics, men's rhythmic gymnastics, TeamGym and mallakhamba. Participants can
include children as young as 20 months old doing kindergym and children's gymnastics, recreational
gymnasts of ages 3 and up, competitive gymnasts at varying levels of skill, and world-class athletes.

Etymology

The word gymnastics derives from the common Greek adjective (gymnos),[2] by way of the related verb
γυμνάζω (gymnazo), whose meaning is to "train naked", "train in gymnastic exercise", generally "to train,
to exercise".[3] The verb had this meaning, because athletes in ancient times exercised and competed
without clothing. It came into use in the 1570s, from Latin gymnasticus, from Greek gymnastikos "fond
of or skilled in bodily exercise," from gymnazein "to exercise or train" (see gymnasium).

History

Gymnastics developed in ancient Greece, in Sparta and Athens, and was used as method to prepare men
for warfare. In Sparta, among the activities introduced into the training program was the Agoge or
exhibition gymnastics made up of gymnastic elements in the form of the Pyrrhic-a dance in a military
style-performed for state dignitaries in the final year of a student's training. The maneuvers were
performed naked except for the tools of war. Athens combined this more physical training with
education of the mind. At the Palestra, a physical education training center, the discipline of educating
the body and educating the mind were combined allowing for a form of gymnastics that was more
aesthetic and individual and which left behind the form that focused on strictness, discipline, the
emphasis on defeating records, and focus on strength.[4]

In the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Germany, two pioneer physical educators – Johann
Friedrich GutsMuths (1759–1839) and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778–1852) – created exercises for boys
and young men on apparatus they had designed that ultimately led to what is considered modern
gymnastics. Don Francisco Amorós y Ondeano, was born on February 19, 1770 in Valencia and died on
August 8, 1848 in Paris. He was a Spanish colonel, and the first person to introduce educative gymnastic
in France. Jahn promoted the use of parallel bars, rings and high bars in international competition.[5]

Early 20th-century gymnastics in Stockholm, Sweden

The Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) was founded in Liege in 1881.[6] By the end of the
nineteenth century, men's gymnastics competition was popular enough to be included in the first
"modern" Olympic Games in 1896. From then on until the early 1950s, both national and international
competitions involved a changing variety of exercises gathered under the rubric, gymnastics, that
included for example, synchronized team floor calisthenics, rope climbing, high jumping, running, and
horizontal ladder. During the 1920s, women organized and participated in gymnastics events. The first
women's Olympic competition was primitive, only involving synchronized calisthenics and track and field.
These games were held in 1928, in Amsterdam.

By 1954, Olympic Games apparatus and events for both men and women had been standardized in
modern format, and uniform grading structures (including a point system from 1 to 15) had been agreed
upon. At this time, Soviet gymnasts astounded the world with highly disciplined and difficult
performances, setting a precedent that continues. Television has helped publicize and initiate a modern
age of gymnastics. Both men's and women's gymnastics now attract considerable international interest,
and excellent gymnasts can be found on every continent.

In 2006, a new points system for Artistic gymnastics was put into play. With an A Score (or D score) being
the difficulty score, which as of 2009 is based on the top 8 high scoring elements in a routine (excluding
Vault). The B Score (or E Score), is the score for execution, and is given for how well the skills are
performed.[7]

Artistic gymnastics

Artistic Gymnastics is usually divided into Men's and Women's Gymnastics. Men compete on six events:
Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar, while women compete
on four: Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise. In some countries, women at one time
competed on the rings, high bar, and parallel bars (for example, in the 1950s in the USSR).

In 2006, FIG introduced a new points system for Artistic gymnastics in which scores are no longer limited
to 10 points. The system is used in the US for elite level competition.[7] Unlike the old code of points,
there are two separate scores, an execution score and a difficulty score. In the previous system, the
"execution score" was the only score. It was and still is out of 10.00, except for short exercises. During
the gymnast's performance, the judges deduct this score only. A fall, on or off the event, is a 1.00
deduction, in elite level gymnastics. The introduction of the difficulty score is a significant change. The
gymnast's difficulty score is based on what elements they perform and is subject to change if they do not
perform or complete all the skills, or they do not connect a skill meant to be connected to another.
Connection bonuses are where deviation happens most common between the intended and actual
difficulty scores, as it can be difficult to connect multiple flight elements. It is very hard to connect skills if
the first skill is not performed correctly. The new code of points allows the gymnasts to gain higher
scores based on the difficulty of the skills they perform as well as their execution. There is no maximum
score for difficulty, as it can keep increasing as the difficulty of the skills increase.

Rhythmic gymnastics

Main article: Rhythmic gymnastics

According to FIG rules, only women compete in rhythmic gymnastics. This is a sport that combines
elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, and apparatus manipulation. The sport 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. There are also group routines
consisting of 5 gymnasts and 5 apparatuses of their choice. Rhythmic routines are scored out of a
possible 30 points; the score for artistry (choreography and music) is averaged with the score for
difficulty of the moves and then added to the score for execution.[17]

International competitions are split between Juniors, under sixteen by their year of birth; and Seniors,
for women sixteen and over again by their year of birth. Gymnasts in Russia and Europe typically start
training at a very young age and those at their peak are typically in their late teens (15–19) or early
twenties. The largest events in the sport are the Olympic Games, World Championships, European
Championships, World Cup and Grand-Prix Series. The first World Championships were held in 1963 with
its first appearance at the Olympics in 1984.

Trampolining

Trampolining and tumbling consists of four events, individual and synchronized trampoline, double mini
trampoline, and tumbling (also known as power tumbling or rod floor). Since 2000, individual trampoline
has been included in the Olympic Games. The first World Championships were held in 1964.

Acrobatic gymnastics

Acrobatic gymnastics (formerly Sport Acrobatics), often referred to as "Acro" if involved with the sport,
acrobatic 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. They may, subject to regulations (e.g. no lyrics), pick their own music.
There are four international age categories: 11-16, 12-18, 13-19, and Senior (15+), which are used in the
World Championships and many other events around the world, including European Championships and
World Games. All levels require a balance and dynamic routine; 12-18, 13-19, and Seniors are also
required to perform a final (combined) routine.

The World Championships have been held since 1974.

Aerobic gymnastics

Main article: Aerobic gymnastics

Aerobic gymnastics (formally Sport 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 for all individuals on a 7x7m floor and also for 12–14 and 15-17
trios and mixed pairs. From 2009, all senior trios and mixed pairs were required to be on the larger floor
(10x10m), all groups also perform on this floor. Routines generally last 60–90 seconds depending on age
of participant and routine category. The World Championships have been held since 1995.