• What is rhythmic gymnastics?
• Origin and history of rhythmic gymnastics
• Rhythmic gymnastics apparatus
• Characteristics of a gymnast
• Most important rhythmic gymnastics competitions
• Other types of gymnastics

We explain what rhythmic gymnastics is, its history and main competitions. In addition, we tell you what devices he uses.

Rhythmic gymnastics is mostly practiced by female athletes.

What is rhythmic gymnastics?

Rhythmic gymnastics, sometimes called modern rhythmic gymnastics, is a sport Olympic in which elements of the dance, the theater and the gym, to execute series of physical exercises in a graceful, aesthetic and harmonious way. Rhythmic gymnastics is closely related to gymnastics. artistic gymnastics female and can be part of competitions or simply exhibitions to the public, in the latter case a sports practice close to the performing arts.

Normally the practice of rhythmic gymnastics is done to the beat of the music of a single instrument (usually the piano) and with the assistance of gymnastic apparatus such as hoops, balls, clubs and ribbons. This discipline is mostly practiced by female athletes and, like other forms of gymnastics, is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), based in Moutier, Switzerland.

A typical performance of rhythmic gymnastics is performed individually or in groups of six members, in sequences that go from a minute to a minute and a half (in the case of individual performance) or from two and a half minutes to three (in the case of the group). The movements of the gymnast during the execution are free, it is usual that they involve at least two movements considered "superior" (due to their degree of difficulty), and aspects such as originality, fluidity and accuracy are evaluated. esthetic of the movement routine.

Origin and history of rhythmic gymnastics

Pehr Henrik Ling started the "Northern Movement" in the early 19th century.

Although gymnastics has a well-known history in the Antiquity classic, its first modern appearances date from the eighteenth century in Europe Western. Its germ was the theories of the French anthropologist Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) on the physical development of infants and its importance in the educational process, something that until then was not part of pedagogical concerns.

These ideas were put into practice by the German pedagogue Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790), who inaugurated a current of physical education that would be followed later by many others, among them the Swedish Pehr Henrik Ling, initiator of the "Movement of the North" that created the Swedish academy in 1814.

Ling was the creator of an "aesthetic gymnastics" that escaped the rigid formats of the military world and physical exercise, and allowed students to express emotional content through body movements.

The success of this model allowed it to be transferred to the United States in 1837 by Catharine Beecher, founder of the Western Female Institute (“Western Female Institute”) in Ohio, where the grace without dancing, something like "elegance without dance", a method of female exercise to the rhythm of music. In 1864, Professor Diocletian Lewis went even further, incorporating different artifacts into the exercises: weights, clubs and wooden rings.

Another important predecessor was, towards the end of the 19th century, the French musician and teacher François Delsarte (1811-1871), who worked with actors whom he taught to use the body more expressively, using exercises inspired by the method of ling. Thus he created a method (the “Delsarte method”) that would be fundamental for the creation of the Center Movement, a direct precursor in Austria, Germany and Switzerland of modern rhythmic gymnastics.

The Center Movement was very successful at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to the incorporation of eurythmics (eurythmics), created by the Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950), which was a method of teaching music through physical exercises.

The greatest exponent of this European dance movement was a student of Dalcroze himself, the German Rudolf Bode, to whom we owe the emergence of the expressive gymnastics, name by which rhythmic gymnastics was then called. Bode founded his school in Munich in 1911 and in 1922 published the successful book expressive gymnastics where he laid the foundations for this new form of artistic-sports discipline.

Bode's work was key to the popularization of rhythmic gymnastics in the world, and was continued by the German Heinrich Medau, creator in 1929 in Berlin of the Movement College. Medau focused on creating a specific method for young and adult women, which would not only be aesthetic but beneficial for health.

These novel theories and movements became known to the world in the Olympic Games of Berlin in 1936, together with the contributions of other important Swedish and Finnish schools that pursued a more fluid gymnastics, less rigid in its movements.

Although this women's sport had been practiced for the first time at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, under the name of modern gymnastics, it was from the 1934 World Gymnastics Championship (the first to accept female competition) that rhythmic gymnastics gained true international relevance. The rhythmic gymnastics schools of the Soviet Union, where it was called artistic gymnastics (a name that today is reserved for another discipline).

Then, in 1962, the International Gymnastics Federation was founded, dedicated to standardizing the practice of this sport, and in 1963 the first Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship was organized in Budapest, whose champion was the Soviet Ludmila Savinkova. Since then, it was decided to hold the championship every two years, thus beginning a stage of worldwide expansion of the discipline, which ended in 1984 with the incorporation of rhythmic gymnastics as an official Olympic sport.

Rhythmic gymnastics apparatus

The use of clubs requires maximum psychomotor precision.

The practice of rhythmic gymnastics involves not only the gymnast, but also a series of gymnastic elements or apparatus, whose dimensions are standardized by the International Gymnastics Federation. This body also decides which elements are appropriate for each age category in the competition: benjamín (below 9 years), alevín (from 9 to 11 years), infantile (from 11 to 13 years), junior (from 13 to 15 years) and juvenile (from 15 years onwards).

The devices most used in this practice are:

Rope

Made of hemp or other synthetic fibers, it has knots at the ends, like handles, and its length varies according to the age of the gymnast. Its execution consists of turns, blows, throws and harmonic jumps, ensuring that the rope touches the ground as little as possible.

Ring

It is a rigid plastic hoop, weighing about 300 grams and between 80 and 90 centimeters in diameter, and can reach up to the gymnast's waist in height. It can be smooth or rough, and is usually wrapped in colored ribbons. Its execution involves the imaginary creation of a space, within which the gymnast moves, entering and leaving the hoop in a graceful and coordinated manner, making it roll, jump and turn at the same time.

The ball

It is a rubber or plastic ball between 18 and 20 centimeters in diameter and weighing at least 400 grams, which accompanies the gymnast in her execution and must keep moving: rolling, turning, bouncing, but never remaining immobile on the ground. .

The gymnast is expected to handle the ball smoothly and easily, without gripping it too tightly, and to perform vertical throws, bounces, rolls, rotations and other tricks with it while always keeping the ball under her control.

the maces

These are plastic, rubber or wooden rods of about 8 to 5 decimeters in length and about 150 grams in weight, with a spherical head and a thin neck that allow them to be held firmly.

It is an ideal device for ambidextrous gymnasts, since it requires both hands to handle it through turns, turns and other asymmetric figures that imply maximum psychomotor precision. The maces can hit each other gently, they can be thrown in the air or held in the hands.

Tape

Made of a non-starched material such as satin, it consists of a cloth ribbon tied at one end to a wooden, plastic, or fiberglass rod or stiletto, which serves to control the ribbon and move it around the gymnast or her limbs. .

The ribbon is between 4 and 6 centimeters wide and up to 6 meters long, and is normally used to create zigzag figures, spirals and other silhouettes that harmonize with the movements of the gymnast, in such a way that the end of the tape never touches the ground and is in continuous movement.

Characteristics of a gymnast

Rhythmic gymnasts master movements such as jumps, rotations, balances, and push-ups.

Compared to other sports disciplines, rhythmic gymnastics practitioners lead short and demanding sports lives, which start at an early age.In general, they have short and robust bodies, ideal for the symmetry of movement and the combination of three fundamental instances: the beauty of movements, mastery over the apparatus and coordination musical.

In general, rhythmic gymnasts are expected to master a set of movements, such as:

• jumps. They are movements in which the gymnast acquires a certain flight, holding artistic poses similar to those of ballet and dance. These jumps must always be in coordination with the apparatus used.
• Rotations. They are turns made on the body axis, leaning on points or on some part of the body, to achieve at least a 360 ° movement. During the turn the gymnast must maintain a graceful and strong body form, often holding the rest of the limbs in the air.
• Balances. They are postures that the gymnast holds for a few seconds, normally on one leg, either on pointe, half pointe or flat foot, coordinating the body posture with the apparatus in use. Depending on the sustained figure, one can speak of I passed, grand écart, arabesque, among others.
• Push-ups. They are body movements that test flexibility and body coordination, performed on the support of a foot or any other part of the body.

Most important rhythmic gymnastics competitions

The World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships have been held since 1963.

The competitions The most outstanding in rhythmic gymnastics are the following:

• The Olympic Games International, organized by the International Olympic Committee and held every 4 years.
• The World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, organized annually by the International Gymnastics Federation since 1963 (except in Olympic years).
• The European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, organized annually since 1978 by the European Gymnastics Union (UEG).
• The Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup, organized by the International Gymnastics Federation since 1983, biannually.

Other types of gymnastics

In addition to rhythmic gymnastics, there are other gymnastic disciplines, such as:

• General gymnastics. Also known as "gymnastics for all", it is the only non-competitive gymnastic discipline, that is, it is performed for the pure enjoyment of exercise and wellness bodily. People of all ages can participate, and it consists of executing movements in a synchronized manner, generally in groups of between 6 and 15 gymnasts.
• The artistic gymnastics. It is an Olympic discipline that consists of performing high-speed and demanding choreographies, through body movements performed on different gymnastic devices, such as the rack, the bar, the rings, among others.
• Aerobic gymnastics. Also known as “sports aerobics”, it is a gymnastic discipline that consists of executing different sequences of high-intensity movements derived from traditional aerobics, in periods of a minute or a minute and a half.
• Trampoline gymnastics. It is an acrobatic gymnastic discipline, which uses trampolines and other elastic devices so that the athlete can perform different jumps, pirouettes and body exercises.
• Acrobatic gymnastics. Also known as "acrosport", it is a group gymnastic discipline (in duets, trios, quartets or more) in whose collaborative practice the body of one athlete serves as an instrument for another and vice versa, in order to perform human pyramids, jumps, figures and choreographies.