Traploining and Tumbling

Trampolining is a variation of gymnastics in which gymnasts perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. These can include simple moves such as jumps in the pike, tuck or straddle position to more complex combinations of twists and forward or backward somersaults.There are three related competitive rebound sports: synchronized trampoline, tumbling and double mini-trampoline.

Jason Burnett at the 2008
Canadian National Championships

            In the early 1930s, George Nissen saw a trapeze artiste perform tricks when he bounced off the safety net. He made the first modern trampoline in his garage to reproduce this on a smaller scale and to help with his diving and tumbling activities. He formed a company to build trampolines for sale and used a variant of the Spanish word trampolin (diving board) as a trademarked name. He used the trampoline to entertain audiences and also let them participate in his demonstrations as part of his marketing strategy. These were the beginnings of a new type of gymnastics.
            In America, trampolining was soon introduced into school physical education programs and was also used in private entertainment centers. However, following a number of injuries and law suits caused by  inadequate training and insufficient supervision, trampolining is now mostly conducted in specialist gyms with certified trainers. This caused a large reduction in the number of competitive athletes in the United States and a consequent decline from the American prominence in the sport. Elsewhere in the world the sport was most strongly embraced in Europe and Russia. Since trampolining became an Olympic sport in 2000, many more countries have started developing programs and countries such as China and Japan are already producing very competitive gymnasts.
            Routines are performed on standard 14 foot by 7 foot sized trampolines with 5 millimeter by 4 millimeter threads and central markers. Each routine consists of the athlete performing ten different skills starting and finishing on the feet. The routine is marked out of 10 by five judges with deductions for incomplete moves, moving too far from the center mark or poor form. Usually the highest and lowest scores are discarded. Additional points can be added depending on the difficulty of the skills being performed. The degree of difficulty (tariff) is calculated by adding a factor for each half twist or quarter somersault. Difficulty is important in a routine, however, there are differences in opinion between various coaches whether it is better to focus on increasing the difficulty of routines given that this usually results in a reduced form score or to focus on improving execution scores by displaying better form in an easier routine. A new development in senior level competitions in 2010 is to add a "Time of Flight" score to the overall score benefiting athletes who can maintain greater height during their routines.

Rythmic Gymnastics

Russian Rhythmic Team at the
2008 Beijing Olympics

Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport where individuals or teams of competitors, varying in size from 2 people to 6 people, use one or two pieces of apparatus: rope, clubs, hoop, ball, ribbon or none (called "floor routine"). An individual athlete can only use one apparatus at a time while teams of gymnasts performing a routine together can use up to two types of apparatus within the group. An a competitor can exchange apparatus with a team member at any time throughout the routine. Therefore, an athlete can manipulate up to two different pieces of apparatus during a routine. Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport that combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, dance, and apparatus manipulation. The victor is the participant who earns the most points, determined by a panel of judges, for leaps, balances, pirouettes (pivots), flexibilities, apparatus handling, execution, and artistic effect.
            The FIG changed the Code of Points in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2008 to emphasize technical elements and reduce the subjectivity of judging. Before 2001, judging was on a scale of 10 like that of artistic gymnastics. It was changed to a 30-point scale in 2003, a 20-point scale in 2005, and in 2008 it was changed back to 30 points. There are three values adding up to be the final points: technical, artistic, and execution. The FIG also selects which apparatus will be used in competitions; only four out of the five possible apparatuses are sanctioned. Up to 2010, the clubs were not used at the Senior level. For 2011 rope will be dropped for senior national, then in 2012 it will be dropped for junior national, and in 2013 it will be dropped in novice, and will continued to be dropped through the years descending national to provincial to interclub until eventually rope will be completely out of rhythmic gymnastics. There is strong opposition to this from fans of the sport across the globe.

Artistic Gymnastics

Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines, about half a minute to a minute and a half, on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting. The FIG designed the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations, such as BAGA in Britain, USA Gymnastics in America, the Russian Federation of Aesthetic Gymnastics in Russia and Gymnastics Ireland in Ireland. Artistic gymnastics is one of the main gymnastic events at the Summer Olympic Games, and in many different gymnastics competitions.

 Daniel Keatings at the 2009
Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

           Scoring at the international level is regulated by the Code of Points. This system was significantly overhauled by 2006. Under the new Code of Points there are two different panels judging different aspects of the performance. Panel A covers difficulty, element group requirements and connection value and panel B covers composition, execution and artistry. The largest change to the Code was the abandonment of the "Perfect 10" for an open-ended scoring system for difficulty (the A score). The B score is still limited to a maximum of 10. The sum of the two provides a gymnast's total score for the routine. Theoretically this means scores could be infinite!

Variations

This is just a small post to tell you that I will be making many posts soon about the different types of gymnastics around the world, how they're scored and different types of gymnastics between males and females.

Devlopment

The phrase "artistic gymnast" did not start to be used until the 1800s. It started to be used to distinguish the type of gymnastics known to you and me from the type of gymnastic techniques that the military used to train  soldiers. The ruling body of gymnastics around the world, The  Federation of International Gymnastics, also known as the FIG, was formed in 1881 to create governing body to write up a set of internationally recognized rules. The gymnastics that we would be able identify without any problems was formed over the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and by 1954 apparatus and uniform grading (a point system of 1 to 15) had been modernized and standardized.

Origins

The word gymnastics originally came from the Greek word for naked, gymnos, because people usually competed naked. The ancient Greeks believed gymnastics was a perfect balance between mind and body. Gymnasts, as well as taking part in physical gymnastics, also received training in philosophy, music and literature at the gymnasiums. Roman soldiers also trained in gymnastic type training for battle.

The Intro

Hey.
     I'm going to be writing about the geography of Gymnastics, this includes it's history, where it came from, how it's changed over the years and different types of gymnastics around the world.