Forms Of Gymnastics

The type of gymnastics most people know and are familiar with is “artistic gymnastics.” This is the traditional form with rings, floor exercises, vaults, parallel and unparallel bars, balance beam and horizontal bar. There are, however, other forms of gymnastics. These include, but are not limited to, rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatics and trampoline.

Rhythmic gymnastics uses an apparatus. It does not perform on one. All rhythmic gymnasts are female. They do their routines to music, utilizing a ball, a club, a hoop, a ribbon or a rope. The equipment for each event can be any color except those of award medals: gold, silver and bronze.

There are team and individual events. A typical routine may have a gymnast toss a rope high into the air. She will then perform a leap while waiting for the rope to descend. She next catches the rope by one end in one hand without missing a beat. She may toss a ball, do a roll and then catch the ball before tossing it once again. Ribbons may weave in and around her in complex and intricate patterns of arcs and spirals or a hoop will spin, bounce and roll as she jumps through it. A rhythmic gymnast, however, cannot do aerial, handsprings or acrobatics.

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Rhythmic gymnasts differ from artistic gymnasts in another fashion. They are usually older and heavier. They also suffer from less accidents and injuries. In 1984, rhythmic gymnastics became a part of the Olympic Games.

Acrobatics is another form of gymnastics. Sports acrobatics is an event both males and females can take part in as mixed doubles. Sports acrobatics consists of pairs: a man and a man, a woman and a woman or a man and a woman. Three-minute routines are accompanied by music.

The sport of acrobatics received recognition in the Soviet Union in 1939 and international competition started in 1957. The International Federation of Sports Acrobats came into existence in 1973 in Moscow. The following year, Moscow hosted the first World Championships for Sports Acrobatics. Over ten years later, in 1987, the Olympic federation recognized sport acrobatics as a sport.

Trampoline originated in 1936 as “rebound tumbling.” For a while, it was a very popular sport. In fact, it became an Olympic event. When executed correctly, somersaults and leaps on a trampoline provide spectacles with an awareness of the breadth of the sport of gymnastics. Interest in trampolines waned for a while as safety issues surfaced. It disappeared as an Olympic event in the 1960s but has since reappeared. It was included in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games where Russia won gold in both men and women’s trampoline.