Some About Gymnastics:

What is gymnastics?

Gymnastics is a sport that includes physical exercises requiring 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. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.

Types of Gymnastics

Artistic Gymnastics

Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of elite international competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations like British Gymnastics and USA Gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at many competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games.

Womens' Artistic Gymnastics (WAG)

Womens' artistic gymnastics (often shortened to just "women's gymnastics") attracts the most participants and is generally the most well-known type of gymnastics. It's also one of the first tickets to sell out at the Olympic Games. Events: In women's artistic gymnastics, athletes compete on four apparatus (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise).

As a team event, women's gymnastics entered the Olympics in 1928 and the World Championships in 1950. Individual women were recognized in the all-around as early as the 1934 World Championships. The current women's program—all-around and event finals on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise—was introduced at the 1950 World Championships and at the 1952 Summer Olympics.

Mens' Artistic Gymnastics (MAG)

Mens' artistic gymnastics is the oldest form of gymnastics and the second most popular type of gymnastics in the United States. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) estimates that about 1.3 million males participate in gymnastics. Approximately 12,000 men and boys compete in the US Junior Olympic program, while others participate in AAU, YMCA and other organizations. Events: Men compete on six apparatus: floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar (usually called high bar).

Rhythmic Gymnastics

In rhythmic gymnastics, gymnasts perform jumps, tosses, leaps and other moves with different types of apparatus. This is currently a female-only sport in the Olympics. Athletes compete with five different types of apparatus: rope, hoop, ball, clubs (a club is like a baton with an oval on one end), and ribbon. Floor exercise is also an event in the lower levels of competition. All apparatuses are done on the same type of floor artistic gymnasts use for their floor excercise.

Trampoline Gymnastics

In trampoline gymnastics, gymnasts perform high-flying flips and twists on every bounce. This became an Olympic discipline for the 2000 Olympics. To add trampolinists to the quota allotted for gymnastics, artistic teams were reduced from seven team members to six. Events: A compulsory and a voluntary routine are performed in the Olympic competitions. Each consists of ten skills and is done on the same type of trampoline.

Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a recreational activity, acrobatic training tool as well as a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline. In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more complex combinations of forward and/or backward somersaults and twists. Scoring is based on the difficulty and on the total seconds spent in the air. Points are deducted for bad form and horizontal displacement from the center of the trampoline.

Tumbling

Power tumbling is performed on a spring runway much bouncier than the floor exercise mat used in artistic gymnastics. Because of its spring, athletes are able to perform very complicated flips and twists in succession. Events: All tumbling is done on the same strip. The gymnast performs two passes in each stage of the competition, with eight elements in each pass.

Acrobatic Gymnastics

In acrobatic gymnastics, the athletes are the equipment. A two- to four-gymnast team performs all types of handstands, holds and balances on each other, while members of the team throw and catch their teammates. Events: Acrobatics is always performed on the same floor exercise mat. The events competed are men's pairs, women's pairs, mixed pairs, women's groups (three gymnasts) and men's groups (four gymnasts).

Group Gymnastics

Group gymnastics in the United States is usually performed competitively under the name TeamGym. In TeamGym, athletes compete together in a group of six to 16 gymnasts. The group may be all-female, all-male or mixed. Events: In the U.S., participants in TeamGym compete in the group jump event (performances in tumbling, vault, and mini-trampoline) and the group floor exercise.