History of Gymnastics

Gymnastics, like so many other sports, got its roots from ancient Greece. Originally, Greece had gymnasiums all over the city. These are not the types of gymnasiums you would think of today, but rather courtyards. They were for jumping, running, wrestling, and any other form of physical activity people could think of. Eventually, all this working out and sport-like combat led to military training. At that time, what was the beginning of gymnastics was put on a lengthy hiatus.

In the late 1700s, Friedrich GutsMuths and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn created exercise for young men and boys. They weren’t just new exercises, but they were exercises that utilized apparatuses. This is the time when gymnastics really started to build some momentum.

In 1881, The International Federation of Gymnastics, otherwise known as FIG, became the ruling body of the sport. In 1896, men’s gymnastics made its first entry into the Olympic Games. That said, gymnastics at that time was a lot different. At that time, gymnastics was pretty much a lot of what a high school student would have to do for a physical fitness test. It took until the early 1950s for the sport to being to morph into what it is today.

As gymnastics begin to gain in popularity, it was clearly evident that the Russians were way ahead of everyone else. That overwhelming conception was confirmed in Montreal in 1976, when Nadia Comaneci was awarded the first perfect score in gymnastic Olympic Game history.

Nadia Comaneci was one of the best gymnasts of all time. Not only did she accomplish that rare feat of earning a perfect score, but she was also only fourteen when she did it! Since that time, Nadia has been a great ambassador to the sport, preaching and teaching the various benefits of gymnastics mainly throughout the United States, but also to the rest of the world.

Another great was Larissa Latynina. She was also more proof of Russian dominance, having won eighteen medals, nine of them being gold. Mary Lou Retton was probably the most influential female gymnast of her time. As an American, she came out of nowhere to shock the Eastern Europeans in 1984 by winning five medals. One of the other great gymnasts of all time is Sawao Kato, a Japanese man who won twelve medals, eight of them being gold. He entered his first Olympics in 1968 and two more following that.

The biggest stages and gymnastics competitions in the world are the World Championships, the Arthur Gander Memorial, the NCAA Championships, the European Championships, the Artistic Championships, the Asian Games, the Pan American Games, and the king of them all, of course, is the Olympic Games.

Most of these competitions are overseen by the Federation International of Gymnastics. They make the rules. As of right now, there is an execution score and a difficulty score. The execution score is based on a scale of ten and the difficulty score is based on a scale of A through G.

Regardless of what competitions you might have aspirations of entering, or even if you’re just in training mode at the present time, it’s always important to remember some standard rules. One of those rules, which is more for your safety than anything else, is to never to wear your hair down (if long), never to wear any piercings, i-pods, or jewelry.

It also is an unspoken rule that you should always keep an eye out for anyone you’re working with. The last thing you need is a collision that ruins both of your careers. If someone is trying to talk to you, you must tell them that you can’t right now. Don’t worry about being rude. You can explain that later. Safety comes first.