Archives for Sport gymnastics
Gymnastics 1: Ancient Gymnastics
Gymnastics, in the form of acrobatics, calisthenics, and disciplined exercise, has been around since ancient times. Acrobats entertained Egyptian nobility about 7,000 years ago and, judging by ancient frescoes, acrobats…
Gymnastics 2: The Development of Modern Gymnastics
Modern gymnastics began with the work of Johann Friedrich GutsMuths (1759-1839), who taught at the Schnepfenthal Educational Institute near Gotha, Germany. GutsMuths developed a complete program of exercises designed to…
Gymnastics 3: Early American Gymnastics
Three of Jahn's followers, Charles Beck, Charles Follen, and Franz Lieber, left Germany before the 1848 revolution and were the pioneers of American gymnastics. Beck was hired in the spring…
Gymnastics 4: The Turners and Others in America
The Turner movement had the biggest long-range effect on American gymnastics as we know the sport. As previously noted, tens of thousands of Jahn's Turners emigrated to the United States…
Gymnastics 5. 19th-Century European Gymnastics
Gymnastics spread through Europe primarily as physical training for the military. In France, Francisco Amoros founded the Ecole de Joinville for military training in 1852. A native of Spain who…
Gymnastics 6. Gymnastics Becomes Competitive
Competitive gymnastics originated with the Turners. They had two types of competition at their period Turnerfests: Events in which the result was based on a qualitative measure, such as the…
Gymnastics 7. International Competition
Gymnastics was one of nine sports on the program of the first modern Olympics, at Athens in 1896. There was team and individual competition on the horizontal bars and the…
Gymnastics 8. Competitive Gymnastics in the U. S.
The Amateur Athletic Union staged the first national gymnastics championships in 1897. For many years, Turner organizations dominated the competition, but other athletic clubs then began to emerge. Eventually, YMCAs…
Gymnastics 9. The Current State of Gymnastics
Although the Eastern European countries are still forces to be reckoned with in international gymnastics, they no longer dominate the sport as they once did. More and more nations are…