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Gymnastics

    Gymnastics Editor's Picks

    • What Is the Equipment Used in Gymnastics?

      Gymnastics is a sport of precision, gracefulness and endurance that is loved throughout the world. Each apparatus, or piece of equipment, has its own use and set of rules by which to be scored, or judged. All events in gymnastics involve the use of mats to lessen the blow of a fall during a routine, except the floor. The floor is... more »

    • How to Care for Gymnastics Grips

      Gymnastics grips are used by those that participate in the sport on a regular basis. These grips are used when working with the bars to protect your hands against blisters as well as to help you keep a firm grip on the bars so you don't slip. Since your hands sweat, your grips are bound to get dirty before too long. You will need to... more »

    • Gymnastics Equipment for Home

      Gymnastics involves manipulating the body to execute routines that may involve flips, somersaults and extreme body control. Gymnastics training generally takes place in a gymnasium that contains equipment such as parallel bars and vaults. For those wanting to train at home, there are several pieces of equipment available for home use. more »

    • About Gymnastics Exercise Mats

      Gymnastics is a fun but demanding and competitive sport. It takes a lot of practice, proper training, spotting and the right type of safety equipment to help prevent injuries. It is essential to have the right kind of mat that is specially designed for gymnastics. This is not just for safety purposes. The gymnast will also need to be... more »

    • How to Perform a Kip Mount in Gymnastics

      In gymnastics, girls compete on the uneven bars and boys use the high bar but both learn a basic mount called the kip. In beginning gymnastics, the kip incorporates a glide but as the gymnast advances, he or she may kip from a hanging position. more »

    Gymnastics Quick Guides

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    • Active Ankle Guide

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    • College Sports

      College sports is the purest form of athletic competition in the world of sports. Playing for...

    Gymnastics Articles

    • How to Teach Gymnastics

      Teaching is an important tool in many of our daily interactions. The ability to teach is especially valuable when demonstrating a specific skill... more »

    • How to Get a Gymnastics Wardrobe

      Today gymnastics apparel is fun and flashy. Workout clothes range from everyday t-shirt and shorts to a modern sleek leotard with everything in... more »

    • How to Coach Gymnastics

      As a gymnastics coach, you have a number of challenges that must be surmounted to ensure your team's success. You need to assess individual... more »

    • How to Do Women's Gymnastics

      Women's gymnastics is a very popular Olympic event, drawing millions of fans and creating celebrities out of the champions. Because of the... more »

    • How to Do a Gymnastics Cartwheel

      Gymnastics requires tremendous muscle power, flexibility and coordination. In order to perform a cartwheel, the gymnast needs to develop good... more »

    Wikipedia

    Gymnastics

    Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, balance and grace. Artistic gymnastics is the best known of the gymnastics sports governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). Artistic Gymnastics, typically involves the womens events of uneven parallel bars, balance beam, floor exercise, and vault. Mens events include floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, and high bar. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks, that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.

    Other forms of gymnastics are rhythmic gymnastics, various trampolining sports, and aerobic and acrobatic gymnastics.

    The sport can include children as young as three years old and sometimes younger doing kindergym and childrens gymnastics, recreational gymnasts of all ages, competitive gymnasts at varying levels of skill, as well as world class athletes.

    Etymology
    The word derives from the Greek γυμναστική (gymnastike), fem. of γυμναστικός (gymnastikos), "fond of athletic exercises", from γυμνάσια (gymnasia), "exercise" and that from γυμνός (gymnos), "naked", because athletes exercised and competed in the nude.

    History

    To the Ancient Greeks, physical fitness was paramount, and all Greek cities had a gymnasium, a courtyard for jumping, running, and wrestling. As the Roman Empire ascended, Greek gymnastics gave way to military training. The Romans, for example, introduced the wooden horse. In 393 AD the Emperor Theodosius abolished the Olympic Games, which by then had become corrupt, and gymnastics, along with other sports, declined. Later, Christianity, with its medieval belief in the base nature of the human body, had a deleterious effect on gymnastics. For centuries, gymnastics was all but forgotten.Goodbody>

    In the sixteenth century, Girolamo Mercuriale from Forlì (Italy) wrot read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnastics

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