The clubs are an apparatus used in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. They are one of the five apparatuses utilized in this discipline, alongside the ball, hoop, ribbon, and rope.
The clubs are an apparatus used in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. They are one of the five apparatuses utilized in this discipline, alongside the ball, hoop, ribbon, and rope.
Georges Demenÿ introduced wooden sticks with balls on the end for use in his exercises. At the same time, Indian clubs became popular equipment in Western gymnastics. Early clubs varied in shape from wires with balls on the ends to clubs more similar to juggling clubs. [1] Over time, the clubs became lighter and thinner with a smaller and more defined head. In 1928, they were first used in competition in Hungary, and at the 1938 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, a group clubs routine was included as an event. [2]
They were used in the team portable apparatus competitions for women at both the 1952 and 1956 Olympics before the event was discontinued. Clubs became an official rhythmic gymnastics apparatus in 1973. [1] From 2001-2012, each apparatus had a compulsory body group of movements that had to predominate in the exercise; for clubs, this was balance elements. [3]
Clubs may be made of wood or of synthetic materials. They may be of any colors and may be decorated. The official specifications for the clubs are as follows: [4]
The clubs can be joined together with the small end of one club inserted into the head of the other. While the gymnast may grip the clubs in any way or work with both clubs held in one hand, during the exercise, the clubs should primarily be held by the small end with one in either hand. [5] The need to use the clubs with both hands at the same time and perform asymmetrical movements with them is the main difficulty of the apparatus. [6] [7] They are also more difficult to catch after a throw than the other apparatuses because their rotational planes are unstable. [7]
Gymnasts perform a variety of elements with the clubs, including throwing one or both clubs into the air, balancing a club on a small part of the body or on the other club, and moving the clubs in circles. The elements that are considered to be particular to the clubs are: [8]
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry 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.
In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, considered an apparatus. The floor exercise is the event performed on the floor, in both women's and men's artistic gymnastics. The same floor is used for WAG FX and MAG FX, but rules and scoring differ; most obviously, a WAG FX routine is synchronised to a piece of recorded dance music, whereas MAG FX has no musical accompaniment.
The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The balance beam is performed competitively only by female gymnasts.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and rope. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coordinated. Rhythmic gymnastics is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FiG), which first recognized it as a sport in 1963. It became an Olympic sport in 1984, with an individual all-around event. The group all-around competition was added to the Olympics in 1996. At the international level, rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only sport. The most prestigious competitions, besides the Olympic Games, are the World Championships, World Games, European Championships, European Games, the World Cup Series and the Grand Prix Series. Gymnasts are judged on their artistry, execution of skills, and difficulty of skills, for which they gain points. They perform leaps, balances, and rotations along with handling the apparatus.
The pommel horse is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal body covered with foam rubber and leather, with plastic handles.
The rings, also known as still rings, is an artistic gymnastics apparatus and the event that uses it. It is traditionally used only by male gymnasts due to its extreme upper body strength requirements. Gymnasts often wear ring grips while performing.
The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or AB, and the apparatus and event are often referred to simply as "bars". The bars are placed at different heights and widths, allowing the gymnast to transition from bar to bar. A gymnast usually adds white chalk to the hands so that they can grip the bar better.
A cartwheel is a sideways rotary movement of the body. It is performed by bringing the hands to the floor one at a time while the body inverts. The legs travel over the body trunk while one or both hands are on the floor, and then the feet return to the floor one at a time, ending with the athlete standing upright. It is called a cartwheel because the performer's arms and legs move in a fashion similar to the spokes of a turning (cart) wheel.
A handspring is an acrobatic move in which a person executes a complete revolution of the body by lunging headfirst from an upright position into an inverted vertical position and then pushing off from the floor with the hands so as to leap back to an upright position. The direction of body rotation in a handspring may be either forward or backward, and either kind may be performed from a stationary standing position or while in motion.
The ball is an apparatus used in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. It is one of the five apparatuses utilized in this discipline, alongside the clubs, hoop, ribbon, and rope.
The hoop is an apparatus used in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. It is one of the five apparatuses utilized in this discipline, alongside the ball, clubs, ribbon, and rope.
The ribbon is an apparatus used in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. It is one of the five apparatuses utilized in this discipline, alongside the ball, clubs, hoop, and rope.
The rope is an apparatus used in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. They are one of the five apparatuses utilized in this discipline, alongside the ball, clubs, hoop, and ribbon. While previously used at both the senior and junior level and in both individual and group exercises, the rope has been mostly phased out of usage and is now only used in the junior group exercises in some years.
The flare is an acrobatic move in which the performer alternates balancing the torso between either arm while swinging the legs beneath in continuous circles. It is a fundamental b-boying/bgirl power move, and in gymnastics it may be performed on a pommel horse or during the floor exercise. The move is commonly spelled flair in gymnastics and further may be called a "Thomas flair" after its originator, Kurt Thomas.
Twirling is a form of object manipulation where an object is twirled by one or two hands, the fingers or by other parts of the body. Twirling practice manipulates the object in circular or near circular patterns. It can also be done indirectly by the use of another object or objects as in the case of devil stick manipulation where handsticks are used. Twirling is performed as a hobby, sport, exercise or performance.
This is a general glossary of the terms used in the sport of gymnastics.
Yana Alexeyevna Kudryavtseva is a retired Russian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2016 Olympic All-around silver medalist, three-time World Champion in the All-around (2013–2015), the 2015 European Games All-around champion, two-time European Championships All-around champion, the 2012 European Junior ball champion. In national level, she is a two-time Russian National All-around champion and three time Russian Junior National all-around champion.
Aesthetic group gymnastics (AGG) is a discipline of gymnastics developed from Finnish "Women's Gymnastics" (naisvoimistelu). The discipline is reminiscent of rhythmic gymnastics, with some significant differences: in AGG, the emphasis is on big and continuous body movement, and the teams are larger. AGG teams often consist of 4–10 gymnasts, and some children’s teams are bigger. Furthermore, apparatus is not used in international AGG competitions as it is in rhythmic gymnastics where balls, ribbons, hoops and clubs are used on the floor area. The sport requires physical qualities such as flexibility, balance, speed, strength, coordination and sense of rhythm where movements of the body are emphasized in the flow and, expressive and aesthetic appeal. A good performance is characterized by uniformity and simultaneity. The competition program consists of versatile and varied body movements, such as body waves and swings, balances and pivots, jumps and leaps, dance steps, and lifts.
Juggling terminology, juggling terms:
Olympic order in artistic gymnastics refers to the sequence in which a gymnast performs from one exercise after another in a competition. Male gymnasts use six apparatuses in Olympic order. Female gymnasts use four apparatuses.
