Foot gymnastics are games and exercises intended to strengthen the muscles of legs and feet, improve the motion sequences of walking and sports, support therapy of varicose veins [ citation needed ] and dorsal pain. Such activities are recommended to improve flat feet especially of children [1] and the gait performance of older adults. [2]
The foot is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of one or more segments or bones, generally including claws and/or nails.
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.
Jumping or leaping is a form of locomotion or movement in which an organism or non-living mechanical system propels itself through the air along a ballistic trajectory. Jumping can be distinguished from running, galloping and other gaits where the entire body is temporarily airborne, by the relatively long duration of the aerial phase and high angle of initial launch.
A gait is a manner of limb movements made during locomotion. Human gaits are the various ways in which humans can move, either naturally or as a result of specialized training. Human gait is defined as bipedal forward propulsion of the center of gravity of the human body, in which there are sinuous movements of different segments of the body with little energy spent. Various gaits are characterized by differences in limb movement patterns, overall velocity, forces, kinetic and potential energy cycles, and changes in contact with the ground.
The International Gymnastics Federation is the body governing competition in all disciplines of gymnastics. Its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was founded on 23 July 1881 in Liège, Belgium, making it the world's oldest existing international sports organisation. Originally called the European Federation of Gymnastics, it had three member countries—Belgium, France and the Netherlands—until 1921, when non-European countries were admitted and it received its current name.
Gervasio Deferr Ángel is a retired gymnast from Spain who competed at three Olympic Games. He became the Olympic champion in men's vault at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and repeated the feat at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Each of his ankles show a tattoo with the logo of one of these two Olympic Games. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he won the silver medal on the floor exercise with a score of 15.775.
Flat feet, also called pes planus or fallen arches, is a postural deformity in which the arches of the foot collapse, with the entire sole of the foot coming into complete or near-complete contact with the ground. Sometimes children are born with flat feet (congenital). There is a functional relationship between the structure of the arch of the foot and the biomechanics of the lower leg. The arch provides an elastic, springy connection between the forefoot and the hind foot so that a majority of the forces incurred during weight bearing on the foot can be dissipated before the force reaches the long bones of the leg and thigh.
Gait abnormality is a deviation from normal walking (gait). Watching a patient walk is an important part of the neurological examination. Normal gait requires that many systems, including strength, sensation and coordination, function in an integrated fashion. Many common problems in the nervous system and musculoskeletal system will show up in the way a person walks.
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 roundoff is a move in gymnastics similar to a cartwheel, except the gymnast lands with two feet placed together on the ground instead of one foot at a time, facing the direction of arrival. It is a gymnastic technique that turns horizontal speed into vertical speed and can be used to turn forward impulse from a run into backwards impulse. Roundoffs are used by most acrobatic sports, including gymnastics, dancing, and cheerleading.
The Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang, also known as the Arirang Mass Games, or the Arirang Festival is a mass gymnastics and artistic festival held in the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. The games usually take place in August or September. The Arirang Mass Games were held annually between 2002 and 2013, with the exception of 2006. After a five-year hiatus, Mass Games returned for a performance entitled 'The Glorious Country' in 2018.
Gross motor skills are the abilities usually acquired during childhood as part of a child's motor learning. By the time they reach two years of age, almost all children are able to stand up, walk and run, walk up stairs, etc. These skills are built upon, improved and better controlled throughout early childhood, and continue in refinement throughout most of the individual's years of development into adulthood. These gross movements come from large muscle groups and whole body movement. These skills develop in a head-to-toe order. The children will typically learn head control, trunk stability, and then standing up and walking. It is shown that children exposed to outdoor play time activities will develop better gross motor skills.
Aerobic gymnastics or sport aerobics is a competitive sport originating from traditional aerobics in which complex, high-intensity movement patterns and elements of varying difficulty are performed to music.
Balance in biomechanics, is an ability to maintain the line of gravity of a body within the base of support with minimal postural sway. Sway is the horizontal movement of the centre of gravity even when a person is standing still. A certain amount of sway is essential and inevitable due to small perturbations within the body or from external triggers. An increase in sway is not necessarily an indicator of dysfunctional balance so much as it is an indicator of decreased sensorimotor control.
Acro dance is a style of dance that combines classical dance technique with acrobatic elements. It is defined by its athletic character, its unique choreography, which blends dance and acrobatics, and its use of acrobatics in a dance context. It is a popular dance style in amateur competitive dance as well as in professional dance theater and in contemporary circus productions such as those by Cirque du Soleil. This is in contrast to acrobatic, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, which are sports that employ dance elements in a gymnastics context under the auspices of a governing gymnastics organization and subject to a Code of Points. Acro dance is known by various other names including acrobatic dance and gymnastic dance, though it is most commonly referred to simply as acro by dancers and dance professionals.
This is a general glossary of the terms used in the sport of gymnastics.
Children's feet are smaller than those of adults, not reaching full size until the ages of 13 in girls and 15 in boys. There are correspondingly small sizes of shoes for them. In poor populations and tropical countries, children commonly go barefoot.
Gymnastic formation is a collective art based on gymnastics expressed by 30 to 5000 figurants using only human bodies without instruments. It is commonly presented in Japanese schools as a part of physical education curriculum. The expression of the collective beauty based on force, passion, and union of young men is much more important than the individual expression. It is a modality of mass game.
Edward Robin Upcott is a five times British acrobatic gymnast champion who was world men's pairs champion in partnership with Doug Fordyce, winning the gold medal in July 2010 in Poland. Before his partnership with Fordyce, Upcott was in partnership with Mark Fyson, who retired in 2009 after the pair had won the bronze medal in the 2008 world championships in Glasgow. With his new partner Adam McAssey, Upcott was awarded the silver medal in the 2012 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships.
Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo was held in three categories: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and trampolining. All gymnastics events were staged at the Olympic Gymnastic Centre, Tokyo in 2021.