Think gymnastics is over-rated?

Think again. Gymnastics was invented in the 1800s where 7 events were competed; horizontal bar, parallel bars, the horse, compulsory without apparatus, exercise with clubs, hundred- meter sprint and ball throw. Now there are 4 events: vault, beam, bars and floor. People actually under-rate gymnastics and feel like gymnasts just frolic around the floor in leotards. Gymnastics is one of the hardest sports in the world. According to thetoptens.com, it is the hardest sport in the world. Gymnasts go through having no free time, conditioning and injuries. Try flipping on a 4 inch wide beam 4 feet off the ground, off of a bar, on a carpeted spring floor or even over a vault the size of a table.

Uneven Bars

The English abbreviation of the uneven bars is UB. Uneven bars, most times called by the name of bars, was invented in the 1800s. It is an apparatus in women's artistic gymnastics with a top bar the height of 2.4 meters above the ground and a low bar with the height of 1.6 meters above the ground. The bar is used for a series of grip changes, releases, new grasps and othe complex moves. In 1972, Olga Korbut pioneered the Korbut flip, the first high bar flip release move. However, the skills became too difficult and too many gymnasts were getting injured. By the middle of the 1980s, routines became safer and easier. They decided to move the bars farther apart so the release moves would be easier. Men do not compete uneven bars. Instead, men do horizontal bar or parallel bars.

Balance Beam

The English abbreviation of balance beam is BB. Balance beam, most times just referred to as beam, is only competed by female gymnasts. The beam is usually only 4 inches wide and about 4.5 feet high off the ground held up by 2 metal or wood legs that can be adjusted to make the beam higher or lower. There are two different types of beams: low and high. The low beam usually just sits up on either 2 stacks of wood or metal but close to the floor. The high beam can drop down to the lowest height of 100 centimeters and can go up to the highest height of 125 centimeters.

Floor

The English abbriveation of floor is FX. Floor is a series of springs that are covered by a wooden board which then has a patch of carpet, 12 meters x 12 meters, resting on top. Floor is competed by both women and men. Compulsory levels for women, levels 2-5, all the girls in each level have and perform the same routine, with the same music. In optional, levels 6-elite, all of the girls perform different routines with some different music and sequences. For men, they don't have music, unlike the women that do have music. Women get 90 seconds, in every single level, to do their routine while men get 70 seconds for their floor routines. If the gym is hosting a meet, they must have a spring floor or they can get feed or even sued.

Vault

Both men and women compete vault. The only difference is women they go over the vault at level 4 and men go over the vault at level 6. The English abbreviation of vault is VT. It was invented by Fredich Ludwig Jahn. For womens gymnastics, in levels 4-7, you do a jump off of the spring board onto your hands on a leather or suede covered piece of wood like a table and pop right off, like in the video of me up above. For women's gymnastics levels 1-3, they just do either a tuck jump onto a stack of mats or a handstand and fall onto your back on the stack of mats. For women's gymnastics in levels 8-elite, they can compete a tsuk which is a roundoff onto the table and, without touching your feet, you do a back flip off of the table, or a yerchenko which is where you do a roundoff backhand spring up to the table and then, without touching your feet, do either a twisting flip or just a normal flip. For men, they don't do vault until they are in level 6. In levels 6-7, they compete the same as women. In levels 8-elite they do the same thing as women too. In the early gymnastics days, the vault was a handle-less pommel horse that the flipped over. In 2001, they re-evaluated the vault to make it more safe because of so many injuries that were happening to the gymnasts and it is the vault us gymnasts use today!

Conditioning

Do you know what conditioning is? If you don't, conditioning is when you do things like arm workouts, leg workouts, hip workouts and abdominal workouts. Conditioning for gymnasts makes them strong enough to do all the events with ease. Static stretching excercises are best performed when your body is fully conditioned. Some exercises include:

50 sit ups

30 push ups each way

Running

25 chin ups

1 minute hip flexers each way

80 stand and jumps each leg

50 sit and jumps each leg

Squat jumps down the floor and back 5 times

1 minute Handstand holds

Men's gymnastics

Men don't do beam or uneven bars. This is because most men are too tall for all of the settings on bars. So instead, they do horizontal bar. On horizontal bar, they do flips, release moves, grip changes and grasps around the bar. They also do the events pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, floor, and vault. At the beginning of gymnastics, in the 1800s, only men competed and trained.