Gymnastics Essay -- Sports, Oldest Sports

Gymnastics is a sport that requires strength, flexibility, dedication, and determination. However, gymnastics also requires the ability to be graceful and delicate. For many years people have been dedicating themselves to this sport, training for either artistic or rhythmic gymnastics. The sport of gymnastics has been around for many years. Originating around 2,500 years ago makes it one of the oldest sports. People believe that the first "apparatus" used was actually a bull. Men would grab onto the bull's horns and when they were thrown in the air they would try to perform the best stunt before landing (Gutman, 1). Gymnastics originated in Greece where they believed that physical fitness was very important, but only to men. It was so important that there was an open-air gymnasium in every city. The gymnasiums were also used as schools where philosophy, literature, and music were taught. The athletes, who were only men eighteen and older, trained all day every day. When they would compete they threw the javelin, climbed ropes, ran races, wrestled, and lifted weights. The athletes would perform without clothes on, and all women were forbidden to watch. Unlike Greece the Emperor of Rome closed all the gymnasiums in A.D. 393 (Gutman, 2-3, 5). Years later around 1800 a German man named Johann Frederich Guts Muths developed a system of exercises that were based off the exercises that the Greeks used. He also added climbing, balance movements, and military drills. Muths also wrote the first real book on gymnastics (Gutman, 6). According to Gutman the true father of gymnastics was a German professor named Frederich Ludwig Jahn. He opened the first modern gymnasium around Berlin in 1811 and modeled it after the ancie... ...ragg, 22). The sixth and last event is the horizontal bar. It is eight feet long and hangs eight feet above the floor. Gymnasts perform skills similar to the skills that women perform on the uneven bars (Bragg, 23). The second and less known type of gymnastics is rhythmic gymnastics. It is performed on same floor as artistic gymnastics and gymnasts show body movement and dance moves long with music. At the same time, they have to handle a small apparatus such as a rope, hoop, ball, clubs, or ribbon. The routines can also be performed in groups of five people performing simultaneously (World, 2). The sport of gymnastics is known to be demanding and it requires a great deal of determination and dedication. However, it is becoming an increasingly popular sport. For thousands of years people have dedicated their lives to artistic and rhythmic gymnastics.