Building up to Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a fast past, and a constantly moving sport. It is vital that regular training takes place and stretching. There is no off season; to stay fit, to stay capable, you must be committed. Starting gymnastics young would be the most beneficial way to be successful, although that is not required. The younger a person is when they start gymnastics, the more time there is to make things perfect and the easier it will be to become flexible and strong. A gymnast usually ends their journey around nineteen or twenty and start really young or around their preteens years. Gymnastics is a hard sport to continue out for a long time because it takes someone fit and resilient, and as people get older it is harder to do the things a gymnast does. It is harder to have natural flexibility as you age, and usually during a person's twenties they can face weight gain due to the becoming of age.

Another advantage of starting gymnastics earlier, just like any sport, it can teach a person useful life skills. Gymnastics teaches patience, discipline, and keeps a kid active. Having to practice non stop till they get it, shows them to never give up and reach toward their goals. That can be applied to school, work, and basically anything in life. It is a great way to stay physically fit and healthy, while practicing how to treat others and how to work with others. Teamwork plays a huge roll in gymnastics, having to work with others to succeed as a team. That is a trait that a kid can share through their life and could possibly help them with an environment at school as well. Gymnastics does not only affect a person physically, but mentally too. Having to focus and be mentally prepared for any competition or obstacles. Gymnastics can be scary at times, and having a mentally prepared mind can help a gymnast overcome that fear.

The History Of Gymnastics

Gymnastics all started in 1896, in Athens Greece. The Greeks thought of gymnastics as an intellectual tools that used not only the body but the mind as well. The components in gymnastics were known as rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, and acrobatic gymnastics. Rhythmic gymnastics is involving some sort of hoop, rope, ball, or ribbon. Today, those aspects are still active in gymnastics, rings are still used but now they are made out of laminated wood. Trampoline gymnastics is the performance of acrobatics on a trampoline. Trampoline is still apart of gymnastics today. Acrobatics is the motion of elegant dance like moves and tumbling in gymnastics. Acrobatic is also something that still is included in modern day gymnastics. During the start of gymnastics, men and women used different bars. Men used horizontal and parallel bars, while women used uneven bars. Now men and women are using the same bars for gymnastics.

Also, the pommel horse, that is used in vault, used to be just a wooden box and is now more advanced. Todays pommel horse is held up by a metal base covered with a soft service, safe for landing. Along with the balance beam, which was not invented till years later, was simply just a long block of wood. The evolution of all the equipment in gymnastics is huge, with advanced equipment, safety is not as much of an issue. The first man to come up with the idea of of gymnastics was Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. Friedrich came up with the idea of gymnastics to help improve the strength and balance of men for war. The first year gymnastics was officially entered into the Olympics was 1896. In 1896 it was only a man's sport and not till 1936 did they enter women in the Olympics.

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Conditioning For Gymnastics

A perfect gymnast is one who is willing to put in the work. It takes dedication and is not easy, in order to successfully be a gymnast you must train and prepare the body for vigorous work. Conditioning builds the strength and power needed to pursue anything in gymnastics. This includes tons of conditioning to be physically fit and have the strength to follow out a stunt. There are three main components of the body in terms of conditioning that are most important, which are the abdomen, arms and legs. Having strong abs, arms, and legs is vital for performance in any part of gymnastics. These three components are the most used during gymnastics, in order to do vault you must be strong in all three aspects because it is a lot of fast and hard movements. Vault consist of sprints and using upper body muscles to do any kind of flip onto the vault or jumps. Having a strong abdomen for vault is helpful because in order to complete any flip, it includes using stomach muscles. Bars need extremely strong arms and abs to be able to lift oneself up and hold some sort of stunt. If a person has strong enough arms and core, they can easily lift themselves up on the bar and swing off into a flip. Along with floor, it is necessary to be strong in all three components because floor uses all parts of the body.

To become strong in these three components, conditioning must take place. A great workout for

upper body strength is wide push-ups. Wide push-ups is a great start to getting upper body strength and also using the bars to do pull-ups is great as well. V sits is an amazing and easy way to work the core. Doing a V sit will help with not only strong abs but good balance. Lastly, an easy and particularly fun workout is calf raises. Using the edge of small beam to do calf raises will be a great way to build up muscle.

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Best Gymnast Of 2016

The Best Gymnast of 2016, or possibly of all time? Simone Biles, a nineteen year old female from Columbus Ohio. Simone comes from a family of five, her two parents, Ron and Nellie, her two brothers, Adam and Ron Jr, and her younger sister, Adria who ironically is also a gymnast. Biles started competing in gymnastics in 2007, from then on her love for gymnastics flourished. Simone became the first female gymnast since 1974 to win four consecutive all-around titles, on top of that she was also the first women to be the all-around world champion for three years in a row. Since 2013 she has won all the competitions she's ever entered in. Simone has won ten gold medals in her time of gymnastics, which is more than most gymnast get in their whole career. This ranks her at having the world's most gold medals won by a female ever.

Simone also had her own stunt named after her, called the Biles. It is a double back flip followed by a half twist in a straight body position, this is a stunt done on floor. Simone has a lot of talents that separate her from most gymnast. The height that she can reach brings her to an advantage because being higher up gives a gymnast more time to complete a stunt. Simone is one of the best gymnast ever, due to the quality of her stunts and the level difficulty. During her summer debut in Rio de Janeiro, Simone got four golds and a bronze and also became a vault and floor gold medalist.

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My Experience

My journey through gymnastics started when I was thirteen years old, and lasted till I was almost fifteen years old. I was intrigued by gymnast when I would watch them on tv and think to myself how awesome it would be to get to do such a sport. It took a little convincing but my mom finally agreed and enrolled me in a gymnastics center, where i met lovely coaches and gymnasts. When I started I was already fairly good at gymnastics because I had been doing it at home for a while. After a few months I was upgraded to a higher level and started to learn things like back handsprings and back hip circles on the bars. This took a lot of training to be able to do, and I had to work hard to reach that spot. It took dedication, which included constant practice at home. After my first week or so, my little sister was also intrigued by gymnastics and also joined.

This gave me an opportunity to practice at home with another person and get to teach her the things I had learned in my higher level class. Gymnastics has ran in my family for a little while, my mom was a gymnast her whole teenage life and so was my grandma when she was young. Me and my sister carried that role on, until about a year and a half ago I quit. I loved the sport but I no longer had time between homework and a personal life. Although I did not participate in a gymnast center anymore I did continuing doing it around the house and would teach my friends new things every one in awhile. During the summer I think I will start back up again, because during summer I don’t have school and homework to worry about and I have more free time. Taking up gymnastics again would be a awesome thing for me, it keeps you in great shape.

@NBCOlympics. "Gymnastics." NBC Olympics. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2016.

Four Components

Gymnastics has some of the most amazing stunts you will ever see, ones that take practice, a good coach, and a good spot to perform. There are four different components to stunts and where they take place. The first is beam, a balance beam is long and narrow, usually made of wood or metal. Gymnasts use balance beams to perform on, it's a fabulous way to show a gymnasts talent when it comes to balance and agility. The second component is bars, this is a long bar that is held up on metals post. The bars take a gymnast with a lot of upper body strength and core strength. The bars require to be able to hold oneself up on the bars also while performing cool stunts such as back hip circles.

Floor is another section of gymnastics that is very common, it is a surface with springs underneath for extra bouncy support, making it easier for a gymnast to perform stunts on. Floor is used to do tumbling, that is why the floors are made to be soft and bouncy to make it one, safe for someone to land on and two, easier for someone to get higher during their stunt. Floor is known as a surface for "exercise” and also needs a gymnast with lots of strength throughout their whole body. The final section to gymnastics is vault, gymnast vault over a piece called, the table. The table is a metal piece, that kind of looks like a table and has a padded and springy cover. This is used to approach from a far away distance and the table is the target, as a gymnast reaches the table, they will do some sort of stunt on it, something like a twist or a flip. The vault is a very intense part of gymnastics and includes massive upper body strength, balance, a strong core, and leg strength.