Rhythmic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which single competitors or pairs, trios or even more manipulate one or two apparatuses: Ball, Clubs, Hoop, Ribbon, and Rope. It combines elements of ballet, gymnastics, theatrical dance, and apparatus manipulation. The victor is the participant who earns the most points, as awarded by a panel of judges, for leaps, balances, pivots, flexibility, apparatus handling, and artistic effect.

The sport's governing body, the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), changed the Code of Points in 2001, 2003 and 2005 to emphasize technical elements and reduce the subjectivity of judging. Before 2001, judging was on a scale of 10 like that of Artistic Gymnastics. It was changed to a 30-point scale in 2003 and in 2005 was changed to 20. There are three values adding up to be the final points—technical, artistic and execution.

International competitions are split between Juniors, under sixteen by their year of birth; and Seniors, for girls 16 and over again by their year of birth. Gymnasts typically start training at a very young age and those at their peak are typically in their late teens or early twenties. The largest events in the sport are the Olympic Games, World Championships, and Grand-Prix Tournaments.

Rhythmic gymnastics grew out of the ideas of I.G. Noverre (1722–1810), Francois Delsart (1811–1871), and R. Bode (1881), who all believed in movement expression, where one used dance to express oneself and exercise various body parts. Peter Henry Ling further developed this idea in his 19th-century Swedish system of free exercise, which promoted "aesthetic gymnastics", in which students expressed their feelings and emotions through bodily movement. This idea was extended by Catherine E. Beecher, who founded the Western Female Institute in Ohio, United States, in 1837 . In Beecher's gymnastics program, called grace without dancing, the young women exercised to music, moving from simple calisthenics to more strenuous activities. During the 1880s, Emil Dalcroze of Switzerland developed eurhythmics, a form of physical training for musicians and dancers. George Demeny of France created exercises to music that were designed to promote grace of movement, muscular flexibility, and good posture. All of these styles were combined around 1900 into the Swedish school of rhythmic gymnastics, which would later add dance elements from Finland. Around this time, Ernest Idla of Estonia established a degree of difficulty for each movement. In 1929, Henrich Medau founded The Medau School in Berlin to train gymnasts in "modern gymnastics", and to develop the use of the apparatus.

Rhythmic gymnastics as a sport began in the 1940s in the Soviet Union. It was there that for the first time, the spirit of sports was combined with the sensuous art of classical ballet. (To Isadora Duncan, we credit the famous rebellion against the dogma of classical ballet and the shift toward the creation of a new discipline that would blend art and sport.)

The FIG recognized this discipline in 1961, first as modern gymnastics, then as rhythmic sportive gymnastics, and finally as rhythmic gymnastics. The first World Championships for individual gymnasts took place in 1963 in Budapest, Hungary. Groups were introduced at the same level in 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Rhythmic gymnastics was added to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, with an Individual All Around competition. However, many federations from the Eastern European countries were forced to boycott. The Canadian Lori Fung was the first rhythmic gymnast to earn an Olympic gold medal. The Group competition was added to the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rhythmic gymnastics is largely a sport for women and girls, but a growing number of men participate in a few countries. Athletes are judged on the some of the same physical abilities and skills as their female counterparts such as hand/body-eye co-ordination, but tumbling, strength, power, and martial arts skills are the main focus, as opposed to flexibility and dance of women's rhythmic gymnastics. The sport has a growing number of participants, competing solo and on a team, and is most popular in Asia, especially in Japan where high school and university teams compete fiercely. As of 2002, there were 1000 men's rhythmic gymnasts in Japan.

Men's rhythmic gymnastics is related to both Men's Artistic Gymnastics and Wushu martial arts. It emerged in Japan from stick gymnastics. Stick gymastics were taught and performed since long ago with the aim of improving physical strength and health.

The technical rules for the Japanese version of men's rhythmic gymnastics came around 1970s. For individuals, only four apparatus are used: the double rings, the stick, the rope, and the clubs. Groups do not use any apparatus. The Japanese version includes tumbling performed on a spring floor. Points are awarded based a 10-point scale that measures the level of difficulty of the tumbling and apparatus handling.

On November 27-29 2003, Japan hosted the Men's RG World Championship. This first championship drew five countries from two continents: Japan, Canada, Korea, Malaysia, and the United States.

The 2005 World Championship included Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Russia, and USA.

While the routines that have been performed so far by male single competitors and teams more or less look like slight variations of or synchronized floor exercises in the more traditional men's artistic gymnastics, Ruben Orihuela from Spain has literally re-created all the physically demanding moves and routines that had been reserved for or accomplished by only females before him, and he has also demonstrated the unusual prowess of super physical flexibility that had been seen only in female rhythmic gymnasts.