GYMNASTICS

Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, power, agility, coordination, grace, balance and control. Internationally, all of the competitive gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). Each country has its own national governing body (BIW) affiliated to FIG. Competitive artistic gymnastics is the best known of the gymnastic sports. It typically involves the women's events of uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise, and vault. Men's events are floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, and high bar. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.

Other gymnastic disciplines include: rhythmic gymnastics, trampolining, Team Gym, tumbling, aerobic gymnastics and acrobatic gymnastics. Participants can include children as young as 20 months old doing kindergym and children's gymnastics, recreational gymnasts of ages 5 and up, competitive gymnasts at varying levels of skill, and world class athletes.

Etymology

The word gymnastics derives from the common Greek adjective γυμνός (gymnos) meaning "naked", by way of the related verb γυμνάζω (gymnazo), whose meaning is "to train naked", "train in gymnastic exercise", generally "to train, to exercise".The verb had this meaning, because athletes in ancient times exercised and competed without clothing. 1570s, from Latin gymnasticus, from Greek gynmastikos "fond of or skilled in bodily exercise," from gymnazein "to exercise or train" (see gymnasium).

Gymnastics at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games was divided into three sub-categories: artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and aerobics. The artistic gymnastics was held from November 29 to December 1, the rhythmic gymnastics from December 2 to December 3, and the aerobics from December 4 to December 5. All events were held at the Rizal Memorial Stadium at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, in Malate,Manila, Philippines.

Vault

In the vaulting events gymnasts sprint down a 25 metres (82 ft) runway, jump onto or perform a roundoff entry onto a springboard (run/ take-off segment), land momentarily, inverted on the hands on the vaulting horse or vaulting table (pre flight segment), then sprint off of this platform to a two footed landing (post flight segment).

Uneven bars

On the uneven bars (also known as asymmetric bars, UK), the gymnast performs a routine on two horizontal bars set at different heights. These bars are made of fiberglass covered in wood laminate, to prevent them from breaking. In the past, bars were made of wood, but the bars were prone to breaking, providing an incentive to switch to newer technologies.

Balance Beam

The gymnast performs a choreographed routine up to 90 seconds in length consisting of leaps, acrobatic skills, somersaults, turns and dance elements on a padded beam. The beam is 125 centimetres (4 ft 1 in) from the ground, 500 centimetres (16 ft 5 in) long, and 10 centimetres (3.9 in) wide.The event requires, in particular, balance, flexibility, poise and strength.

Floor

In the past, the Floor Exercise event was executed on the bare floor or mats such as wrestling mats. Today, the floor event occurs on a carpeted 12m × 12m square, usually consisting of hard foam over a layer of plywood, which is supported by springs or foam blocks generally called a "spring" floor. This provides a firm surface that provides extra bounce or spring when compressed, allowing gymnasts to achieve extra height and a softer landing than would be possible on a standard floor.

Scoring (Code of Points)

A gymnast's score comes from deductions taken from their start value. The start value of a routine is calculated based on the difficulty of the elements the gymnast attempts and whether or not the gymnast meets composition requirements. The composition requirements are different for each apparatus. This score is called the D score.

Landing

In an aerial routine, or any form of tumbling, landing is the final phase, following take off and flight  This is a critical skill in terms of execution in competition scores, general performance, and injury occurrence. Without the necessary magnitude of energy dissipation during impact, the risk of sustaining injuries during somersaulting increases.