ABOUT THE SPORT

GYMNASTICS

Gymnastics is a men's and women's sport that requires balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, endurance and control. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest and abdominal muscle groups. Alertness, precision, daring, self-confidence and self-discipline are mental traits that can also be developed through gymnastics.[1] Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills. Most forms of competitive gymnastics events 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 events. It typically involves the women's events of vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Men's events are floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. Other FIG disciplines include rhythmic gymnastics, trampolining and tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics and aerobic gymnastics.

TRAMPOLINE

Trampolining is a recreational activity, acrobatic training tool as well as a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline.[1] In competition, these can include simple jumps in the straight, pike, tuck, or straddle position to more complex combinations of forward or backward somersaults and twists. Scoring is based on the difficulty and on the total seconds spent in the air. Points are deducted for bad form and landing outside of the center rectangle. Outside of the Olympics, competitions are referred to as GymSport, Trampoline Gymnastics(TG), or Gymnastics, which includes the events of Trampoline, Synchronized Trampoline, Double Mini Trampoline & Tumbling.

TUMBLING

In gymnastics, tumbling, also known as power tumbling, is an acrobatic sporting discipline which combines some of the skills of artistic gymnastics on the floor with those of trampolining. It is practiced on a 25-meter-long spring track sometimes. It was developed from tumbling performances performed by entertainers from very early times[vague] but as a sport is now codified, regulated, judged, and performed using standardized special acrobatic equipment. This sport is practiced by both men and women. Competitors perform two passes, each containing eight skills along the track. Only the feet and hands are allowed to make contact with the track. Tumbling elements such as the round-off and back-handspring (flic) are commonly integrated into the balance beam routines of gymnasts.

DID YOU KNOW?

Tumbling has been an Olympic gymnastics event only once, at the 1932 Summer Olympics, and was a demonstration event in 1996 and 2000. It is one of the events of the World Games. There is an annual World Championships held in conjunction with the Trampoline World Championships.

source: Wikipedia

USA Gymnastics Team