Artistic Gymnastics

History  A game with mixing strength and agility with style and grace  This game was first appeared in 2000 years ago in ancient Greece  It was believed that artistic gymnastics shows art, music and philosophy

Which event requires which equipment??  Uneven Bars  Women ’ s artistic gymnastics  Top bar 2.4m, Lower bar 1.6m

Still rings  Two parallel rings are 50cm apart  This game emphasizes stillness of the athletes  The game is also called the “ rings ”

High Bar  A bar 2.75m high  Also called the horizontal bar  Used in men ’ s artistic gymnastics

Parallel bars  Two wooden rails  Mainly used for swinging, balancing

Pommel horse  A solid apparatus with two handles  115cm tall  athletes are required to perform some movements with changing hand placements without falling in the ground

Vault  The structure is similar to pommel horse but vault is without any handles  Use in both men ’ s and women ’ s event  They are required to jump over the vault with the aid of beat board and perform some somersaults

Terminology  Like other sports events, gymnastics use many special terms  If you know some terms, you will feel that the game becomes more attractive than before

Aerial  A gymnast completes a rotation in the air  No touching any apparatus

Arabesque  A pose on one leg with the other leg extended behind the body, which is lowered from the hips to form a graceful curve

Back handspring  An athlete takes off from one or two feet  Jump backward onto the hands  Land on the feet

Degree of difficulty  Rating to measure the difficulty of a specific move  The rating is multiplied into the total score  The higher the rating is, the more difficult of the moves

Element  A single move that has a recognized way of performance and technical value

Gaylord  A move, named after US gymnast Mitch Gaylord, involving a front giant into a 1½ salto over the bar to grasp it again

Giant  A swing through 360 degrees around the bar, with the body fully extended.

Thomas flares  Named after US gymnast Kurt Thomas  straddle leg rotations on the pommel horse

Timochenko  Named after Soviet gymnast Alexandra Timochenko  A side flexion performed in standing side splits

Tkatchev  Named after Russian gymnast Alexander Tkatchev  A move from a backward giant to a backward straddle release over the bar

Yurchenko vault  Named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko  A vault that begins with a round-off entry onto the beat board  Continues with a back handspring onto the horse and a back 1 1/2 salto off