PHYSICAL FITNESS
OCTOBER 10, 2021
Origin Of Gymnastics
One of the oldest sport event in Olympic Games is gymnastic. The origin of gymnastics was considered began in ancient Greece about 2500 years ago for sporting activities. Gymnastic tournaments were held in Athens for tumbling, rope climbing and other similar activities. Physical education played a large role in the progression of the Greek society.
At the time, young men underwent intense physical and mental training for combat and body development. It was held as a mandatory part of Greek education. The word comes from Greek word, gymnos meaning “naked” or “to exercise naked” due to the fact that they trained in nude in the gymnasium, doing floor exercise, lifting weights and racing against each other including running, jumping, swimming, throwing and wrestling.
Physical education consists of the three domains of learning : cognitive or mental skills of movement, affective which addresses growth in feelings or attitudes and psychomotor which connects to the manual or physical skills.
The modern gymnastic began in Germany in the 1800’s. Friedrich Ludwig Han (Aug. 11, 1778 – Oct. 15 1852) a physical education experts started the German gymnastic movement in 1811 and founded the first turnverein (gymnastic club).
He is the father of modern gymnastic as he developed a series of exercises for young men. This led to the invention of parallel bars, rings, high bar, the pommel horse and the vault horse. Johann Friedrich GutsMuths was also considered as the gymnastic pioneer from German.
While Charles Beck and Charles Follen, both were Germans and American John Neal brought the gymnastics culture to the United States around 1820’s. In 1825 Beck became the first American P.E teacher who taught German gymnastics.
Men gymnastics already competed in the first modern Olympic games in 1896 while women started competed in Olympic gymnastics in Amsterdam in 1928. In 1976 at the age of 14, Nadia Comaneci from Romania was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Montreal Olympic Games.
Today there are 6 types of modern gymnastics : Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline, Power Tumbling, Acrobatics and Aerobics. Different types and events of gymnastics require different skills to perform it.
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