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Gymnastics: History and Value - A Perspective

Gymnastics, as an activity, has been around for more than two
thousand years in one form or another, from the ancient Greek
Olympics, to Roman ceremony, to today’s modern meets.

As an organized and truly competitive sport, gymnastics has
existed for a little more than a century. It was introduced in
the mid 1800s to the United States, where it inexorably gained
in popularity within school systems.

Amateur associations gathered together by the late nineteenth
century, offering classes and opportunities for young people to
join in on the fun. Eventually, these associations began to have
their own championships.

In 1896, at the first international Olympic games in Athens,
Greece, the sport we all know and love enjoyed its first
large-scale debut. Included in the Olympic tournament were
vaulting, parallel bars, pommel horse, and rings events for men.
The first women’s Olympic gymnastics events were held in 1928.
After the Olympics began to officially host gymnastics, the
World Championship gymnastics meet emerged in the early 1900s,
and it is still held to this very day.

Thus began a noble tradition that continues even in modern
Olympic games and in local, regional, national, and world meets
all over.

If you’re the parent of a young gymnast, odds are, people are
going to ask you, “Why did you choose gymnastics over swimming,
ballet, football, baseball, or soccer?” It is an easy question
to offer, but not a simple one to answer.

Their curiosity is entirely understandable–to the uninitiated,
may have a lower profile than others. However, if you are indeed
very serious about your child participating in the sport, you
can tell those people, with great authority, that gymnastics is
an excellent way to spend time. Not only does it have a long and
illustrious history, but it also requires attention and
discipline on the part of a child–more so, perhaps, than one
involved in any other sport.

In order to become successful at the sport of gymnastics, your
child will have to get into a routine of practice.

This type of routine is different from, say, soccer practice or
hockey practice, in that it does not involve the concept of
physical rivalry with other individuals. A gymnast is not
typically seen chasing after another gymnastics youth with a set
of rings as one might see a hockey player attacking another
person on an opposing team.

Gymnastics does not encourage violence in the same way contact
sports do — indeed, when one is part of a gymnastics team, one
has to work in synchronicity with and have a certain trust for
the other members, a valuable lesson in this
individualism-driven social environment. This can certainly help
in any future employment, especially if your child is interested
in professions that involve lots of interpersonal communication.

Beyond practice, gymnastics also requires physical discipline.
For instance, if you do not move in the way that you are taught
to move when on parallel bars, you will have falls and
disappointment–and then, of course, you learn from the mistake,
pick up, and try it again. Playing at gymnastics braces a person
for the future in that way: it prepares them for the inevitable
necessity of determination and endurance in any of life’s
endeavors, whether in business or in education. In conjunction
with school study habits, practice for gymnastics can indeed
lead a young person into a level and graceful confidence. In
fact, for as physically driven as gymnastics happens to be, it
is also an extremely intellectual sport: every motion requires
forethought, for in the game, if you do not think of what you
are going to do before you do it, you’ll end up on the mat.

Finally, and perhaps most obviously of all, there is the fact
that gymnastics will keep your child busy, as any other sport
might. This means that he or she won’t be as likely to slip into
a pattern of slacking or of hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Quite literally, when your child is at practice, you will know
where they are — you will not have to worry if they have
wandered off somewhere or are unintentionally getting into
trouble. This can lead to peace of mind for you and yours, most
assuredly, which, like the skills they will learn, are
absolutely invaluable.

By Murray Hughes Gymnastics Secrets Revealed “The book EVERY
gymnastics parent should read”

http://www.gymnasticssecretsrevealed.com/gymnastics-articles/gymn
astics-history.htm