Abstract
Purpose: To analyze sex and age group differences in strength, jump, speed, flexibility, and endurance performances of TeamGym athletes.Methods: A total of 91 Swedish elite gymnasts (junior female, n = 26, age = 15.4 y; senior female, n = 23, age = 20.0 y; junior male, n = 19, age = 15.6 y; senior male, n = 23, age = 20.6 y) participated in three testing sessions on three separate days. These were: (1) a series of flexibility tests for the lower- and upper-body; (2) strength tests for the lower- and upper-body; and (3) various types of jumps, a 20-m sprint-run, and a 3,000-m run test.Results: Males were 24% stronger in the back squat one-repetition maximum (relative to body mass) compared to females (P < 0.001, Hg = 1.35). In the pull-ups and dips, 2.4 and 2.3 times more repetitions were completed by the males compared to the females (both P < 0.001, 0.70 ≤ R ≤ 0.77). However, females were similarly strong as males in the hanging sit-ups test (P = 0.724). The males jumped 29, 34, 33, and 17% higher in the squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJa), and drop jump (DJ), respectively, compared to the females (all P ≤ 0.002, 0.14 ≤ 0.60). In the 20-m sprint run, males were 4% faster than females (P < 0.001, R = 0.40). Moreover, the females had significantly better flexibility than the males in the trunk forward bending, front split, and side split tests (all P < 0.001, 0.24 ≤ ≤ 0.54). In the 3,000-m run test, males were 11% faster than females (P < 0.001, ≤ 0.54). Compared to junior athletes, seniors performed better in the pull-ups, dips, SJ, CMJ, CMJa, and 20-m sprint-run tests (all P ≤ 0.012, 0.31 ≤ R ≤ 0.56, 0.16 ≤ ≤ 0.25), with separate within-sex age-group differences (i.e., juniors vs. seniors) that were significant for the males but not for the females in the SJ, CMJ, CMJa, and 20-m sprint-run tests (males: all P < 0.001, 0.67 ≤ R ≤ 0.69, 1.37 ≤ Hg ≤ 2.01; females: all P = 0.298–732).Conclusions: Large sex and age-group differences were observed for most physical performance metrics with specific within-sex age-group differences only observed for male athletes, with male seniors performing better than juniors in the SJ, CMJ, CMJa, and 20-m sprint-run tests.
Highlights
Gymnastics is a sport that combines characteristics of strength, explosive power, speed, and flexibility (Bale and Goodway, 1990; Bencke et al, 2002; Jemni et al, 2006) and is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG)
The male athletes were, in comparison to the female athletes, 7% taller and 21% heavier which resulted in a body mass index (BMI) that was 5% higher
Senior compared to junior athletes possessed a similar body height but were 10% heavier with a 7% higher BMI
Summary
Gymnastics is a sport that combines characteristics of strength, explosive power, speed, and flexibility (Bale and Goodway, 1990; Bencke et al, 2002; Jemni et al, 2006) and is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). The performance level of TeamGym has increased rapidly based on the gradually enhanced difficulties from the first official European Championships in 2010 until the present day This was likely related to the introduction of the 2010 years version of the Code of Points ranking system (Hughes et al, 2010) that was based on a new open-ended difficulty score, which has led to faster development of more advanced gymnastic elements. The regular updates of the Code of Points ranking system (every 4 years) have likely had an impact on the performance characteristics of the sport All these factors have possibly contributed to the increased physical and technical demands of elite-level TeamGym athletes
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