Women's Artistic Gymnastics Research Articles

Somatotype, anthropometric characteristics, body composition, and global flexibility range in artistic gymnasts and sport hoop athletes.

The objective of the study was to analyze the somatotype, anthropometric characteristics, body composition, and the global flexibility battery test. A total of 48 athletes of both sexes from Women's Artistic Gymnastics, Men's Artistic Gymnastics, and Hoop Sport (mean ± standard deviation, age 12.50 ± 2.67 years, body mass 43.16 ± 11.00 kg, height 150.15 ± 11.91 cm). Anthropometric data were obtained using the ISAK protocol. The somatotype was analyzed using the Heath-Carter method. The results indicate significant differences in fat, bone, and residual mass, as well as in the proportions of endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy (p <0.05). The somatocard revealed that most athletes were classified as endomorphic mesomorph or ectomorphic mesomorph, with variations between groups. Positive and negative correlations were identified between the anthropometric variables, somatotype, body composition, and global flexibility. All positions of the global flexibility battery test showed negative correlations with residual mass, indicating that the greater the range of flexibility, the lower the residual mass.

The issue of energy metabolism featues of athletes specializing in virous types of gymnastics

This study examines research conducted by both domestic and international scholars on the training processes of gymnasts across various disciplines. The primary objective is to identify the characteristics of bioenergetic support influencing gymnastic performance. Contemporary research suggests that an athlete's physical capacity is contingent upon several factors, including the nature of motor activity performed during training drills, age, gender, and competitive experience. Statistical analysis demonstrates that drill duration in men's artistic gymnastics ranges from 5 seconds (vault) to 70 seconds (floor exercise), while women's routines vary between 5 seconds (vault) and 90 seconds (balance beam and floor exercise). Callisthenic drills require significantly more time, with duration ranging from 90 seconds (individual events) to 150 seconds (group events). Gymnastic training encompasses a wide age range, typically from 4 to 20 years, most commonly between 9 and 16 years. Notably, many female gymnasts reach their competitive peak during their mid-to-late teens, while males typically peak around 20 years old. The research indicates a proportional increase in training duration and intensity alongside age and competitive level. Studies investigating energy consumption in male artistic gymnasts reveal the highest consumption during floor exercises, followed by vault, still rings, horizontal bar, and parallel bars. Similarly, floor exercise consumes the most energy in women's artistic gymnastics, followed by bars, balance beam, and vault. Furthermore, research suggests that anaerobic energy support dominates during vault, pommel horse, parallel bars, and still rings exercises, while aerobic mechanisms underpin floor exercises and callisthenics. Notably, oxidative metabolism appears to have minimal direct impact on competitive callisthenic performance but plays a crucial role in glycogen conservation during extended, intensive training sessions for elite female gymnasts.

Poesia em movimento: uma história do solo da Ginástica Artística para mulheres

In Women's Artistic Gymnastics, the floor exercise apparatus highlights beauty, expression and choreography. On this apparatus, gymnasts recite poems through movements and are able to tell stories with their bodies. However, women gymnasts faced some struggles to be incorporated in Gymnastics. In this conjuncture, the floor exercise event underwent many changes from its emergence in gymnastics for men to the incorporation of women in Artistic Gymnastics. Thus, this article seeks to gain better understand about the development of floor exercise event though historical research. We identified that the skills that make up the floor exercises today were present in Ancient Egypt and in medieval troupes. However, it was in the European gymnastic movement that the genesis of contemporary floor exercises occurred. Initially, the role of women was to be spectators of men’s Artistic Gymnastics, and their participation in Artistic Gymnastics sports universe was achieved through small steps in the XX century. Despite advances over the years, female gymnasts were limited by the femininity considered essential for life in society and by the defense that only sports with aesthetic plasticity would be more recommended for this public. However, we argued that the female gymnasts dictated the (new) direction of this sport, through creativity and incorporation of gymnastic acrobatic skills. Later, these elements became trends and have changed the ways of thinking the sport.

Training Load Monitoring in Elite Youth Women's Artistic Gymnasts: A Pilot Study.

Women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) is a complex aesthetic sport in which athletes start at a young age and are exposed to high loads during their careers. Little is known about the external and internal training load characteristics among elite young gymnasts. High training loads, with variations over the weeks, are expected. There is a relationship between external and internal load variables. Cohort study. Level 3. Seven elite-level Brazilian youth artistic gymnasts (age, 11.3 ± 0.4 years; mass, 33.0 ± 7.0 kg; height, 137.7 ± 10.6 cm; experience, 4.0 ± 1.2 years) participated in this study. Five nonconsecutive microcycles were monitored. Both external and internal training loads were quantified by counting the number of elements in video recordings of training sessions and by the session rating of perceived exertion method. A total of 168 individual training sessions were monitored. The microcycle that succeeded the main competition showed a significantly lower training load than ≥3 of the other 4 microcycles for all training load variables, except for vault elements, of which microcycle 4 was inferior only to the microcycle before the competition. Significant correlations were found between weekly internal training load and the total of elements and elements performed on uneven bars. Youth women's artistic gymnasts present fluctuations in external and internal training load variables over the weeks close to a major competition. Training load management in this sport must consider the specificity of each apparatus, as they have different demands and training load behaviors. A better comprehension of external and internal training loads in youth WAG and its apparatuses can benefit coaches and support staff and provide more information to overcome the challenge of training load management in gymnastics.

Surviving child sexual abuse in women's artistic gymnastics: ‘It's beautiful, because had I stayed in the past, I wouldn’t have evolved as a person’

The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal raised global awareness about child sexual abuse (CSA) in women's artistic gymnastics. The ensuing media coverage also centre-staged victims’ survivorship stories, a process that for many moved from dissociating, recognising and disclosing CSA to feeling comfort when connecting with survivors and accepting CSA as part of their life history. However, scholarship on what survivorship from CSA in sport entails, and importantly, what it means to athletes, is limited. In this article, we frame the survival of CSA using Arthur Frank’s socio-narratological conceptualisation of people being able to process the devastating consequences of a life-threatening and/or a life-altering event, and present the survivorship stories of two former gymnasts, Maria and Lucia (pseudonyms). For these two women, survivorship was facilitated by hearing others’ stories of sexual abuse, purposefully facing their CSA experiences and connecting with one another later in life to raise awareness about sexual abuse in sport. Thus, in addition to presenting Maria and Lucia's stories for the purpose of providing CSA victims with a survivorship narrative, we outline and reflect on the role hearing and telling stories have in CSA survivorship.

Injuries in French High-Level and National-Level Women Artistic Gymnastics: One-Year Prevalence and Associated Factors

Objective: The aims of this study were (1) to determine the one-year prevalence of injuries and their characteristics and (2) to analyze potential injury risk factors in high-level/national-level women artistic gymnasts. Methods: Competitive women artistic gymnasts training more than 10 h per week in a national training center and a TOP 12 club in France were invited to participate in a retrospective study through an online questionnaire about their self-reported injuries and potential injury risk factors (e.g., previous injuries, diseases, weight modification) during the 2020/2021 season. Results: A total of 88 gymnasts between 9 and 23 years old, who trained on average 22.0 ± 6.2 h per week, answered the questionnaire. Ninety-five injuries were reported by 62 (70.5%) of the 88 gymnasts. The one-year injury prevalence was 70.5% (95% CI 60.9 to 80.0%). Gymnasts had, on average, 1.1 ± 1.0 injuries per year. The most common reported injury location was the knee (25.3%), and the most common reported injury type was the ligament (26.3%). Having an injury during the previous season (OR = 9.06; CI 95% 2.66 to 36.73; p = 0.0007) and using a prevention program (OR = 3.97; CI 95% 1.46 to 11.15; p = 0.007) were associated with a higher risk of injury in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions: More than 70% of French high-level/national-level gymnasts had at least one injury during the 2020/2021 season. This high injury rate supports the need to promote injury prevention. However, in the present study, using a prevention program was associated with a higher risk of injury. There is thus a need to improve injury prevention strategies to counter the high injury risk and its potential consequences.

Birthplace as a factor of influence for the sporting success of Brazilian Olympic gymnasts

The main objective of this study was to identify the population and socioeconomic profile of the place of birth of Brazilian Olympic gymnasts in the three gymnastics disciplines that are part of the Olympic Games program (Men's and Women's Artistic Gymnastics, individual and team Rhythmic Gymnastics, and Men's and Women's Trampoline Gymnastics) and their relationship with international sporting success. This study was characterized as descriptive, with a quantitative approach using the following analysis factors: State of the country, Region of the country, Number of inhabitants, Demographic Density, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, and Municipal Human Development Index (MDI). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study is original in that it gathers diverse information about athletes who represented Brazil in different editions of the Olympic Games in a specific group of sports and contributes to understanding factors that influence international sports success for gymnastics modalities in the Brazilian context. The data indicate that Brazilian Olympic gymnasts from cities in the South and Southeast regions of the country, with more than 100,001 inhabitants, with a demographic density greater than 1869.37 inhabitants/km2, and with a high or very high HDI are more likely to achieve international sporting success. We believe that this study can contribute to future studies to analyze the influence of environmental factors on sporting success, especially in the Brazilian context.

THE BALANCE BEAM AS AN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS APPARATUS FOR WOMEN: FROM ORIGIN TO CONSOLIDATION

This article seeks to increase the understanding of the historical development of Artistic Gymnastics and, mostly, the women’s participation in this sport. Therefore, through historical research, we analyzed the genesis and the inclusion of balance beam apparatus at the core of this gymnastics discipline. The delimitation of the period ranged from 1896 Olympic Games until the years between 1952 and 1964, which are known by the stabilization of the competitive characteristics of Women's Artistic Gymnastics. We observed that in the beginning, as well as in sport in general, women were excluded from this cultural experience. However, throughout history, we observed that the balance beam became a protagonist of the Artistic Gymnastics becoming a stage for reinforcing as much as to confront what women could or could not do in this gymnastics discipline.

Degrees of Difficulty: How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace by Georgia Cervin

<i>Degrees of Difficulty: How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace</i> by Georgia Cervin

Women's Artistic Gymnastics: Socio-Cultural Perspectives

In recent years, media coverage of women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) has increased immensely. On the one hand, a reason for this is its rising popularity in many countries; tickets for international championships sell out quickly, and TV ratings also indicate that WAG enjoys a large, stable fan base. On the other hand, WAG has stirred enormous controversy. The conviction of Larry Nassar, the US gymnastics team doctor, for sexually abusing female gymnasts, and the suicide of the team's former coach, John Geddert, generated both increased public awareness of the sometimes problematic coach–athlete relationship in this sport and a new, stronger self-confidence among athletes to come forward and resist sexism and violence.Against that backdrop, scholarly research on the historical and sociocultural dimensions of WAG has also intensified. This anthology, edited by Rosly Kerr, Natalie Barker-Ruchti, Carly Stewart, and Gretchen Kerr, not only summarizes the results of this research but also adds significant new insights from a variety of perspectives. The book uses an interdisciplinary approach and draws on contributions from a variety of fields, among them sociology, history, and psychology. It seeks to embed developments in WAG into larger trends characteristic of other sports as well, such as globalization and scientification. Moreover, next to such macro-perspectives, many essays highlight the micro-interactions between the different actors involved in gymnastics and how agency and power relations were and are negotiated under changing circumstances.The collection is divided into four sections; combined, they “explore WAG's many complexities: the sport's unique history, the individual experiences of gymnasts, the complicated coach–athlete relationship and the wider actors that affect the practice of gymnastics” (1–2). A main premise for the volume, and hence the focus of Section 1, is how notions of gender in general and femininity in particular have been articulated over the course of WAG's history. Essays in this part outline the development of WAG since the 1952 Olympic Games and stress processes of acrobatization, perfectionization, and commercialization. Together, they underscore a paradoxical constellation, as WAG historically celebrated women and femininity in a sport based on the biomechanically optimized bodies of girls.Section 2 zeroes in on the gymnasts’ experiences. Essays here listen to the voices of individual athletes and how they struggled with the intense training demands of WAG, with controlling and often sexualizing gazes of spectators, coaches, or judges, or with their own body-self perceptions. A contribution authored by Ashley Stirling, Alexia Tam, Aalaya Milne, and Gretchen Kerr is of particular interest; it analyzes the media narratives of gymnasts’ abusive experiences and asks whether “the broader effects of the #MeToo movement will . . . help to ensure the athletes’ voices are heard this time” (95).The third section revolves around coach–athlete relationships. The often large age difference between male coaches and their very young athletes suggests a strong male dominance in a sport that seeks to highlight femininity and questions whether girls can grow up to become independent characters. As the essays in this part point out, the complexities of coach–athlete relationships in WAG even reach beyond this most obvious aspect. As Melanie Lang and Joanne McVeigh remind readers in their essay, regardless of whether the coach is male or female, touching athletes in order to assist them with learning new skills is a central element in training that reduces options for protecting athletes from possible abuse that would work in other sports. The final section of the book brings in parents, sports scientists, physicians, judges, and technology—the personal and infrastructural environment that shapes WAG. As becomes evident, this surrounding network of influences often has highly ambivalent consequences, ranging from substantial support of the athlete to increasing her disempowerment.Women's Artistic Gymnastics is a valuable contribution to the study of female sport in general and gymnastics in particular. Its fourteen original scholarly essays—plus an introduction and a conclusion—cover a broad spectrum of historical, sociological, psychological, medical, and media-related issues from several theoretical and methodological perspectives and, hence, enriches our understanding of a complex sport. What makes this collection even more interesting is its willingness to engage in experimentation: each of the four sections of the book opens with a brief piece of fictional writing authored by James Pope, narrating the story of an imaginary character named Jenny and her ambivalent experiences within the world of WAG. Certainly, some readers will find that somewhat odd for a scholarly publication, and some might also question whether hiring a male writer to fictionalize the inner thoughts of a female athlete is a good idea. But the experiment of using fiction as a tool to highlight subjectivity is stimulating; Pope's “Jenny's Story” often works well, especially with those essays that stress the importance of the gymnasts’ own point of view.

Degrees of Difficulty: How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace

Since the late twentieth century, gymnastics has been “must-see” television during the summer Olympics, alongside swimming and track and field. All three sports garner huge ratings and, not coincidentally, feature American excellence. This is particularly true for gymnastics; Sunisa Lee's performance in the 2020 Tokyo games made her the fifth American woman in a row to win gold in the individual all-around. However, as Georgia Cervin reminds readers in Degrees of Difficulty: How Women's Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell from Grace, the popularity of gymnastics and American dominance are not only of recent origin but came at great cost to both the athletes and the sport.Gymnastics gained prominence during the Cold War, a time when gymnasts’ victories and personalities served as potent weapons in the global fight for symbolic and sporting supremacy. Eastern bloc countries dominated the Olympic podium early on, ultimately changing the sport forever with their innovative routines. Although the popular conception is that Olga Korbut and Nadia Comăneci revolutionized gymnastics with their acrobatic tricks and youthful ages, Cervin argues that Americans deserve credit for the latter development, as they were the first to add gymnasts barely into their teens to their national teams. The move to recruit younger gymnasts—one that other countries soon emulated—contributed to a major power imbalance between older male coaches and their younger, female charges, as well as to an environment of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.While there have been several books and documentaries detailing that abuse in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, Degrees of Difficulty is the first to offer an international history of the sport that explains how gymnastics created and sustained an environment in which such abuse could take place. In tapping her own experiences as an international gymnast, marshaling numerous secondary sources, and researching the archives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), Cervin offers a comprehensive account of the origins of women's artistic gymnastics and its evolution from an exhibition sport that debuted at the often overlooked Athens Olympics in 1906 to a marquee event in 2021.Cervin is at her best detailing the negotiations between the IOC and FIG, a collaboration that produced a sport that was traditionally feminine, entertaining, and, ultimately, fair. A new scoring system, which abandoned the “perfect 10” model made famous by Comăneci in 1976, now reflects a routine's degree of difficulty as well as its actual execution, produces greater transparency among judges, and grants gymnasts unprecedented opportunities to set world records. Even as Cervin comments on the collaborative process between the IOC and FIG that produced modern gymnastics as we know it, the resulting product was a sport that was quintessentially feminine. Cervin maintains that women's gymnastics were engineered to esteem elegance and grace—an intentional contrast with men's gymnastics—and thus was acceptable for females. However, as the author points out, it reinforced a very narrow definition of femininity—one that prized diminutive, elegant, and white participants—that blunted the sport's feminist intent.Less convincing is Cervin's claim that women's artistic gymnastics “opened the door for women's participation in other sports” (212). Her assertion of a link between the acceptance of women's gymnastics and their increased athletic participation lacks a clear cause and effect; certainly, the agency and appreciation women gained through gymnastics mattered, but Cervin fails to provide clear evidence that shows, for example, how the sport specifically influenced and encouraged the IOC to include more sports or events for women on its Olympic docket. Moreover, there were other sports in which women competed—golf, tennis, swimming, figure skating—that were also traditionally feminine, predated the emergence of women's gymnastics, and certainly contributed to the acceptability of female participation in sport, albeit without the female governance that gymnastics enjoyed early on.Nevertheless, Degrees of Difficulty is an important read and makes the case for necessary changes to a sport that millions love to watch but whose institutional history few understand. Those include increasing the minimum age of gymnasts, engendering a more collaborative relationship between athletes and coaches, and urging FIG to take a more activist role in banning coaches, administrators, and even nations from international competition for ethics violations. These reforms are necessary, particularly if, according to Georgia Cervin, the sport wants to fully embrace its feminist origins. In so doing it can set an important example for female gymnasts and, indeed, for all athletes, regardless of their sport or gender.

WOMEN’S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS ROUTINE COMPOSITION AT RIO 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES

Artistic gymnastics is a sport comprising a variety of movements performed on apparatus, connected by the art of movement. The Code of Points is a document that brings together all the rules of this sport; it guides the work of coaches and gymnasts, helping to compose the routines presented in competitions. This study focuses on women's artistic gymnastics and the implementation of its rules, established by the Code of Points 2013-2016. It aims to analyze the elements that composed the gymnasts' routines during the last Olympic Games (Rio 2016) and identify the possible technical relations between the composition of the balance beam and the floor exercises in line with the current Code. For this purpose, we carried out a video analysis of 82 balance beam routines and 82 floor exercise routines, in total 164 routines performed by athletes competing in women's artistic gymnastics at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games qualifying competition. We observed that the Code of Points is still little explored, and gymnasts use only a few of the elements available. In this sense, the International Gymnastics Federation and, more specifically, the Code of Points, which regulates the sport, should devise strategies for better usage of the elements available within the stipulated rules.

The effect of SARS-COV-2 on senior college athletes’ retirement considerations

ABSTRACT While there are studies that qualitatively examine athletes’ retirement experiences post retirement [e.g. Lavallee & Robinson, 2007. In pursuit of an identity: A qualitative exploration of retirement from women's artistic gymnastics. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8(1), 119–141; Torregrosa et al., 2015. Olympic athletes back to retirement: A qualitative longitudinal study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 21, 50–56; Tshube & Feltz, 2015. The relationship between dual-career and post-sport career transition among elite athletes in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 21, 109–114; Warriner & Lavallee, 2008. The retirement experiences of elite female gymnasts: Self identity and the physical self. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 20(3), 301–317], a unique opportunity was presented during the COVID-19 pandemic to gather data from NCAA Division II baseball players who faced potential involuntary sport retirement at roughly the same time for the same reason, thus eliminating multiple variables that are common in athlete retirement research. This study aimed to explore the experiences of senior college athletes using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Data analysis revealed that while the college athletes reported experiencing negative cognitive and emotional responses, they also identified positive aspects of this unexpected situation, thought of others during this unprecedented time, and remained future-oriented. Although there is still more to learn about the impact of sudden sport retirement on athletes, this exploration offered optimism that some athletes can be surprisingly resilient when faced with unexpected adversity at the end of their athletic careers.

Estimated energy expenditure and training intensity in young female artistic gymnasts

Aim: This study determined the energy expenditure and effort intensity of athletes during women's artistic gymnastics training sessions. Methods: Ten gymnasts (age 10.9 ± 1.7 years) performed a test to estimate the maximum rate of oxygen uptake (VO2max), during which the maximum heart rate (HRmax) was also obtained. The heart rate (HR) of these gymnasts was recorded during five training sessions and then used to estimate the exercise intensity and energy expenditure. Results: Mean duration of training sessions was 4.08 ± 0.42 h, with mean HR corresponding to 137 ± 8 bpm or 69.0 ± 3.5% of HRmax. Gymnasts spent less training time at 90-100% HRmax compared to the other HR ranges (p < 0.05). Time spent at 60-70% and 70-80% was higher compared to 80-90% HRmax (p = 0.012 and p = 0.001, respectively). The training impulse was 239.2 ± 35.4 AU. Estimated energy expenditure was 768.3 ± 168.5 kcal, metabolic rate was 3.1 ± 0.6 kcal/min, and the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) corresponded to 6.1 ± 0.6. Conclusion: Young gymnasts performed prolonged and moderate-intensity training sessions that generated high energetic demands. This information is beneficial to gymnasts since the coaching team can use the data to control the training load and prescribe a proper diet.

RESEARCH AND IMPROVEMENT METHODS OF COORDINATIIVE ABILITIES OF ARTISTIC GYMNASTS

Coordination skills are the main activities of movement abilities, without which it is impossible to achieve high results in artistic gymnasts. The aim of research is to study the methods of development and improvement of coordination abilities among 8-10 years-old women artistic gymnasts. Sport puts high demands to the gymnasts in the field of development of coordinative abilities. In gymnastics, great attention has always been paid to the coordinative ability development. Nowadays it is actual the search for methods to increase the training process efficiency without increasing load and intensity. One of the ways to solve this problem is the coordination development optimization among 8-10 years old girls by using two types of tools. The analysis of the results brings us to the conclusion that to develop coordinative abilities, a set of specially selected exercises should be developed, as it requires a long-term work. It will help professionals to develop literate, methodologically correct coordinative abilities among artistic gymnasts.

ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF TRAINING LOAD BETWEEN TWO GROUPS OF WOMEN’S ARTISTIC GYMNASTS RELATED TO THE PERCEPTION OF EFFORT AND THE RATING OF THE PERCEIVED EFFORT SESSION

The aim of this study was to assess the internal training load in female artisticgymnastics through subjective perception of effort (PSE) by calculating the sRPE variableand different associated variables. Ten gymnasts participated (age: 14.4 ± 2.9 years; height:1.5 ± 0.1 m; mass: 43.3 ± 12.2 kg) and were divided into two groups according to theircompetitive level and weekly training volume: High Level Gymnasts (HLG) and MediumLevel Gymnasts (MLG). The PSE of each gymnast was recorded daily for four weeks after theend of each training block. The HLG group recorded a significantly higher RPE and sRPEvalue in the specific physical preparation (SST) and in the parallel technical training (UB)contents (p &lt; 0.05) compared to MLG. Statistically significant differences were also obtainedfrom the registered mean values of RPE and sRPE when comparing training content.Furthermore, a direct relationship between volume and workload was observed. Finally, thevariables associated with injury risk control provided relevant information to determine thatthe HLG group had a higher risk of injury than the MLG group. Therefore, the sRPE hasbeen a useful tool to assess the internal training load in women's artistic gymnastics. Suchinformation may help quantify the load in this sport in the future.

“PUPPETS” IN WOMEN’S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: THE COACH-GYMNAST RELATIONSHIP FROM PIERRE BOURDIEU’S LENS

In Women's Artistic Gymnastics (WAG), athletes can be coach dependent, becoming submissive and this scenario may reflect subordination, harassment and abuse. This is worrying, because gymnasts are usually children. However, we argue that coach conduct depends on complex interactions. Thus, we analyzed how the coach-gymnast relationship is built. We used Pierre Bourdieu's categories to argue our reflections. We identified that the domination forms in the coach-gymnast relationship are responsible for shaping long-lasting dispositions, triggered by a process marked by the inculcation and embodiment of certain practices. Thus, gymnasts develop a class habitus that reproduces and legitimates the logic of this field. Our appropriation of Bourdieu's lens has shown that the gymnasts are at a disadvantage in relation to the coaches and to the system. Therefore, these structures should not demand early outcomes, but allow gymnasts to decide whether they want to continue in this “game of domination”.

Differences between all-around results in women’s artistic gymnastics and ways of minimizing them

Background: In the present study, the main goal was to establish whether the disciplines are equal and should the Code of Points (COP) women's artistic gymnastics be revised in terms of point standardization on apparatus. Material and methods: The sample included all-around senior female gymnasts who participated in the qualification (C-I) competitions at World Championships held in 2009-2019. Results: The biggest differences are even two points between the two apparatus vault and balance beam. Vault compared to other apparatus is different for 1.559 points. Presentation of correlations between each apparatus the evidence that nothing has changed significantly in recent years, whereas correlations of the difficulty values of elements are extremely high between the present COP. Conclusions: With this analysis, we have found that the results achieved at the vault and other apparatus were significantly different in terms of success in all-around competition.

Studying Special Strength Relationship and Performance Level Contribution In Some Skills of Vault and Uneven Bars In Artistic Gymnastics For Women In Sophomore Students

The research aimed at identifying the values of special strength variables and skill performance of some vault and uneven bars’ skills in sophomore college students of physical education &amp; Sport Sciences as well as identifying the correlation relationship and contribution of special strength with the performance level of some vaulting and uneven bars skills. The researchers hypothesized a statistical relationship between special strength and uneven bar skills, a statistical correlation between special strength and value, and finally and contribution between special strength and research variables. The subjects were (14) sophomore students, a pilot study, as well as many tests, physical abilities, and skills were all conducted to conclude that the contribution of special strength with performance level on vault and uneven bars was weak while abs endurance strength have a significant contribution on open jump. Finally, the researchers recommended studying the weaknesses in performing women's artistic gymnastics skills through identifying contributions and special strength development.

Prediction of Gymnastics Physical Profile Through an International Program Evaluation in Women Artistic Gymnastics.

Nassib, SH, Mkaouer, B, Riahi, SH, Wali, SM, and Nassib, S. Prediction of gymnastics physical profile through an international program evaluation in women artistic gymnastics. J Strength Cond Res 34(2): 577-586, 2020-The purpose of this study was to investigate the most appropriate aptitudes for top-level sporting results to identify physical profile of talent identified women's artistic gymnastics (WAG). Forty-eight women's artistic gymnasts in the provincial team (age 11.12 ± 1.22 years; height 1.35 ± 0.04 m; body mass 28.5 ± 4.04 kg) voluntarily participated in this study. Anthropometrics measures and the WAG battery physical tests were used to ensure a systematic approach for the WAG development worldwide. The present findings revealed that the strength (static strength, speed strength, and endurance strength), power and flexibility seem to be important and essential for good performance. Another characteristic that emerged from the results of the physical domain is coordination. This motor skill may seem relevant to gymnastics, they are applicable to the gymnasts' ability to perform all apparatus and more generally they relate to the ability to accurately perform whole-body skills supported by the leg on the floor, balance beam, and vault. Therefore, athletic performance can be boosted using combination of several characteristics that seems to be important for an elite gymnast. This reinforcing the view that systematic approach for the development and mufti-dimensional profile seems promising.