EINE KURZE ENTSTEHUNGSGESCHICHTE

In erster Linie galt Turnen der „Leibeserziehung der deutschen männlichen Jugendlichen im alten Preußen“. Zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts gewann das Turnen immer mehr an Bedeutung und wurde schnell als organisierter Sport betrachtet und im Schulsport integriert. Durch die Napoleon-Kriege und das Hitlerregime entgleitet das Turnen jedoch in die falsche Richtung und wird militarisiert. Die Vermutung liegt nahe, dass es auch heute noch männliche Jugendliche gibt, die im Turnen einen Hauch von militärischen Zügen wahrnehmen und daher diesem Sport weniger zugeneigt sind als Mädchen. Doch dies ist nur eine Vermutung.

MIT KÖRPERBEHERRSCHUNG UND KRAFT ZUM ERFOLG

Turnen ist ein Leistungssport mit ganzem Körpereinsatz. Das Grundprinzip jeder Trainingseinheit ist ein gezieltes Krafttraining mit Ganzkörperübungen. Zu seinen Anfangszeiten prägten vorwiegend Statik und Krafthalteteile die Übungen im Turnen bzw. Geräteturnen. Heute zählen sehr viele akrobatische Übungen, Saltos, Sprünge und Drehungen dazu und verwandeln die ehemals sehr statische Sportart in eine dynamische. Professionelle Turner und Turnerinnen sind Kraftsportler, Akrobaten, Tänzer und Sprinter in einem – oder anders ausgedrückt, Hochleistungssportler, bei denen Kraft, Schnelligkeit, Körperspannung, Beweglichkeit sowie ein Maximum an koordinativen Kompetenzen die entscheidenden Rollen spielen.

Gymnastics – Just for girls?

In today's society, despite the struggle for equality in many areas of life, labels are distributed that declare something as masculine or feminine. In the world of sports, stereotypes and prejudices often prevail. Bodybuilding, in particular, is perceived as a very masculine sport. Followed closely by football, basketball, and ice hockey, even though the number of female players is steadily increasing.

On the other hand, there are also a number of sports that are considered typically feminine. Gymnastics is at the forefront of these. Artistic gymnastics, apparatus gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and much more are often seen as sports for girls. However, we want to prove here that gymnastics is not only a sport for women but also poses a demanding challenge for men.

A Brief History of Gymnastics

Initially, gymnastics served the "physical education of German male youths in old Prussia." At the beginning of the 19th century, gymnastics became increasingly important and was quickly considered an organized sport and integrated into school sports. However, due to the Napoleonic Wars and the Hitler regime, gymnastics was led in the wrong direction and became militarized. It is plausible that even today, there are male youths who perceive a hint of military traits in gymnastics, and therefore may be less inclined towards this sport than girls. But this is just speculation.

The fact is that this unsavory period in the history of German gymnastics caused a lot of damage. Gymnastics should regain the face of a competitive and elite sport that it once was. Meanwhile, with its various forms, gymnastics has been part of the Olympic competitive disciplines since the beginning of the 20th century. Today, there are a total of 14 events at the Olympic Games: four apparatus finals for women, six apparatus finals for men, individual all-around women, individual all-around men, and team all-around competitions for both women and men.

With Body Control and Strength to Success

Gymnastics is a performance sport that involves the whole body. The basic principle of each training session is targeted strength training with full-body exercises. In its early days, static and strength-holding parts dominated the exercises in gymnastics or apparatus gymnastics. Today, many acrobatic exercises, somersaults, jumps, and turns are included, transforming the formerly very static sport into a dynamic one. Professional gymnasts are strength athletes, acrobats, dancers, and sprinters all in one – or in other words, high-performance athletes for whom strength, speed, body tension, flexibility, and a maximum of coordinative skills play the decisive roles.

Conclusion

To be successful in professional gymnastics, hard training and a lot of discipline are key. Whether you are male or female plays no role because gymnastics is not a gender-specific competitive sport. Instead, some exercises and difficulty levels at championships are different for purely anatomical reasons. At the Olympic Games, men and women compete in different areas of artistic gymnastics. Women compete in the disciplines of uneven bars, vault, floor, and balance beam. Men compete in the disciplines of rings, pommel horse, floor, parallel bars, horizontal bar, and vault. Outside of competition, it is not uncommon to try different exercises regardless of gender.