The Gymnastics Book: The Young Performer's Guide to Gymnastics (Young Performer's Guides)

Schlegel, Elfi; Dunn, Claire

ISBN 10: 1552094146 ISBN 13: 9781552094143

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2007

Synopsis

This indispensable guide is simply the best book for beginners to the sport of artistic gymnastics. Illustrated with stunning full-color photographs of gymnasts swinging, balancing, tumbling and jumping, The Gymnastics Book features skilled guidance from a medal-winning athlete who is now a noted instructor. The topics covered in detail include finding a good gymnastics club, qualities to look for in a coach, warm-up and cool-down exercises, moving into competitive gymnastics, managing victories and losses, the importance of family and friends, nutrition and apparel, financial aspects, and a typical day in the life of a competitive gymnast.

The book is also filled with anecdotes and advice from Olympic stars, taking beginners behind the scenes and offering a no-holds-barred account of the life of a competitive gymnast.

About this title

About the Author

Elfi Schlegel has won gold medals at the Commonwealth and Pan Am Games. She is a gymnastics instructor and, as a commentator for NBC Sports (TV), covered the most recent Olympic Games. As a former star-level young gymnast herself, she is uniquely experienced to write for young readers.

Claire Ross Dunn is a freelance journalist.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1:

Choosing Gymnastics

There are so many great reasons to choose gymnastics -- and if you're reading this, you probably don't need much convincing.

Let's discuss some of the benefits that gymnastics has to offer.

A Sport of All Sports

If you are involved in sports like diving and skating, your coach may encourage you to learn gymnastics to build your strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, agility and self-confidence.

But gymnastics doesn't just improve strength and flexibility -- it also has positive effects on other aspects of your life.

A Sport for All Ages

People of all ages can benefit from gymnastics. Whether you are 2 years old attending Kindergym with a caregiver, or an adult learning gymnastics for the first time, gymnastics will help improve your flexibility and strength. It would be ideal to start learning gymnastics early in life, but it's never too late to start.

A Sport with No Gender Bias

One of the best things about gymnastics is that it's open to everyone. The apparatus doesn't discriminate -- from rings to uneven bars, girls and boys are equally capable and welcome to try. At the Olympic level, however, only women compete on the balance beam and men compete on the pommel horse, though anyone can enjoy these events at a recreational level. Balance, coordination and strength are qualities that should be pursued by everyone.

And Speaking of the Apparatus...

Don't worry about having to leap over an Olympic-sized vault. Recreational facilities typically offer scaled-down, recreational-sized equipment. You can always progress to competition-sized apparatus later.

The Gymnastics Family

The gymnastics family has several branches: artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and exciting new alternatives such as sport aerobics, sport acrobatics and tumbling. In artistic gymnastics various skills are performed on an apparatus. Women perform on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. Men perform on the floor, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. In rhythmic gymnastics skills are performed with an apparatus such as a rope, hoop, bar, ribbon and clubs. This book will focus on artistic gymnastics and trampoline, since they are typically what you'll encounter at the beginner recreational level. Once you've mastered these disciplines, however, you can explore other exciting options.

Overall...
the sport of gymnastics is all about fun, fitness and fundamentals:

FUN because it's fun to jump, tumble and swing;

FITNESS because you'll gain flexibility, strength, power, muscular and cardiovascular endurance, balance, agility, coordination, body awareness and spatial orientation; and above all,

FUNDAMENTALS because the moves you learn -- landings, static positions, locomotions, swings, rotations and springs -- can be applied to almost any sport.

About this edition

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1552094146
• ISBN 13: 9781552094143
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 128