Written by Gurnur Kaur
Edited by Himanshi Shivani
PREVIEW: Shooting has been an important part of Olympic sports because it not only tests the physical strength of the Olympias but also greatly focuses on the mental ability and motor control skills of the shooter. The founder of the modern Olympic movement, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was himself an avid pistol shooter. “You can’t say any sport is purely physical or purely mental. They are all some sort of combination. But if you’re looking at difficulty on the mental side, there’s nothing tougher than shooting.” - Sean McCann, Senior Sports Psychologist for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
(Check out our previous post on Shooting - Contribution of Olympic Games toward Sports: https://samagrafoundation.blogspot.com/2020/09/contribution-of-olympic-games-toward.html)
"Gymnastics is the type of sport where you can't take something that gives you more energy. Something may be great for the vault, but then you have the bars after it and you have to be more sedate for that." - Shannon Miller, an American former artistic Gymnast
When we hear the word gymnastic, the picture that our mind makes is of a person doing stunts and being extremely flexible. It's a gender-neutral sport. The person practicing this ought to be agile, flexible, have physical strength, grace, and body balance too. One needs to be clear that this sport not only requires bodily strength of arms, legs, shoulders, abdominal muscles etc.but mental strength too in terms of precision, alertness, discipline, and confidence. You might not be aware of this fact but the word gymnastics is derived from the Greek word 'gymnos' that means to train naked because in ancient times the gymnasts used to train and compete by being nude.
The governing body of gymnastics supervising this sport across the world is the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). The categories under this sport recognized by the FIG include Men's and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, Tumbling, acrobatic, and aerobics whereas unrecognized include wheel gymnastics, aesthetic group gymnastics, men's rhythmic gymnastics, TeamGym, and mallakhamb.
Gymnastics is observed to be quite a dangerous sport with exceptionally high injury rates observed in girls aged 11 to 18. Strength training can actually prevent these injuries and accidents. A gymnast could actually just kill himself/herself with a wrong move. According to studies it is observed that gymnasts on an average have short stature but gymnastics behind their growth hasn't been confirmed yet. To put more emphasis on female gymnasts, after adolescence a large number of girls leave their desired sport as it is anyway not easy to pull off bodysuits even during puberty and menstruation. Only the ones who are keen on pursuing it tends to continue in this field of sport.
Don't forget to have a look at our next upcoming post, Weight Lifting - Contribution of Olympic Games toward Sports (Part 3)
Excerpt:
The Olympics not only builds a healthy human physically but also helps in overall growth. It creates a spirit of teamwork and adds value to living. It helps to build a society where equitable development is possible. One such famous sport that had emerged in the Olympics is weight lifting. The popularity it had gained was not easy. This sport had made many hidden talents to come forward especially from backward regions. Many contributions are still to be made, but the position it had acquired lately is remarkable.
Also, check our second episode on the Sports Psychology sub-series- "Please Practice What You Preach Nike"- https://samagrafoundation.blogspot.com/2020/09/please-practice-what-you-preach-nike.html
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