It has been a challenge putting this course together; sharing what we have learned and putting it into a succinct package was not easy. We are proud to welcome you all aboard and hope that you will find it thoroughly stimulating, thought provoking, challenging and fun. We are here to help you all as much as we can and encourage you all to communicate with other participants on matters of the course frequently. Don’t be afraid to ask questions at any point and make the most of the Forum we have set up.
Gymnastic Bodies have made a huge impact in the world of Physical Fitness. For decades, how elite gymnasts were trained remained unknown to anyone outside of this world. Over the last decade, Coach Sommer has spent a huge amount of time, effort, energy and passion into creating the amazing resource that is Gymnastic Bodies and we are very proud to be the first to offer this Personal Training Course on GST.
As well as the online part of the course you as participants will be expected to travel to a GymnasticBodies Affiliate for 6 contact weekends. Each of the affiliates hold the same high standards for quality of coaching and client contact and you, as course participants will be expected to deliver the same high quality of coaching to your clients. This course will cover the basic Foundations necessary for teaching GST to a high level and remember that basics does not mean easy, basics are the most important part of any athletic endeavor and training program.
As teachers ourslevs, we wish for these same high standards to be embodied by you. We realise that teaching and instructing others in any discipline cannot be mastered in 12 months, it is an ongoing art that you will continually refine over the years to come. The next 12 months will set standards and practices that will provide an excellent foundation for your skills as teachers to expand from.
Have fun, challenge yourselves, challenge us!
only $599.00
Historians have claimed that the origins gymnastics can be traced right back to the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, where physical exercises on various forms of apparatus were used to train military personnel. The exercises were called ‘gymnastics’ and were practiced in an open-air facility called a ‘gymnasium’.
Some time later the Greek gymnastic exercises were modified by Gus Muths to form the basis of the German physical educational curriculum. This work was further developed by Ludwig Jahn (1778-1839), who designed basic apparatus such as pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and horizontal bars; on which the exercises were practised. This lead to the formation of gymnastic clubs (Turnvereine) in Germany and the term ‘German gymnastics’ was used to refer to this form of activity. A form of men’s gymnastics was included in the first modern Olympic games in 1896 and form it’s European Origins the sport began to develop all around the World.
The first gymnastic clubs in the UK and USA were established in the 1850’s. At this time the apparatus would include a pommel horse, which had a drooping end rather like a grazing horse; swinging rings; club swinging; a horizontal bar, which comprised a metal bar covered with a wooden veneer held in place by solid metal rods; and very basic floor matting, usually made with canvas covers and filled with some form of coarse hair.
As more countries became involved in the sport in the early 1900’s, the design of the apparatus improved and a new style of men’s gymnastics evolved to form the foundation of modern gymnastics. The term ‘Olympic Gymnastics’ was extensively used to describe the competitive form of the sport.
Woman’s gymnastics gained it’s formal international recognition at the 1952 Olympic Games and gymnasts form the Soviet Union (USSR) dominated the sport for over a decade. The Japanese came to the forefront of men’s Olympic Gymnastics in the 1960’s, but the Soviet gymnasts gradually eroded the dominance of the Japanese.
In 1972 the gymnastic events at the Munich Olympics were extensively televised and the viewing audience for these events exceeded those of all the other sports. The emergence of Olga Korbut onto the world scene and the amazing performances of other gymnasts were watched by millions. The resultant boom in interest coincided with a period of growth in the building of sports centres and gymnastics facilities and together they provided the stimulus for massive growth in the sport.
At this important phase of development of the sport the more successful nations, such as the USSR, Japan, China and the Eastern European countries were employing full-time paid coaches to train the gymnasts. Many of the gymnasts were ‘professional’ gymnasts, who were able to train two to three times per day in purpose built facilities. This gave a massive advantage to these nations over those countries where gymnastic clubs were essentially volunteer, amateur organizations. Despite these disadvantages, gymnasts from the USA and Western European countries began to appear on the medal podiums.
Up to 1970 the sport of Olympic gymnastics was predominantly for adult participants. Around this time ‘talent identification and development programmes’ were designed and introduced, along with training and event programmes for young gymnasts. This provided greater access to the sport and laid the foundation for more and advanced more complex exercises at all levels of the sport.
Gradually more purpose-designed and dedicated gymnastics facilities were constructed and more opportunities to become full-time paid coaches were created in the Western world. The injection of state funding into gymnastic programmes in these countries led to a more level playing field and a wider range of countries are now winning world and Olympic medals in what is now called ‘artistic gymnastics’.
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. Men’s gymnastics was one of seven sports included in the programme, and the first men’s Olympic champion was Alfred Flatow from Germany. The men’s programme has been present in every Olympic Games since.
A form of women’s gymnastics including swinging rings, was introduced at into the Olympic programme in 1928 but it was not until the 1952 Helsinki Games that the women’s all around four-piece event was introduced. The Olympic champion was Maria Gorokhouskia from the USSR.
There have been some amazing achievements at the Olympic Games, for example, the USSR held the women’s team title for eight consecutive years from 1952, while the men’s team from Japan won the Olympic title at five consecutive games from 1960 to 1976. Vitali Scherbo (Belarus) holds the record for the highest number of gold medals at one Olympic Games. He claimed six at the 1992 Barcelona Games.