Gymnastics

Front matter

MANUFACTURER OF

ALL SPORTS & GAMES,

111, Aldersgate Street, London.

Preface

The following pages are devoted to the discussion of gymnastics from the point of view of a learner who desires to become a fine gymnast. No attempt has been made to deal with the medical aspect of the subject, nor has space been given to the description of abnormal feats of strength and dexterity. My main object has been to describe as great a variety of exercises as possible, and to describe them in such a way that the reader, even though he has no previous knowledge of the subject, may be able to set about learning them with a clear idea of what he should try to do.

The illustrations, with the exception of a few diagrams, are reproduced from instantaneous photographs taken by Mr. George Mitchell, of Lewisham. In taking these no recourse was had to artificial supports ; in every instance the actual exercise illustrated was done and photographed.

Thanks are due from me to Mr. J. W. Macqueen and to other friends for valuable assistance.

A. F. JENKIN.

Introduction

§ I. Introductory — §§ a-7. Style — § 8. Arrangement of Chapters — §§ 9-17. Nomenclature.

\ § I. In the present chapter it is my intention, first, to give ^ome general hints as to the style in which exercises should be done and as to the way in which a correct style may be acquired; and, secondly, to explain the arrangement adopted and the system of nomenclature employed in the subsequent chapters.

The suggestions as to style contained in the next few paragraphs are of the greatest importance ; for, in gymnastics, to parody a well-known saying, there are three essentials — the first is style, the second is style, and the third is style. Strength you will acquire naturally, if you do plenty of work, and dexterity you will acquire unconsciously with practice ; but style you can only acquire by constant attention, and then only if you have a clear idea of what to aim at.

The general explanations as to nomenclature contained in §§ 10-13 ^re essential to the understanding of the subsequent chapters. The remaining paragraphs are devoted

GYMNASTICS.

to the discussion of certain difficulties connected with nomenclature, and are, I fear, somewhat abstruse ; they are, however, addressed to practised gymnasts only, and may be omitted by beginners.

STYLE.

§ 2, Carriage of the Head. As a rule, whenever the mam portion of the body is erect, the head should be carried erect. You will find that the position of the head depends upon the direction in which you are looking. If you look up, your head will be erect; if you look down, you will stoop. Therefore, unless there is some special reason against it, whenever your position is in the main upright, you should look at a point rather above the level of your eyes. It is possible to keep the eyes up while stooping by poking the chin forward; but, if you keep the chin well pressed back, and the eyes fixed on a point above their own level, your head is almost certain to be in a correct position. In order to acquire a correct carriage of the head you must learn to avoid looking at the apparatus on which you are working. At first this requires some resolution, especially if you have to shift your grasp, but you will soon learn to know instinctively where the apparatus is without looking at it.

§ 3. Carriage of the Legs and Feet. As a rule you should keep the legs perfectly straight, with the toes as much pointed as possible. You cannot keep the legs in this position without bracing the muscles ; your legs will not hang straight , you must hold them straight ; stretch them straight, in fact. Again, as a rule, you should keep the legs together so that they are in contact at the knee, the ankle, and at the ball of the foot. Even the most practised gymnasts in doing an unwonted exercise

INTRODUCTION.

cannot be sure for themselves that their legs have not bent or separated, and beginners often double the knees till the feet nearly touch the thighs, and separate the legs wide, quite unconsciously.

§ 4. Beginning Exercises — Posiiion of “ Aitentionr In beginning an exercise, in which the movement proper is begun from a standing position, you should walk straight up to the apparatus, stand for an instant with the heels together, the toes turned slightly out, the head and body erect, and the arms by the sides, and then, without hesitation, spring or grasp the apparatus as the case may be. In beginning exercises which are done after running up to the apparatus, you should stand for an instant at a suitable distance from the apparatus in the position described above, and then, without hesitation, walk two or three paces forwards, so as to get into your stride, and then begin to run without any shuffling of the feet or changing step. Although there is little difficulty in beginning exercises properly, your exercises will gain greatly in finish if you attend to the point. The standing position described above is called the position of “ attention.”

§ 5. Leaving the Apparatus. In alighting from an apparatus, you should, just before you reach the ground, bend the knees slightly, separate them, and turn the toes out, keeping the muscles of the legs braced, and the eyes fixed on a point slightly above their own level. Then pitch on the toes, let the knees bend further, and then straighten the knees and come to the position of “ attention ” without shifting the feet. As you alight, the arms, unless you retain hold of the apparatus, should be kept straight, and hang outside the knees. If you are alighting from a considerable height, you should hold the arms from your sides, at right angles to the body, and let the knees bend till the heels

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almost touch the thighs ; but in alighting from a moderate height, the knees should not bend so much, and the arms should be held only just clear of the knees.

The method described above is the only safe way of alighting from any considerable height ; if you pitch on your heels, or fail to bend the knees, you may seriously jar the back ; if you do not separate the knees, you may easily sprain, or even dislocate them, and you may hit your jaw badly on your knee; if the arms are not kept outside the knees, you may hit the forearm a bad blow across the knee ; and, if you do not keep the eyes off the ground, your head will come forward with a jerk as you alight, which may be attended with very serious consequences. Even in alighting from quite a moderate height, you may get hurt if you are not in a proper position, and I think that more than half the sprained knees and ankles which occur in a gymnasium are due to alighting in a wrong position.

If, after alighting, you fall backwards, do not put out your hands to save yourself; bring your hands forward, raise your shoulders, bring your head into your chest and roll over, and you will not hurt yourself ; if you put out your hands you may easily sprain or break the -wrists.

It is of the utmost importance to learn to alight properly ; in the first place for safety’s sake, and, secondly, because nothing detracts more from the appearance of an exercise than alighting in a clumsy manner. The proper method of alighting can, however, only be acquired by assiduous practice. You should make it a rule never, by any chance, to alight carelessly.

§ 6. General Style, Exercises should, as a rule, be done with an even and continuous movement without any jerk, pause, or hurry, so that the whole exercise has a cadenced

INTRODUCTION.

appearance. If, however, a pause is introduced in the course of an exercise, you should make a definite pause, remaining absolutely motionless for, at least, sufficient time to show that the pause is intentional ; again, if an abrupt movement is introduced, that movement should, as a rule, be made as suddenly and decisively as possible. In doing slow exercises you must not hurry the difficult parts in order to get them over, nor the easy parts because they are not worth wasting time about. Provided that your movement is perfectly continuous and even, the slower you do slow exercises the better.

§ 7. Acquisition of a Correct Style. If you have a good instructor, it is comparatively easy to acquire a correct style, but you will have constantly to ask him whether your exercises are properly done or he may think that you know of defects of which you are perfectly unconscious, and may accordingly fail to mention them. If you have no instructor, get some one to look on; consider where you are likely to make mistakes, and direct the onlooker’s attention to that particular point; explain what you are going to do, and ask him to tell you whether at a particular moment your knees are straight, or your back perfectly hollow, or your body horizontal, or whatever the particular point you want to know about may be. It is no use asking a man who does not know much about gymnastics whether your exercise, generally speaking, is well done or not; he does not know what points to attend to. Finally, remember that there is no such thing as perfection in gymnastics ; however well you may do an exercise, there is always a possibility of doing it better still, and this is true even of the simplest and easiest movements.

GYMNASTICS.

ARRANGEMENT OF CHAPTERS.

§ 8. Each of the three principal instruments, the horse, the horizontal bar, and the parallel bars, I shall deal with in a separate chapter, describing first the leading positions on the instrument, and then the various exercises. These exercises will be divided into groups according to the nature of the movements made, and not according to their comparative difficulty.

In discussing the simpler movements I shall, as a rule, first describe a complete exercise introducing the movement in question, and then make such general remarks about the movement as may seem necessary. In discussing more complicated movements, on the other hand, I shall, as a rule, begin by a general account of a group of exercises, and then give particular examples. These examples have generally been made long and difficult in order to introduce as great a variety of movements as possible ; but, for actual practice at first, you will of course find it easy to simplify them. Many exercises are unsymmetrical, that is to say, they may be done either right or left These will be, for the sake of brevity, described to the one side only, leaving it to you to reverse them ; but it is of the greatest importance to be able to do all such exercises indifferently right or left.

NOMENCLA TURE.

§ 9. At the present time there is, in this country, no generally recognized system of nomenclature for the description of gymnastic exercises, and the want of some such system has been a very serious obstacle to the spread of this branch of athletics. In writing the present work, one of my main objects has been, if possible, to supply this want.

INTRODUCTION.

The system of nomenclature at present obtaining with the German Gymnastic Society and other leading gymnastic clubs in London, and adopted by the Amateur Gymnastic Association, is that employed by Knofe and Macqueen in their translation of Piiritz’ “ Merkbiichlein fiir Vortiirner,” and my endeavour has been, while conforming as far as possible to that system, to place it upon a basis of accurate definitions, and to extend it to the description of the more complicated exercises. The difficulties of this undertaking have been very great, and I am conscious that, in striving after accuracy, I have at times been guilty of pedantry, and, on the other hand, that, in an effort to conform to the existing system, I have at times sacrificed simplicity and uniformity.

I have, however, had the pleasure of submitting the system employed in this book to the Committee of the Amateur Gymnastic Association, and they, after making many valuable suggestions, which I have adopted, passed a unanimous resolution expressing approval of the system. I am therefore encouraged to hope that I may to some extent attain my object, and that the present work may be instrumental in spreading the use of a uniform and established system of nomenclature in this country.

§ lo. The remaining paragraphs of the present chapter are devoted to general explanations as to the method in which movements involving a rotation are described ; but, as has been already stated, it is unnecessary for a beginner to read further than to the end of § 13. Before passing on, however, I should point out that throughout the book certain common expressions, such as “ right ” and “ left,” “forwards” and “ backwards,” “in front of” and “behind,” are used in accordance with the definitions given from time to time, and that it will be impossible for the reader to

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follow the descriptions of the various exercises unless he bears these definitions in mind,

§ 1 1. Turns. The meaning of the expressions “ turn to the right ” and “ turn to the left ” must be clearly understood. Imagine that you are standing on the face of a clock at the centre, and that you turn with the hands ; you turn to the right j if you turn in the opposite direction, you turn to the left. Now suppose you are not upright, but in some other position ; imagine that your legs are in a straight line with the body, with the feet against the face of a clock; then, if you turn with the hands, you turn to the right; if in the opposite direction, you turn to the left. For example, if you are lying down on your back and roll over on to your right side, you turn to the right, Again, if you are lying down on your face and roll over on to your right side, you turn to the left.

§ 12. Ttirn of Limbs. The expressions “turn to the right ” and “ turn to the left ’ are used not only with reference to the body, but also with reference to the limbs.

For example, if you take a watch up in one hand between the fingers and thumb, with the face to the palm of the hand, as in the sketch (Fig. i), and place the hand in any position, and turn the watch in the direction in which the hands move, you turn the hand to the right ; if you turn the watch in the opposite direction, you turn the hand to the left. Again, if you turn the right foot out, you turn the

INTRODUCTION.

foot to the right ; if you turn the left foot out, you turn the foot to the left. Again, if you turn the head in the direction it would move, if you held the neck stiff and made a turn to the right with the body, you turn the head to the right ; if you turn the head the other way, you turn the head to the left.

§ 13. Extent of Turn. If you turn through four right angles, or, in other words, through a whole circle, coming again to your original position, you make a complete turn ; and if you turn through any portion of four right angles, the extent of your turn is denoted with reference to a complete turn : thus a turn through one right angle is a quarter turn ; so that “ quarter right turn ” in gymnastic language is the same thing as “right turn” in military language. Again, “ half left turn ” is the same thing as a “ left about turn ” in military language.

In a similar manner, if you turn a limb through one right angle, that limb makes a quarter turn ; if through two right angles, a half turn, and so on.

§ 14. The word “turn” in gymnastic language, used with reference to the body, is confined in meaning to a rotation about an axis parallel to the backbone. You often, of course, in doing exercises perform a rotation about axes in other directions j for example, in movements in the course of which you turn head over heels, such as circles on the horizontal bar, you perform a rotation about an axis parallel to the straight line joining the points of the shoulders ; but such a rotation is not called a turn.

A rotation about the last mentioned axis is denoted by the words “ swing,” “ circle,” “ roll,” or “ somersault,” and the rotations in the two directions are distinguished by the use of the words “ forwards ” and “ backwards,” or “ front ” and “ back.” In all forward or front circles, rolls, or somersaults, lO

GYMNASTICS.

the rotation is with the hands of a clock placed on your left with the face towards you ; in backward circles, rolls, or somersaults, the rotation is against the hands of a clock so placed. In forward swings, however, the rotation is in the same direction as in backward circles, rolls, or somersaults ; and in backward swings the rotation is in the same direction as in forward circles, rolls, or somersaults.

Again, you may perform a rotation about an axis perpendicular both to the backbone and to the straight line joining the shoulders, which axis may be called for the moment the “ cross axis ; ” as, for example, in a movement like that made in raising the body above the instrument in a flank vault, or in moving from a double elbow lever between the parallel bars to a right elbow lever. Unfortunately, no word appropriate to a rotation about the cross axis is in use at present, and the words “ turn” and “swing” are often used for such movements.

§ 15. It should be pointed out that by performing a rotation about one axis, and then a rotation about another, you may reach a position which you could also reach by performing a rotation about a third axis. For example, if from a vertical position you swing to a horizontal position, and then carry the body round with a rotation about the “ cross axis ” through a right angle, and then drop again with a swing to a vertical position, you will find yourself in the same position as if you had done a quarter turn, that is to say, a rotation about the axis parallel to the backbone. A rotation may also, of course, be made about an axis which is not in any one of the three directions above spoken of, but it is often impossible to describe such a movement with perfect accuracy in a reasonable space, and accordingly it is necessary to be content with an approximate description of the movement, describing it as if consisting in a rotation about

INTROD UCTION.

1 1

one of the three principal axes followed by a rotation about another.

As an example of what is meant, you may consider a front vault over the horse. You might describe this movement approximately in two ways : (i) throw the legs up to the left with a rotation about the cross axis, then do a quarter right turn, and then drop the legs with a swing ; (2) swing the legs up to a free front lever, then carry the legs to the left with rotation about the cross axis, and then drop them. Now, in point of fact, in doing a front vault you really make an intermediate movement; but it would be impossible in any reasonable space to describe exactly the movement made, and accordingly you must choose that one of the two approximate descriptions suggested, which you consider most nearly accurate.

§ 16. It may be advisable to point out that it is at first by no means easy to see which way you should turn to do a right turn when in a vertical position with the legs above the head, for example, in a handstand. If you are in a handstand on the parallel bars, and turn to a bandstand on the left bar, placing the right hand in front of the left, so that the thumbs of the two hands are next each other, you have done a quarter right turn. This seems surprising at first, but a little thought will convince you that it is so.

§ 17. If you have difficulty in understanding the last few paragraphs, I should advise you to cut a rough figure of a man out of a piece of paper, and mark his face and back, and his right and left arms and legs, then draw an arrow across his chest with the point towards his right shoulder, and then remember that if he is turning so that the arrow is moving in the direction in which it is pointing, he is turning to the right, and you will easily convince yourself by experiment that the statements in these paragraphs are accurate.

GYMNASTICS.