Viner (an influencial coach in the sport of rhythmic gymnastics) from Russa recommends thatmen to be added to the sport. The article attracted a lot of discussion but with a lot of misinformation as well. I saw pictures of clumsy men trying ribbon from the reality show “The Bachelorette” and that is not what is happening in Russia.:
The gymnastics portion of martialgym is based off the Japanese style of men’s rhythmic gymnastics. They use rope, stick, clubs and double rings as apparatus for individuals (versus rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon for women). Groups are competed without apparatus with 6 team members performing (versus 5 for the current Olympic version of rhythmic gymnastics). Acrobatic skills, tumbling, high risk/tricky apparatus handling, perfect synchronized to music are some of what makes it awesome to watch. This is the style of men’s rhythmic gymnastics that Viner is recommending and supporting. I saw lots of wrong illustrations accompanying the news article. It is not men doing female rhythmic gymnastics, it is indeed a different style of rhythmic gymnastics with similar concept and yet quite different competition rules.
There are indeed people within the sport that fear that by introducing men to a women’s only sport, we are changing the sport and women will be required to do the same moves. In my opinion, those are two different styles within the family of rhythmic gymnastics. Having both genders understand and appreciate the sport is better than restricting to typically just young females. Furthermore, from my experience in Japan, alternating a competition between men and women is simply awesome for the audiences, the contrast made both better and more enjoyable. Furthermore, you get twice the number of audiences as well.
Being influenced deeply by the Canadian values, I personally don’t believe in gender based sports. Hence, I do not call it men’s rhythmic gymnastics but rather martialgym and therefore make it open to both genders. The use of apparatus is a great ‘foundation’ for the use of weapons in martial arts, the throws and catch are great for learning sports like baseball, the body wave is great for learning to sequence your muscular commands. The expression to music will prompt guys to ‘soften’ up their form and posture as well and works really well with Chinese internal martial arts. Instead of just imitating a form, young children actually gets to learn the fundamentals and values of internal martial arts and making it fun!
If you have never seen men’s rhythmic gymnastics here are some worth while videos to watch:
Individuals (double rings)
Group
Exercise
This is your catchup week. Complete last week’s blog if you haven’t. Otherwise, see you at Nikkei. We will not be rolling out the mats, please make sure you wear non-marking shoes.