A Different Perspective for Coaching and Training Education According to Score Changes During Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships

Abstract

Rhythmic gymnasts repeat elements thousands of times which may put a risk on gymnasts’ health. It is necessary to protect the current and future health conditions of young gymnasts, especially in the growth process. There is a lack of knowledge about training education on rhythmic gymnastics. To suggest innovative changes, the current study aimed to analyze the scores (D, E, and total scores) of the first 24 gymnasts competing in 34th and 36th Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships (ECh). Research data were collected from 24 rhythmic gymnasts’ scores, from the 34th ECh and 36th ECh. Difficulty (D), Execution (E), and total scores for hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon were analyzed. Conformity of data to normal distribution was assessed with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Variables with normal distribution were compared by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)/independent samples t-test and for variables not fitting normal distribution, Mann Whitney U/Kruskal Wallis H test was used. The main findings of the current study were that D scores between 2018 and 2020 increased approximately 4.18 points (p<0.001) while E scores showed no significant changes (p>0.05). In all apparatus total scores increased +15.39 (p<0.001). As these increases seem to be in the faith of gymnasts to get higher results, it is obvious that gymnasts are forced to have a higher number of elements in their routines. Coaches should be informed about new training models and coaching education systems. In this way, they will be able to support their gymnasts in all ways (not only with performance development but also with recent updates on training educations).

Influence of the competition components on placement in rhythmic gymnastics

“…In addition, during the past decade, there has been a tendency to decrease the time of performing in-dividual body difficulties, and consequently the total time needed to perform all body difficulties (Manos, & Popescu, 2014; Hashimoto, Kida, & Nomura, 2018; Chiriac, Teodorescu, & Botha, 2020). In this way, more time is provided for the execution of technical elements with apparatus (Chiriac et al, 2019;Örs, 2021), the number of which has increased significantly in the routines during the past decade (Sierra-Palmeiro, Bobo-Arce, Pérez-Ferreirós, & Fernández -Villarino, 2019), especially after the modifications to the rulebook, when an unlimited number of apparatus difficulties are allowed within one routine (FIG, 2017). The trend of increasing the number of difficulties in the routines was observed in all levels of competitors, regardless of the level of performance (Batista, Garganta, & Ávila-Carvalho, 2017).…”