Gymnast

“ But the gymnast is not my favourite; he has little or no tincture of the artist in his composition; his soul is small and pedestrian, for the most part, since his profession makes no call upon it, and does not accustom him to high ideas. ”

“ There is not one man in a hundred who can even raise his toes to a level with his hands, when suspended by the later members; and yet to do so is at the very beginning of gymnastic exercises. We, as a rule, are strong in the arms and legs, but weak across the loins and back, and are apparently devoid of that beautiful set of muscles that run round the entire waist, and show to such advantage in the ancient statues. Indeed, at a bathing-place, I can pick out every gymnast merely by the development of those muscles. ”

“ Their good nature, freed from all taint of snobbishness and from the fear of seeming too friendly, grown independent, in fact, has the ease, the grace of movement of a trained gymnast each of whose supple limbs will carry out precisely the movement that is required without any clumsy participation by the rest of his body. ”

“ Now, everybody knows that the very business of the Gymnast is to undo the cramping effect of the positions rendered necessary by the exigencies of study and of society; and nobody objects to its being done. We have all found out that the Gymnasts are the friends, not the enemies, of Order. We have seen the beneficial effects of gymnastic on the pupils; few notice the silent influence for good which it has exerted, through the pupils, on the parents and teachers ”

“ There should be no round-shouldered gymnasts. There is no one who has achieved distinction as a gymnast who is not as straight as an arrow, and across whose shoulder-blades a yardstick could not be placed without touching his back.
In your exercises avoid devoting too much time to one kind of work. Do not spend all your time, for instance, on the horizontal bar, or on the parallel bars. What all would-be gymnasts should strive for is a symmetrical development Pg 8 of their muscles. You do not want to have legs like a piano, hard and knotted with muscles, and arms like pipe stems. ”

“ As our gymnasia are usually private, and only moderately frequented, the gymnast is not stimulated to those exertions which society and competition would arouse. Ennui often mars his enjoyment. We have seen men methodically pursuing, day after day, the same exercises, with all the listless drudgery of a hack-horse. ”

“ Of course in gymnasia special dresses are worn; but, as absolute freedom is required, the model dress of the gymnast should be easily stowable in a glove-box.
FIG. 1.
And now for the first exercise (Fig. 1) . Stand at attention, holding a bell in each hand. Let the arms and legs be quite straight, the body upright, the heels close together, the toes well apart. Hold the bells so that a line through your hips would pass through the centre of each handle. ”

“ When you have come to the really difficult feats of the gymnasium,—when you have conquered the "barber's curl" and the "peg-pole,"—when you can draw yourself up by one arm, and perform the "giant's swing" over and over, without changing hands, and vault the horizontal bar as high as you can reach it,—when you can vault across the high parallel bars between your hands backward, or walk through them on your palms with your feet in the vicinity of the ceiling,—then you will reap the reward of your past labors, and may begin to call yourself a gymnast. ”

“ A boy or a squirrel would have made nothing of the feat. But for a young lady in long skirts to make her way down that balsam, squirming about and through the stubs and dead limbs, testing each one before she trusted her weight to it, was another affair. It needed a very cool head and the skill of a gymnast. To transfer her hold from one limb to another, and work downward, keeping her skirts neatly gathered about her feet, was an achievement that the spectators could appreciate; the presence of spectators made it much more difficult. ”

“ Curative gymnastics.Now most weak backs can be strengthened by strengthening the proper muscles. Muscle is strengthened by use, and the Swedish gymnast knows what exercises, or what rubbings, will produce the desired results, and proceeds to strengthen slowly and judiciously. The girl at the same time is allowed plenty of fresh air and suitable games, and soon recovers her normal condition, all the while pursuing the same kind of life as the others, though probably with some relaxation in the way of lessons. ”

“ By a Practical Gymnast. Juggling with balls, a pastime as pretty as it is entertaining, has also certain special advantages. In the first place, it is really an art, well worthy of the name, which may be easily acquired by members of either sex at any age, and it affords a gentle exercise which is extremely beneficial to the health. ”

“ Emulation and the presence of relatives and schoolmates impart to competitive gymnastics a charm which a spirited boy would not exchange for the passive pleasure of witnessing the best circus-performance. Wrestling, lance-throwing, archery, base-ball, and a well-contested foot-race, can awaken the enthusiasm of the Grecian palæstra, and professional gymnasts will take the same delight in the equally healthful though less dramatic trials of strength at the horizontal bar. ”

“ So, in the physical order, the practical gymnast, even when not executing any particular feat, possesses a suppleness and agility of body, due to exercise, which translates itself into all his movements. ”

“ And, more than Parry, gains the pole:—
Up and be trim!—the sport is fine,—
Fling down the gauntlet,—mount the line.
Caleidoscopes were once the taste,—
Velocipedes were rode for haste,—
Those fed the eye with pleasing views,
These ran the streets and tithed their dues;
Thrown to the shade like fashions past,
Gymnastics reign, for they are last.
Nature with art is like a tower,
Strong in defence in every hour ”

“ People have an idea that gymnasts are supple-jointed. That's all nonsense. A gymnast won't bend as much as an ordinary business man. There are too many bunches of muscles all over him that keep him stiff. ”

“ A boy is rarely of any good for the first couple of years, and it takes from five to six years to turn out a finished gymnast.
"ONE OF THE YOKOHAMA TROUPE."
"Is it true," I asked of the head of the celebrated "Yokohama Troupe," "that the bones of the boys are broken whilst young?"
Mr. Edwin Bale, who is himself a fine specimen of the healthy trapezist, smiled pityingly at my question, and asked me to come and watch his troupe practise. All gymnasts practise regularly for two hours or more every day. ”

“ It's possible for a fine gymnast to swing from a bar, say sixty feet above the net, turn a back somersault—what we call a cast somersault—then shoot straight down head first for thirty feet and then tuck up and turn a forward somersault, landing on his shoulders. ”

“ LITTLE GYMNAST; DANCING CLOWN; ROCKING ANIMALS
Little Gymnast. First the little gymnast must be drawn and cut out. He can be made of cardboard of medium thickness and paper-fasteners (Size 00) or better of three-ply wood and bifurcated nickel rivets (Size No. 14-8/16) .
First draw the body, A, Fig. 402, 21⁄2 inches long. (The measurements given are important, for unless the limbs are in proportion the figure will not work properly.) Make two holes with the drill, if wood is being used, as in Fig. ”

“ They learn gymnastics, as they learn everything else, more readily than their elders. Begin with a boy early enough, and if he be of a suitable temperament, he can learn in the gymnasium all the feats usually seen in the circus-ring, and could even acquire more difficult ones, if it were worth his while to try them. This is true even of the air-somersets and hand-springs which are not so commonly cultivated by gymnasts; but it is especially true of all exercises with apparatus. ”

“ International gymnastic contests have become a feature of the revived Olympic Games (see Athletic Sports) , and in those held at Athens in 1906 a team of Danish ladies took part in the competition and proved by their skilful performance that gymnastics may be practised with as much success by women as by men. ”

“ What does the ballerina express when with a fascinating smile she regards caressingly her own toe, as she toe-dances over the smooth floor? What does her body express, the human body—the most wonderful instrument of expression on earth—when, carried away by gymnastic enthusiasm in an acrobatic ecstasy, with panting chest and terror in her open eyes, she crosses the stage diagonally, whirling on one toe, while with the other she executes the famous “thirty-two fouettés”?’ ‘Gymnastics transform themselves into fantastics,’ exclaims Levinsohn ”

“ Through months and years of strenuous labor, he is training half a dozen young people of his own school to have bodies that are as well under control as a gymnast’s. The performances of the Vieux-Colombier draw on players not so well trained, but they show what physical command can accomplish. ”

“ Many a gymnast has this appearance, for he takes so much severe muscular work that it draws from his vitality, and gives him a stale and exhausted look, a very common one, for example, among men who remain too long in training for contest after contest of an athletic sort.
The getting up, then, of a large chest, and of large muscles on the chest, while often contemporary, and each aiding the other, are too frequently wholly different matters. ”

“ Indeed, in more than one instance which has come under our observation, the man looked as though, should you scrape all these great muscles completely off, leaving the bare framework, he would have actually a small chest; much smaller than many a fellow who had not much muscle. There hangs to-day—or did some time since—on the wall of a well-known New York gymnasium, a portrait of a gymnast stripped above the waist, which shows an exact case in point. ”

“ Beginning as the most promising pupils of the gymnasium, and becoming victors in the public games, certain gymnasts gradually grew into a distinct class of prize-runners, wrestlers, and fighters, called Athletes. They then devoted their lives to attaining excellence in these exercises, and withdrew to the palaestra, or training-school. Those who quitted the profession became instructors in the public gymnasium. To attain great bodily strength, they submitted to many rigid rules. By frequent anointing, rubbing, and bathing, they rendered their bodies very supple. ”

“ The real idea of Gymnastics must always be that the spirit shall rule over its naturalness, and shall make this an energetic and docile servant of its will. Strength and adroitness must unite and become confident skill. Strength, carried to its extreme produces the athlete; adroitness, to its extreme, the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both. All immense force, fit only for display, must be held as far away as the idea of teaching Gymnastics with the motive of utility ”

“ Remarks are often made by gymnasts as to the ease with which they perform on the trapeze and the horizontal bar many of the feats which elicit the most applause, as compared with those which often excite no demonstration whatever. Every one who has witnessed the tight-rope performances of the inimitable Blondin must have observed how much more he is applauded when he appears on a rope stretched at a great elevation than when he performs his feats on a low rope. ”

“ Every participator in field sports should bring to his games a body well developed by judicious gymnastic training. On the other hand the trained gymnast is entitled to the peculiar delights and rewards of athletic games. ”

“ Though, after the first few trials, the whole body will ache, and the astonished muscles tremble with soreness, a week's perseverance will overcome these earlier drawbacks. The gymnast will be surprised at the new feeling of vigor in the back and shoulders, and to find the upright, military posture as natural as it was before difficult to maintain. Temper and digestion undergo a parallel improvement, and it will require much to make him forego the luxury of exercise which he at first thought so painful. ”

“ Can you walk up on one hand? It is not an easy thing, but a first-class gymnast will do it,—and Dr. Windship does it, taking only every third round. Fancy a one-armed and legless hodman ascending the under side of a ladder to the roof, and reflect on the conveniences of gymnastic habits.
Here is a wooden horse; on this noble animal the Germans say that not less than three hundred distinct feats can be performed. Bring yonder spring-board, and we will try a few. Grasp these low pommels and vault over the horse, first to the right, then again to the left; then with one hand each way. ”

“ Jumps to straight arm position at sides or ends accompanied by lifting of arms and legs, etc. It is important that every gymnast know how to swing and vault well on the bars. For the swing, the hands grasp the bars directly opposite each other. You then jump to a straight-arm position. To start to swing, the heels are drawn back, the legs brought forward and upward with free movement from the hips. The head should be held up, trunk kept erect, legs straight, toes pointed and together. For the front vault, the front of body faces the bar ”

“ But whereas the Greeks received training in the gymnasium for contests which are now designated as athletic sports (q.v.) , gymnastics in the modern sense is a term restricted to such exercises as are usually practised indoors, with or without the aid of mechanical appliances, as distinguished from sports or games practised in the open air. ”