Gymnastics

“ 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 ”

“ The teachers of physical training have long felt that even the combination of gymnastics and athletic sports left much to be desired in the carriage and movements of the body, so classic and esthetic dancing, which stands between the two, more closely allied to gymnastics in its movements and to games in its spirit, was introduced as an additional gymnastic exercise, to harmonize the movements of the body, and to produce an ease of manner with a grace of beauty and of motion. ”

“ The grounds on which the use of exercise generally are recommended, are precisely those from which the benefits of this particular class are to be inferred; with this advantage in favour of gymnastics, that they combine the advantages of almost every other species. If it be desirable that the body should be strengthened, the limbs acquire flexibility, the muscles be brought into full play, and the spirits be invigorated, gymnastics must be allowed to be salutary for such are their ordinary effects. ”

“ Gymnastics for Youth.
This engraving represents simple methods by which, at this season especially, the health of young persons may be maintained, and the constitution invigorated. Two round parallel bars at two feet distance from each other, on round standards three or four feet high, firmly fixed in the ground, will afford boys the means of actively exerting their limbs and muscles: and if the ends of a pole be let into opposite walls or fastened to trees, the boys may be taught to climb single ropes, and hold on while swinging by them. ”

“ The generally accepted idea of gymnastics is, I consider, very inadequate. In the common schools we are accustomed to describe as gymnastics a species of collective muscular discipline which has as its aim that children shall learn to follow definite ordered movements given in the form of commands. The guiding spirit in such gymnastics is coercion, and I feel that such exercises repress spontaneous movements and impose others in their place. ”

“ PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
The revival of gymnastics is, in my opinion, the most important step that has been done in that direction. The great merit of the gymnastic art is not the facility with which certain exercises are performed, or the qualification which they may give for certain exertions that require much energy and dexterity ”

“ 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. ”

“ Suppose a boy from 10 to 14 years old, who is strong and healthy by means of gymnastics and other exercises, set to learn the piano or violin. His body is strong with gymnastic exercises, but his wrists and fingers are weak and awkward. How is he, with the method now in use, to succeed in playing an instrument well, without very long and wearying work? No wonder that the painful exertion almost makes him despair, and that finally he gives up the thing altogether. ”

“ A good gymnastics includes complete exercises, and incomplete or unsymmetrical exercises, under such a condition as that they shall correct one another, and that the work shall bear upon the lower and upper limbs. An intensive gymnastics well taught produces superb subjects. Swedes, Swiss, and Germans, selected from special schools of gymnastics, and the monitors of the school at Joinville le Pont, might rival the finest types of antiquity. ”

“ For young ladies I believe gymnastics to be not only unnecessary, but injurious, and that every practical result desirable can be arrived at by the use of such exercises as I have endeavoured to describe, varied occasionally by the moderate use of the dumb-bells, a few minutes of which at one time is always sufficient. ”

“ The study of Gymnastics is of the utmost importance to young persons, as its object is to call into exercise, and to train to perfection, all the corporeal or bodily powers. It is the education of the limbs, joints, and muscles; and includes not only the systematic training of these, but also assists the sciences of riding, driving, wrestling, rowing, sailing, skating, swimming, &c. ”

“ Many books have been written on gymnastics, but I am not acquainted with one which treats of the gymnastical exercise of the fingers. Why these important members of the human body should until now have been so much overlooked and neglected, it is difficult to understand. For, as Professor Richter in Dresden says, “Next to the more powerful development of the brain, it is almost exclusively the structure and skill of the fingers and hand which raises man above the brute, and has made him ruler of the earth.” ”

“ It will be noted that I have inserted a few tricks of a solely individual nature, which are not distinctively applicable to the period of male adolescence, but which may or may not prove interesting to some individuals who happen to be alone in the gymnasium. The whole subject of gymnastics has its beginning in this period. ”

“ In order, therefore, to heighten the capacities of the human hand, the joints of the hand and fingers should, from early youth, be [Pg 36] exercised gymnastically, as much and in as many various ways as possible, partly by free exercises, partly by means of mechanical appliances.
Gymnastics, according to anatomists and physicians, is the stretching, extending, pressing, and training of the muscles, the ligaments, and the limbs of the body. [5]
Flexibility, agility, and strength can be [Pg 37] acquired only by means of a regular exercise of the muscles of the body. ”

“ We have already had occasion several times to point to the difference between the gymnastic training of youths, continued into manhood with a view to strengthening the body, and the professional gymnastics of the athletes ”

“ Gymnastics, however, were thought by the ancients a matter of such importance, that this part of education alone occupied as much time and attention as all the others put together; and while the latter necessarily ceased at a certain period of life, gymnastics continued to be cultivated by persons of all ages, though those of an advanced age naturally took lighter and less fatiguing exercises than boys and youths. ”

“ Gymnastic exercises are extremely valuable, and if we can only impress upon you to be moderate, we have no hesitation in saying that you will derive great benefit from gymnastics. The dumb-bells, the clubs, the horizontal bar, and the other milder exercises are very helpful, but you must avoid all the violent, we might almost say furious, exercises which are far too commonly indulged in. ”

“ But, in order that good and not actual harm may be done, gymnastics must be carried on under medical supervision. Bodily exercises should, as far as possible, occupy the mind at the same time. The fact that gymnastic training is being taken up in our high-schools and colleges for girls is a great gain, not only to the individual, but to the race as well. ”

“ It was not until near the end of the 19th century that gymnastics were recognized in England as anything more than a recreation; their value as a specifically therapeutic agent, or as an article in the curriculum of elementary schools, was not realized. More recently, however, educationists have urged with increasing insistence the need for systematic physical training, and their views received greater attention when evidence of deterioration in the physique of the people began to accumulate. ”

“ The ideal physical training requires that systematic gymnastic exercises should be supplemented by outdoor games and sports. Gymnastics are not sufficient for an all-round means of development, because the movements are too regular, too expected, and too deliberate, but they are invaluable for health and physical development, for the correction of physical deformities, as a foundation for many games and sports, and for supplementing the same. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In this kind of gymnastics, the attention of the instructor is far too much occupied in making his pupils perform feats, many of which are of an acrobatic nature, rather than directed to the harmonious development of the whole body; hence, in some cases, the shoulders become abnormally broad and square, and other unsymmetrical effects are caused. In fact, the amusement of the pupils is considered rather more than their physical welfare. ”

“ The benefits of judicious exercise to the human frame cannot be over-estimated. In these days of sedentary occupations, it becomes an absolute necessity, an antidote, in fact, to the labours of the brain. By its use the balance between mind and body is preserved.
Irrespective of the increased health that gymnastics impart, and the spring which they give to the mind, they possess one great advantage, namely, that they endow the gymnast with presence of mind in difficulties. ”

“ Gymnastics is the art of systematic training of the muscular system. The action of the voluntary muscles, which are regulated by the nerves of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary automatic muscles depending on the spinal cord, while they are the means of man's intercourse with the external world, at the same time re-act upon the automatic muscles in digestion and sensation. Since the movement of the muscular fibres consists in the change of contraction and expansion, it follows that Gymnastics must bring about a change of movement which shall both contract and expand the muscles. ”

“ By gymnastics he understood not a dreary tugging at ropes, and hugging of bars, and climbing ladders with hands, but a simultaneous exercise of mind and body in pastimes where the body is deceived by the mind into activity, and cheated into wholesome weariness—such as contests of strength and passages of arms, hunting, fowling, and the like. Even so at Oxford physical education is complete ”

“ Gymnastics is the regular order for all pupils. A Swedish system of exercises is used which requires little apparatus but yields large returns. Abundant well-directed exercises of various kinds are provided for every pupil at stated periods and are entered into with zest. The regularity with which the gymnastic exercises are given doubtless has much to do in preserving the health of the children. As a class they are not only free from weaknesses but are vigorous and robust. ”

“ The point to be emphasized in this connection is that the rough gymnastics generally practised on apparatus, the climbing and swinging from the hands and feet, the vaulting and parallel bars exercises, though they may be highly fitted for athletes or sailors, and may even not be injurious to the stronger individuals among Board School girls, are most unsuitable for the weaker individuals and for young ladies whose inherited constitutions are not fitted for very rough work of any kind. ”

“ The value of gymnastics both for curing defects, and still more for promoting health and the development of normal physique, is recognized even more clearly on the continent of Europe than in Great Britain. In Germany the government not only controls the practice of gymnastics but makes it compulsory for every child and adult to undergo a prescribed amount of such physical training. ”

“ The gymnastics of the modern gymnasium are in marked contrast with the athletic exercises of the Greeks, with whom the striving for physical perfection amounted to a passion. Their exercises were running, wrestling, boxing, fencing, and throwing the discus, taken in the open air, without apparatus, and exercising the body throughout, and especially in the fundamental associated movements of the trunk and limbs. ”

“ It was well known amongst the Greeks and Romans that the muscles reached their greatest state of development by means of exercise. Though, therefore, gymnastics formed a great part of their system of education, yet the chief aim in their athletic instruction was the desire to train men to fight their battles, and in those days war was a matter of personal valour and of individual bravery. ”

“ It is pleasant to think, that, so great is the variety of exercises in the gymnasium, even physical deficiencies and deformities do not wholly exclude from its benefits. I have seen an invalid girl, so lame from childhood that she could not stand without support, whose general health had been restored, and her bust and arms made a study for a sculptor, by means of gymnastics. Nay, there are odd compensations of Nature by which even exceptional formations may turn to account in athletic exercises. ”

“ Gymnastics and Military Training THE various athletic exercises, which are here for convenience classed together under the word ‘gymnastics,’ fall into three main classes, depending respectively on strength of body, of leg, and of arm. ”