Archery is the art of shooting arrows from a bow with the object of hitting a target. In international competitions, it is both an individual sport and a team sport. Bows are made out of plastic, steel, fiberglass, and laminated wood. The art of archery is called toxophily. The archer is called the toxophilist.
The most popular kinds of archery are target archery and field-archery. In target archery, the target is painted with five colored scoring rings——from white on the outside through black, blue, and red to gold on the inside. The gold is called the bull. Points range from one for the outer white to ten for the bull. The archer shoots at the target from distances of thirty metres up to ninety metres.
The bow and arrow were originally used for hunting or as weapons of war. Archery is now regarded as a recreational activity. Archery was included in the first modern Olympics at Athens in 1896. After 1920, it was omitted from the Olympic Games, but it was reintroduced at Munich in 1972. In 1931 the International Archery Federation was founded. In the same year, the first World Archery Championships were held.
Dominant nations in world archery include the USA, Russia, and Korea. Archery requires balance, concentration, coordination, and a sense of timing.
Gymnastics is a system of physical exercises practiced in competition as a sport and also to promote physical development by training the body. Gymnastics requires men and women to demonstrate strength, balance, body control and grace on floor exercises as well as on pieces of equipment.
Floor exercises are performed on a mat twelve metres square. There are compulsory and voluntary exercises in every event. Apparatus or pieces of equipment include the vault, beam and asymmetrical bars for women; and the vault, pommel horse, horizontal bar, parallel bars and rings for men..
Gymnastics is derived from the Greek word “gymnasium” which means “a place for exercising naked”. In ancient Greece, all cities had gymnasiums. Physical education was an important part of Greek education.
A German soldier called Jahn is regarded as the father of modern gymnastics. He invented several pieces of equipment including the parallel bars, the horizontal bar and the rings. At first, strength was most important. Then rhythm and fluency of movement were introduced as in the floor exercises.
The International Federation of Gymnastics was founded in 1881. Gymnastics was included in the first modern Olympics in 1896. Dominant nations in world gymnastics are China, Russia, Japan the United States and Eastern European countries.
Rhythmic sportive gymnastics is a sport for women containing elements of the floor exercise with the added skill of pieces of hand apparatus. The five pieces of apparatus are the rope, hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbon. They must be used like an extension of the gymnast’s body and should harmonize with the rhythm of her body’s movement and expression.
Competitions take place on a carpet floor area twelve metres square. Exercises include the team all-around competition, the individual all-around competition and the finals by apparatus individual competition. There is also the group all-around comp-etition and the group exercises final competition.
The International Gymnastics Federation was founded in 1881. Gymnastics was included in the first modern Olympics at Athens in 1896. But events for women were only introduced in 1928. Rhythmic sportive gymnastics is a modern form of gymnastics and became an Olympic event at Los Angeles in 1984.
Rhythmic sportive gymnastics requires agility and flexibility, balance and coordination, grace and poise, dexterity, expression and a sense of rhythm.
