What is Rhythmic Gymnastics

It is a compositional and a high technical sport characterized by the combining of rhythmic movements with small apparatus. The gymnastics movements, of different technical difficulty, are connected with continuous sequences in order to form a logic whole perfectly coherent with the musical accompaniment.

Rhythmic Gymnastics uses small apparatus: rope, hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon.
Rhythmic Gymnastics has 2 events: individual and team.
The gymnasts’ technical training consists of:
. exercises for the space orientation and the rhythmic sense
. basic exercises for the setting-up and the control of the various body’s parts
. exercises for the setting of leaps, turns, equilibrium and articulation
. specific exercises for the technical using of the apparatus

During the competition days you could hear this words: pivot are the turns on yourself, souplesse are wide and supple movements performed by the gymnasts till the soil of the art of contortion,enjambée en tournant are jumps characterized by a wide opening of the inferior limbs and turning, and many others French words because they come from the ballet vocabulary, in fact Rhythmic Gymnastics uses ballet for the basic training.

One of the most important requirements for Rhythmic Gymnastics is the rhythmic sense, the name itself shows it.
The movements must be performed with accents and in perfect coherence with the incidental music chosen according to the expressive and technical needs.

Individuals belonging to 2 categories take part in this European Championship:
juniores, the youngest and seniors, the more experienced.
Senior gymnasts take part in the team competition, the Italian team is now at the top position.

Every individual gymnast performs with 4 apparatus.
The seniors perform: rope, hoop, clubs and ribbon.
The juniors perform: rope, hoop, ball and ribbon.
Each team performs 2 exercises:
Our seniors perform with 5 ropes and with 3 hoops and 4 clubs.
The choice of the apparatus is periodically suggested by the International Technical Committee.

RG is strictly a women’s competition; at an experimental level there are some researches to involve men like in Japan, which performed RG since the 1950s!!


Maria Rosa Rosato and Amalia Tinto