Acrobatics
For many years before our era, acrobatics was known in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, and Byzantium. Moreover, acrobats were then called not only acrobats themselves, but also traveling artists, tightrope walkers, dancers. Acrobatic games with bulls were widespread on the island of Crete in 1500 BC. Carvings on stones found in Egypt and dated 1150 indicate that Egyptian acrobats were able to stand on their heads, arms, jump from feet to hands and from hands to feet, roll over backwards over their backs, perform the “bridge” exercise.
The first acrobatics manuals were written by the famous French acrobat Thucarro in 1599. These were the “Somersault-Mortale Textbook” and “Three dialogues about jumping and vaulting exercises in the air”, in which an attempt was made to systematize the acrobatic elements known at that time.
During the Renaissance, Venice hosted competitions of “living architecture” in which acrobats competed in the ability to build pyramids, the height of which reached up to 9 meters, and the number of acrobats in one pyramid – up to 30 people.
Sports acrobatics has great historical traditions, mainly related to the circus, and as a sport has absorbed the best accumulated over the centuries-old history of circus art.
In 1973, having united into the International Federation of Sports Acrobatics (IFSA), the national federations of the USSR, Poland, Bulgaria, and Germany set themselves the goal of promoting the performance of the most difficult acrobatic elements and holding world-class competitions.
The first World Championship in sports acrobatics was held in Moscow in 1974.
In 1998, at the suggestion of FIG, sports acrobatics became part of this international organization. Joining the FIG entailed significant changes in the rules of organization and conduct of sports acrobatics competitions. To stimulate entertainment in sports acrobatics, an additional component of the final performance assessment was introduced (2001) – an assessment for artistry, determined by a separate judging team. The final score for the performance at the competition became three–part – determined by summing up the scores for the technique, artistry and complexity of the competition program.
Currently, in accordance with the international rules of the FIG, competitions in sports acrobatics are held in five types:
• men’s groups (fours).
• women’s pairs;
• mixed pairs;
• men’s pairs;
• women’s groups (triples);
Acrobats, speaking at competitions, must demonstrate versatile preparedness, the ability to perform exercises of various types (in this case, the term “exercise” means a competitive acrobat program performed to music, limited by time frames, consisting of a certain set of paired-group and individual elements, as well as choreographic movements).
The types of acrobatic exercises depend on the nature of the elements (pair-group and individual) that make up this exercise.
In total, there are three types of exercises in sports acrobatics:
• combined (consisting of elements of a balance and vaulting type).
• balance (consisting of elements of a balance nature and performed without breaking the grip, such as supports, balances, hangs, supports, stands, etc.);
• tempo or vaulting (consisting of elements containing throws and catches, performed with a flight phase, with rotation around various axes – flights, somersaults, somersaults, etc.);
There are three types of competitions in sports acrobatics:
• Competition 3 – team.
• Competition 1 – qualifying;
• Competition 2 – final;
The evaluation of performance at competitions consists of three parts – marks for technique, marks for artistry and marks for the complexity of the competition program.
To date, there are about 50 specialized children’s and youth sports schools of the Olympic Reserve, children’s sports schools in five types of gymnastics in the republic. Gymnastics schools are available in all areas. More than 5,000 young gymnasts are engaged in schools.
In sports acrobatics, gold, silver and bronze medalists of the European and World Championships:
women’s pair Alina Yushko and Ekaterina Murashko,
men’s four: Kirill Shatov, Artem Khvalko, Vadim Ulasevich and Kirill Zhdanovich;
women’s three: Anna Dudkovskaya, Yulia Khripach, Alisa Usmanova;
women’s junior pair: Inna Shchuka and Margarita Bartashevich; Yana Yanusik and Svetlana Mikhnevich;
mixed junior pair Veronika Efimova and Nikita Nedogreenko
– for all these acrobats, 2009 went down in history as the most profitable year for medals – Belarusian athletes brought as many as 12 medals from the European Acrobatics Championships!
Belarusian Gymnastics Association
Address: 220030 Minsk, Kirov str., 8-2
Tel./fax: +375 (17) 289-15-78
E-mail: info@bga.by
Website: http://www.bga.by/
Chairman – Karpovich Vladimir Sigismundovich
Minsk city branch of the NGO “Belarusian Gymnastics Federation”
Address: st. V. Khoruzhey, 13/61
Telephone: +375 (17) 230-27-72
Chairman – Viktor Petrovich Evseev
Institutions that develop sports acrobatics in Minsk
Children’s and Youth Sports School (Youth Sports School) for gymnastics sports of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus
Address: 220119 Minsk, Kalinovskogo st., 111
Tel./fax: +375 (17) 263-87-03
Director: Nikolai Alexandrovich Nedbalsky
Sports school “Rings of Glory” in gymnastics
Address: 220070 Minsk, Vaneeva st., 1
Tel.: +375 (17) 230-27-72
Director: Viktor Petrovich Evseev
Sports Acrobatics and Freestyle Sports School
Address: 220004 Minsk, Masherov Ave., 2
Tel.: +375 (17) 203-70-27
Director: Lyudmila Ivanovna Ivleva
Department of Gymnastics and Acrobatics of the Department of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Minsk City Executive Committee
Address: 220036 Minsk, Volokha st., 16
Tel.: +375 (17) 213-51-96
Director: Vasilevsky Alexander Gennadievich
Republican Olympic Training Center for Applied Sports (gymnastics, acrobatics)
Address: 220012 Minsk, Surganova st., 2
Tel.: +375 (17) 231-37-69