National Gymnastics Day
Get involved with gymnastics and finally learn how to do a cartwheel, handstand, and more; or watch some of the greats at past Olympic competitions.
National Gymnastics Day has been designed so that we can pray tribute to this incredible sport. Whether you enjoy it yourself or you purely like seeing how your country does during the Olympics, we can all acknowledge that gymnastics is an elegant sport that requires a lot of athletic ability, and so it is only right that we pay tribute to this on National Gymnastics Day. Read on to discover everything you need to know about National Gymnastics Day and the different ways you can celebrate. Don’t worry; we have some suggestions that don’t involve risking an injury!
Learn about National Gymnastics Day
Gymnastics has a significant place in history. In fact, this is a sport that can be traced back to Ancient Greece, where the exercise helped men to stay fit and ready for battle. In modern times, National Gymnastics Day is used to help encourage people to get involved in the sport and to make sure that everyone is aware of the importance of exercise. You will find that a lot of gyms turn into beehives of activity on National Gymnastics Day, with exhibitions and displays relating to gymnastics, as well as special classes that can help people to get involved in the sport for the first time.
There are a lot of famous gymnasts that have changed the sport. In recent times, there is one name that comes to mind, and this is the incredible Simone Biles. She left the Rio Olympics with a bronze medal and four golf models, which helped her achieve superstar status. After a year’s break, she then won all of the five available golf medals at the U.S. Championships in 2018. There is no stopping Simone, and she has become a huge source of inspiration to young girls and inspiring gymnasts all around the world. If you don’t know a lot about her, we definitely recommend doing your research on National Gymnastics Day.
There are a lot of other famous females in the world of gymnastics that have made a considerable impact on the sport. Nastia Liukin, for example, combined execution and difficulty in open-ended scoring to wow everyone watching the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. She was the first woman to win in the open-ended scoring system era of the Olympics. She proved that you could combine execution and artistry to achieve success in a set of rules that were based on amassing difficulty.
Of course, we cannot mention athletes without speaking about Nadia Comaneci. She is known all around the world for being the first female to achieve a perfect 10.0 in the Olympics. Her legacy goes a lot further than this, though. Not only did she manage to get three 10s on the digit scoreboards at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but this resulted in the floodgates opening. After she achieved her first 10.0 on the uneven bars, she then went on to score another six before the end of the Olympic Games. Pretty impressive, right?
History of National Gymnastics Day
The first National Gymnastics Day was staged in the late 1990s to help bring awareness to the sport, with the aim of encouraging more youngsters to get involved. The celebrations and exhibitions of that day have been carried forward ever since and the event continues to take place on an annual basis to highlight the many attractions of this energetic sport.
Gymnastics clubs are encouraged to open their doors to youngsters on the day and put on displays and exhibitions to show the skills that can be learned. They can also stage festivals and fundraisers to provide some gymnastics fun for visitors.
Individual athletes and fans can get involved in some of the officially organized events for the day, which have included cartwheel-a-thons and world record handstand attempts. They can also organize their own fitness challenges and post the pictures of this to the official National Gymnastics Day social media sites.
How to celebrate National Gymnastics Day
Of course, the best way to celebrate National Gymnastics Day is by getting involved in some gymnastics yourself. If you have never tried gymnastics since you were in school or you don’t feel very confident, you could simply try some of the easier moves at home. This includes the likes of a bridge, handstand, forward roll, backward roll, and cartwheel. We would definitely recommend getting some exercise mats and placing them over your floor to ensure you’re safe and protected. After all, anyone who has landed flat on their back while attempting a handstand will tell you that it can be a bit painful! In order to make sure you perform the moves correctly, we would advise making the most of the different video tutorials that are online at the moment. Video tutorials are beneficial because they show you the correct form so that you know how to practice the exercise in question properly.
There are plenty of other ways that you can celebrate National Gymnastics Day. This includes signing up for an introductory class at your local gym. There are lots of different gymnastic classes going on these days, including specialist gymnastic classes, which offer a unique take. It is definitely worth taking a look at what is out there at the moment. A lot of people feel anxious about going to these classes for the first time, but you have nothing to worry about.
If you don’t want to get involved in some gymnastics, or you are not able to for any reason, there are some other ways that you can celebrate National Gymnastics Day. Why not watch some historic gymnastic performances? You can take a look at the performances of the incredible woman that we mentioned earlier. Of course, there are plenty of other performances from men and women around the world too!
There are lots of great films that are based on gymnastics as well. This includes Stick It. In this film, a girl receives a court order to enroll in an elite gymnastics program. Other films include Full Out, which is actually a true story. It is an emotional tale of Ariana Berlin, a gymnast from San Diego, California, who missed out on her Olympics dream in 2008 because of a terrible car accident. The film follows this incredible story, as somehow Ariana manages to make a miraculous comeback. It is a truly incredible story, and one that we would definitely recommend watching. Another good film is A 2nd Chance, which follows a coach and a young member of her team as they try to make their way into the National Gymnastics Competition. The gymnast does not have the confidence that is required in order to make it to the top of her sport. However, she has the opportunity to win a spot on the national team thanks to the help of her new coach. The options do not end there either. You also have An American Girl: McKenna Shoots for the Stars, as well as Raising the Bar, Perfect Body, and Chalk It Up.
