ABOUT OUR CLUB

Founded in 1974, Camberley has established itself as one of the Nation’s leading Women's Artistic Gymnastics Clubs, finally achieving one of its major goals in 1990 when the team captured first place in the British Open Team Championships.

Operating in a purpose built training facility since 1981, the Club has expanded enormously since the early days, and now has seventeen full time and part time coaches and a range of classes, for both boys and girls, catering for all levels of ability from under 5s to adult keep fit, and complemented by a very full competition programme.

In 1997 the club had a major change of direction and changed its name from Camberley Gymnastics Club to Rushmoor Gymnastics Academy in anticipation of  its move to the Borough of Rushmoor in the summer of 2000. We are now in our 20th year in Aldershot in the facility of which a general view is shown in the photographs.

Details of how to find us are provided on the contacts page.

WHAT IS GYMNASTICS?

The sport of gymnastics, which derives its name from the ancient Greek word for disciplinary exercises, combines physical skills such as body control, co-ordination, dexterity, gracefulness, and strength with tumbling and acrobatic skills, all performed in an artistic manner. It started over 3000 years ago in Ancient Greece where the gymnasts of the time used to vault over live bulls. The performer would run toward a charging bull, grab its horns, and, upon being tossed into the air, execute various mid-air stunts before (hopefully) landing on the bull’s back, then dismounting with a flip.
The modern sport of gymnastics, however, only came into general popularity in the middle of the 19th century, when Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852), known as the father of gymnastics, planned exercises using pieces of stationary apparatus to develop self-discipline and physical strength. The events and rules we follow today were not standardised until the early part of this century.

The men compete on Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars and High Bars. The apparatus used by women gymnasts are Vault, Asymmetric Bars, Beam and Floor. All of these were developed from the men’s equipment apart from the Beam, a discipline for women only.

Each exercise is evaluated by between four and six judges, depending on the level of the event. In International competition one of these officials will be a technician whose job is to evaluate the difficulty of the exercise on behalf of the judging panel. This person does not judge the exercise. Another official will act as the Master Judge whose main task is to ensure that the panel of judges is consistent, and in line with each other.

The highest and lowest scores are discarded, and an average taken of the middle scores.

Apart from the Vault, where each different vault is graded and tariffed according to its difficulty, each exercise is marked accordingly to the difficulty shown, with bonus points being given for exercises that show extreme complexity.