Abstract

Rhythmic gymnasts repeat elements thousands of times which may put a risk on gymnasts’ health. It is necessary to protect the current and future health conditions of young gymnasts, especially in the growth process. There is a lack of knowledge about training education on rhythmic gymnastics. To suggest innovative changes, the current study aimed to analyze the scores (D, E, and total scores) of the first 24 gymnasts competing in 34th and 36th Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships (ECh). Research data were collected from 24 rhythmic gymnasts’ scores, from the 34^th ECh and 36^th ECh. Difficulty (D), Execution (E), and total scores for hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon were analyzed. Conformity of data to normal distribution was assessed with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Variables with normal distribution were compared by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)/independent samples t-test and for variables not fitting normal distribution, Mann Whitney U/Kruskal Wallis H test was used. The main findings of the current study were that D scores between 2018 and 2020 increased approximately 4.18 points (p<0.001) while E scores showed no significant changes (p>0.05). In all apparatus total scores increased +15.39 (p<0.001). As these increases seem to be in the faith of gymnasts to get higher results, it is obvious that gymnasts are forced to have a higher number of elements in their routines. Coaches should be informed about new training models and coaching education systems. In this way, they will be able to support their gymnasts in all ways (not only with performance development but also with recent updates on training educations).

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