Figure 1.--This is an Austrian boy at a gymnastics competition. I think it is an event sposored by sports clubs rather than schools. |
|
We do not yet have much information about gymnastics in different countries. I remember that in my American highschool during the 1950s that there was an extensise physical education program which included gymnastics. I recall we spent considerable time on tumbling and on the paralell bars. It was not an activity that seem particularly popular with the boys. I'm not sure about the girls. Gym was done separately at the time. Of course in the 1970s, gymnastics became very popular for girls. Here two factors were at play. Not only was sports becoming more acceptable for girls, but televised Olympics gymnastics had a major impact. We note some images of Austrian boys doing gymnastics. We are not sure how popular gymnastics is in Austria. We assume it was mostly done through sp0rts clubs. We are not sure about England. We think the primary focus in England was on team sports. The popularity of gymnastics in Germany we assume was similar to Austria.
We do not yet have much information about gymnastics in different countries. I remember that in my American highschool during the 1950s that there was an extensise physical education program which included gymnastics. I recall we spent considerable time on tumbling and on the paralell bars. At my highschool in the late 1950s and early 60s we did not work on the rings. It was not an activity that seem particularly popular with the boys. I'm not sure about the girls. Gym was done separately at the time. Of course in the 1970s, gymnastics became very popular for girls. Here two factors were at play. Not only was sports becoming more acceptable for girls, but televised Olympics gymnastics had a major impact.
We note some images of Austrian boys doing gymnastics. The image here is from Austria (figure 1). We are not sure how popular gymnastics is in Austria. We assume it was mostly done through sports clubs.
Gymnastics appears to be a popular activity in the Czech Republic. We are not sure just how popular it was. As far as we can tell this appears to be an activity persued through sports club rather than schools. Our information is very limited. Nor do we knpw how sports like gymnastics have been affected by the fall of Communism. Communist regimes often strongly supported athletics, including gymnastics. This appears to be in the tradition of German and Austrian sports. A factor may be that Czechoslovakia was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
We are not sure about the popularity of gymnastics in England. We think the primary focus in England was on team sports.
We do not know a great deal about gymnastics in Germany. We note that a famed German educator promoted gymastics in German schools during the 19th century. We beieve there were also athletic clubs which persued gymnastics. We do not know much about the clothing worn. We have found photographic portraits from the early 20th century with the boys wearing white athletic shirts, white knee pants, and black long stockings. We are not ure just how common this was, but we have noted several such photographs. Long stockings worn with stocking supporters seems a strange outfit for gymnastics, but apperently it was considered a sporty look.
We note images of Japanese boys doing gymnastics. The programs seem very similar to Western programs. Presumably Olympic competitive rules have helped standardize gymnastic programs in countries around the world. Some of this is done at school in gym classess. Notice the boys here practing their gynastic roytines as part of a school sports day (figure 1). We notice other boys doing more sophisticated gymnastic work. We are not sure, however, if this is club or school gymastics. We think that many of these clubs are club gymnastics.
Gymnastics was once a major part of physical education programs in Scotland as was the general pattern in Britain and other European countries. As far as we know, the gymnastics ptogram in Scotland was comparable to that in the rest of Britain. As in other countries, the importance of gymnastics, declined after World war II, beginning in the 1960s. It is now less important in the school curriculum and fewer PE teachers are trained in gym events than was once the case. Many schools do gymnastics as a voluntary sport event. About 25 percent of secondary sschoola nd 7 percent of primary schools are affiliated to Scottish Gymnastics (SG). This is an association dedicated to promoting gynastics in the school curriculum as well as a variety of gymnastic displays. SG also rovides in-service training to teachers and helps to imporove teacher qualifications. We notice boys using gym uniforms for gumnistics. Often boys did gymnastics in white gym shorts.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main sports uniform page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Cloth and textiles]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Topics]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]