The uneven bars started out much closer together and the tricks were performed at a slower speed. This amazes me that they were able to do some of those tricks and how much more there bodies came into contact with the bars than they do now. The bars are so far apart now, there are very few skills performed in between the two bars, the tricks seem to have primarily migrated towards the high bar. While bars in the 50's-80's and now all involve two bars, the way they were used almost makes them seem like two entirely different events.
Of all four events found in women's gymnastics the uneven bars have undergone the most radical changes. Most of the moves seen in the video from the 50's and 60's are completely obsolete from the sport now, due to the increased difficulty and shift toward more acrobatic tricks in routines as well as some of the static holds not being permitted. Many of the other moves, such as the beats and wraps seen in the video, are now physically impossible due to the bars being much further apart.
Originally this event was the same as the men's parallel bars, only one of the bars was raised slightly to create the different heights which is why the bars were originally so close together. This is why the earlier routines of the 50's consisted of simple circles, kips and some static holds and towards the end of the century the routines began to become more fluid and more difficult moves were executed.
It wasn't until the early 1970's that the uneven bars began getting manufactured as a separate apparatus. Due to no longer being the same as the men's parallel bars, there were design changes made in order to allow the bars to be adjustable. There were tension cables introduced that held the bars to floor allowing the bars to be spaced further apart from one another. Due to this the moves began to shift towards more swinging moves, so the circumference of the bars was actually made smaller to allow the gymnasts to do so more easily.
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| New Bars - Picture from SA Sports |
It didn't take much longer, only to the mid 1980's, for the routines to become primarily focused around swinging moves and releases which caused the bars to be moved even further apart. The moves continued to increase in difficulty and this required the bars to be continued to move further apart to where they are now.
Its definitely interesting to see how much has changed when it comes to this event, while I feel like all the tricks past and present are amazing, I definitely wish there were some more of the old tricks seen in routines today.
5 comments:
Wow--that video is remarkable. It almost seems like it would take more strength to use those older bars (you need more control?). Or maybe the strength is just different, and more mind-boggling tricks are required now. Neat post.
I have always been amazed watching the uneven bars during the Olympics. I am with you though in wishing some of the old moves were in the sport today. I never realized that this even had changed so much over the last sixty years. Simply amazing, just like most things in gymnastics.
My guess is the strength would have been different and that the training would have been drastically different. I can't even imagine the amount of control it would take to do some of the old moves, not that the newer oned dont require control, but so much of it was a little slower and seems as though they would have had to be much more precise is their movements to avoid hitting the other bar.
That video was absolutely amazing! I had to comment on this because my mother was a gymnast in the early 70's and I showed her this video and it got her a little misty eyed. She said this was her favorite event and she would often leave the gym with bloody hips from hitting the bars so hard in her routines and practices. She said the skills are completely different nowadays, as you pointed out, but that she doesn't think they are more difficult or require any more strength than the tricks of today. She did think that the timing and body positions were more difficult to accomplish with the old bar position though. Great post.
That is insane that they would get that beat up from it!! Even with the challenging moves there are today I don't think I ever went home bleeding unless I had a major fall. Thanks for asking her about the difficulty I was definitely intrigued by that and from what I know from watching the video and from having done gymnastics I can definitely see how the old body positions could take more precision and make the timing more difficult.
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