Anyone heard of teamgym??

[Gymmom495]

I agree with the others who talked about their team gym experiences in California. It's nothing more than a money maker for the few gyms that offer it. My daughter started gymnastics doing team gym. We competed for 1 year making it to nationals which was held at Universal Studios. The highlight of the entire thing was watching the 1 European team that traveled to compete. I do have to admit watching those girls on vault and floor was like watching an Olympic level athlete. I was amazed, however, in the US we would never get that level of training. We ended up finishing up the year and switching to artistic.

 

[Jurina]

When I read about TeamGym in the US, TeamGym seems to be much different from TeamGym in many European countries (unfortunately it is not known in some European countries), especially in Scandinavia.
In Scandinavia TeamGym is the most popular gymnastics sports and so many Scandinavian people love to do it in a very good training in many gyms.
I am living in Germany, and there MAG is the most popular gymnastics since former times, and so it is unfortunately very hard for TeamGym to spread to more gyms.
So, you can see, also in Europe, where it is an acknowledged discipline in the Federation, the situation is different from country to county. But I hope this will change.

 

[BlairBob]

In Sacramento, TeamGym is popular amongst the Recreational Gyms. It's not my cup of tea, but it is pretty popular there as one of the gyms actually has 3 gyms that all do that (and barely if any Artistic Gymnastics).

I think of it as the cheerleading of gymnastics that is a step up from cheerleading and the clown makeup and less crazy coaches.

 

[gymnasticswim4]

Not for me.... where's bars? that would stink.

 

[Jurina]

I see, it's really different in the US from Europe.

 

[samuel310]

My kids both do team gym and love it as this is their second year. I believe it makes gymnasts much better as my son is on an artistic team for the first time this year ( he does two teams) and is already one of the best level 5 gymnasts in the state ( he just swept all 6 with an AA of 60.6) and I am convinced team gym was a major reason. We were at nationals last year and expect to be at nationals again and some of the higher levels are very competitive.

 

[Elin]

I'm apologizing for my English, it's not my native language and therefore not the best!

I've done teamgym for the last three years (before I did WAG) and I love it! I miss the beam very much though, but trampette, floor and tumbling (the three events in temagym) is really fun to! Also, since teamgym is pretty huge here in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia while AG is a very small sport, there's a lot more meets to participate in, even if you're not an elite. When I did WAG, there was almost no competitions unless you were on a high level (for your age).

In both tumbling and trampette, the team has three "turns". The first turn, everyone has to do the same tumbling/vaulting/flip-series (if not - huuuge deduction), and in the tumbling event, at least one turn have to consist of only front tumbling series and one with only backward tumbling series. In the floor event, all of the team compete at once. It's a 2,5-3 minutes long synchronized dance, consisting of leaps and jumps, balance elements, strength elements, pirouettes, and acrobatic elements.

Here's a video of Höganäs, the team that won the gold medal (in women's competition) in the Swedish championship last year. Trampette starting at 0:10, floor at 3:10 and tumbling at 6:40.


One of Swedens best male teams, Brommagymnasterna, in the Nordic championships:

 

[samuel310]

I'm apologizing for my English, it's not my native language and therefore not the best!

I've done teamgym for the last three years (before I did WAG) and I love it! I miss the beam very much though, but trampette, floor and tumbling (the three events in temagym) is really fun to! Also, since teamgym is pretty huge here in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia while AG is a very small sport, there's a lot more meets to participate in, even if you're not an elite. When I did WAG, there was almost no competitions unless you were on a high level (for your age).

In both tumbling and trampette, the team has three "turns". The first turn, everyone has to do the same tumbling/vaulting/flip-series (if not - huuuge deduction), and in the tumbling event, at least one turn have to consist of only front tumbling series and one with only backward tumbling series. In the floor event, all of the team compete at once. It's a 2,5-3 minutes long synchronized dance, consisting of leaps and jumps, balance elements, strength elements, pirouettes, and acrobatic elements.

Here's a video of Höganäs, the team that won the gold medal (in women's competition) in the Swedish championship last year. Trampette starting at 0:10, floor at 3:10 and tumbling at 6:40.


One of Swedens best male teams, Brommagymnasterna, in the Nordic championships:

this was fun to watch as my two kids do team gym...I did notice one major difference between european and american and thats the tumbling for euro is done on a tumble trak where as in america it is not

 

[Elin]

this was fun to watch as my two kids do team gym...I did notice one major difference between european and american and thats the tumbling for euro is done on a tumble trak where as in america it is not

Interesting - so in America you have a regular spring floor?

 

[samuel310]

Interesting - so in America you have a regular spring floor?

yes, all tumbling is done on the same spring floor that the dance is on...my son is a level 4 and their required is one pass with a bhs 3 and another pass with a ro-bhs- fhs stepout fhs...the vault is a hs and tramp is a front tuck..my daughter does level 2 and they have tuck jump on tramp, a dive forward roll on spring board and a series of cartwheels for pass

 

[samuel310]

In Sacramento, TeamGym is popular amongst the Recreational Gyms. It's not my cup of tea, but it is pretty popular there as one of the gyms actually has 3 gyms that all do that (and barely if any Artistic Gymnastics).

I think of it as the cheerleading of gymnastics that is a step up from cheerleading and the clown makeup and less crazy coaches.

I actually asked my kids coach last June wht they were not having more practice for their upcoming nationals and his response was Team Gym is for kids that do not have the time or do not want to put in the time for gymnastics but want to do it more competitively then rec so they do not ask for more then 3-5 hours a week

 

[Elin]

yes, all tumbling is done on the same spring floor that the dance is on...my son is a level 4 and their required is one pass with a bhs 3 and another pass with a ro-bhs- fhs stepout fhs...the vault is a hs and tramp is a front tuck..my daughter does level 2 and they have tuck jump on tramp, a dive forward roll on spring board and a series of cartwheels for pass

Here in Europe/Scandinavia the floor routine actually isn't done on a spring floor - usually you do it right on the ground (or in some championships, like in the videos in my last post, on thin but not springy mats). Like this:

Interesting that there's a pretty big difference between teamgym in Europe and in the US How many levels is there? In Sweden we have three "main levels" (not the best expression probably, I hope you understand what I mean) and within every level, three sub-levels with different requirements depending at age etc. So I suppose we have 9 levels, and the three highest is elite (but for different ages - there's junior championships, senior championships etc. But of course the juniors don't do as hard skills as the seniors. I don'r know how to best explain it but I hope you understand me).

 

[Elin]

I actually asked my kids coach last June wht they were not having more practice for their upcoming nationals and his response was Team Gym is for kids that do not have the time or do not want to put in the time for gymnastics but want to do it more competitively then rec so they do not ask for more then 3-5 hours a week

Oh OK. It's a pity it's such a small sport in the US, maybe it will grow bigger soon I'm hoping to see it in the Olympics some time - right now the biggest meet is the Europeans.

 

[Elin]

this was fun to watch as my two kids do team gym...I did notice one major difference between european and american and thats the tumbling for euro is done on a tumble trak where as in america it is not

Just one thing (lol I feel that I'm the only one writing in this thread) - if this is what you mean with tumbling track, that's not what the tumbling in the videos are done on. We use a "tumble floor", as we call it. It's not nearly as bouncy as the tumbling track in the video below, but still a little more springy than a regular spring floor.