Flexibility as a factor of technical excellence in gymnastics

This article examines the issues of artistic gymnastics, which currently combines the highest technical complexity of competitive programs, their almost impeccable quality, dynamism, compositional and aesthetic harmony. Women compete in floor exercises, exercises on uneven bars, exercises on the beam and vault, as well as all-around, which includes the sum of the scores for each apparatus. Men have a different list of disciplines, which is significantly different from women's. In order to perform gymnastic elements, even to perform them technically correctly and harmoniously, gymnasts need to have a high level of development of such a physical quality as flexibility. Flexibility allows an athlete to perform technically complex elements in their competition program, which gives an advantage in the form of a higher score for the technical complexity of their program. A high level of flexibility also allows gymnasts to perform elements more technically, due to which the judges' "deductions" for technical errors in the program are reduced, and, accordingly, the final score for the program increases. In other words, a high level of flexibility development of a gymnast will allow him to receive a high score for his performance: firstly, by increasing the technical complexity of the program, and secondly, by reducing the number of "deductions" from the final score. In men's programs, there are elements for the performance of which it is necessary to have a high level of flexibility, for example, splits, balance "swallow", "bridges", etc. In the program of the performance in women's disciplines, a larger number of exercises for flexibility are provided: for a certain category, the presence in the program of such elements as a split jump, a split jump with a change of legs, a forward and backward flip is mandatory. These elements require a high level of flexibility development.