British Gymnastics

British Gymnastics, also known as the British Amateur Gymnastics Association (BAGA), is the sports governing body for gymnastics in the UK.

History

It was founded in 1888 as the Amateur Gymnastics and Fencing Association. Gymnastics had been adopted in this country, having been invented in Germany by Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, to improve the health and fitness of its soldiers. The rings, pommel horse, parallel bars, and horizontal bar were developed by Jahn. In the late 1800s gymnastics became popular for men thanks to the Army Physical Training Corps which was formed in 1860. Walter Tysall won the men's silver medal in the 1908 Olympics. After this time the Swedish form of gymnastics became more popular, a more artistic version developed by Pehr Henrik Ling which was for men and women, and needed little apparatus.

Women first competed at the Olympics in gymnastics at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, where the British women's team took the bronze – its best performance.

After the Second World War, the German and Swedish forms of gymnastics were combined. The 1960 Rome Olympics were the first to be televised, and this led to a greater interest in Britain of gymnastics. This Olympics had been dominated by Russian female gymnasts. In 1963 the Amateur Gymnastics Association became the British Amateur Gymnastics Association, and the BAGA first received a government grant, allowing it to pay coaches, and appoint a full-time national coach, Wray Stuart. He developed the BAGA Awards, a proficiency scheme for young gymnasts, which was adopted by seventy other countries.

The BAGA Awards started to produce results for Britain. Gymnastics was given superstar status by the 1972 Olympics at Munich.

At the 2012 London Olympics, the Men's Artistic Gymnastics team won Bronze with individual Silver for Louis Smith and Bronze for Max Whitlock on Pommel and individual Bronze for Beth Tweddle on Uneven bars.

Lilleshall

Lilleshall Hall

BAGA was registered as a company on 20 April 1982. In 1979 the Sports Council had built a gym at Lilleshall, equipped to international standards in 1980, with the Queen Elizabeth Hall. In 1981 a £18,000 feasibility study looked at developing Lilleshall into a national centre, and in October 1982 the Sports Council allocated £1 million to develop a national centre.

Anne, Princess Royal opened the £1.75 million Princess Royal Hall at Lilleshall on 26 April 1988, paid for by the Sports Council. There is also the King George VI Hall and Ford Hall. Use of Lilleshall for gymnastics increased greatly throughout the late 1970s under Derek Tremayne. In 1997 BAGA became British Gymnastics.^[1]

Function

It is the main sport governing body for gymnastics throughout the UK, developing gymnasts, coaches clubs and officiating in all gymnastic disciplines.

British Gymnastics aims to meet the following aspirations by 2017:^[2]

• Gymnastics is seen as one of the top three sports in the UK
• The British Gymnastics brand is internationally recognised and a household name
• The Gymnastics club is the hub of the local community
• Success creates global icons

The eight strategic priorities of the 2013-2017 plan are as follows:

• Create a brand that reflects the values of the sport and unifies the gymnastics community in the UK
• Ensure systems and processes enable the effective and efficient delivery of the sport in the UK
• Invest in the development of coaches and associated delivery systems
• Define new markets/experiences for the 9+ cohort and introduce strategies to stimulate greater participation
• Strengthen and support the high performance network/system across all disciplines
• Increase club access to facilities and new spaces resulting from austerity measures being introduced in local government and businesses
• Assist clubs and coaches to fill the gap in service provision in schools and identify future talent
• Create a spectacular event in every major city designed to entertain a non-gymnastics’ audience

Publications

Its main publication is The Gymnast, having been published since 1959. Since 2011 it has been released in an online format only ^[3] Most news is now released via the British Gymnastics Website,^[4] Social Media and the weekly Gymblast email newsletter^[5]

Regional Associations and Home Countries

• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• North of England
• North West
• Yorkshire
• Wales
• West Midlands
• East Midlands
• Eastern Counties
• South West
• South
• South East
• London

See also

• Great Britain women's national gymnastics team

References

External links

• British Gymnastics
• Gymnastics Clubs Directory

Video clips

• BGTV YouTube channel

Sports governing bodies of the United Kingdom (GBR) Summer Olympic Sports Aquatics Diving Swimming GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Synchronized swimming Water polo Archery Athletics Badminton GBR ENG WAL SCO Basketball GBR England Boxing GBR ENG SCO WAL Canoeing Cycling Equestrian Fencing Football ENG WAL NI SCO Golf GBR ENG / Women ENG / Men WAL SCO / Women SCO / Men Gymnastics Handball GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Hockey GBR ENG SCO WAL Judo Modern Pentathlon Rugby 7's Rowing Sailing Shooting Table Tennis GBR ENG SCO WAL Taekwondo Tennis Triathlon Volleyball Beach volleyball GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Weightlifting Wrestling Winter Olympic Sports Biathlon Bobsleigh Curling Ice skating Ice Hockey GBR Scotland Northern Ireland Luge Skeleton Skiing Snowboarding Other IOC Recognised Sports Air sports Bandy Baseball Billiard sports Boules Bowling Bridge Chess Cricket England and Wales Scotland Dance sport Floorball Karate Korfball Lifesaving Motorcycle racing Motorsport Mountaineering and climbing Netball GBR ENG SCO WAL NI Orienteering GBR England Scotland Wales Pelota vasca Polo Powerboating Racquetball Roller sports Rugby Softball Sport climbing Squash England Scotland Wales Sumo Surfing Tug-of-war Underwater sports refer Sub Aqua Water ski Wushu Paralympic sports Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair basketball Other sports American football Australian rules football Croquet Kiteboarding Netball Quidditch Radio controlled racing Rugby league Rugby Union England Wales Scotland Sub Aqua GBR England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales British Olympic Association British Paralympic Association UK Sport Team GB Department for Culture, Media and Sport

National members of the International Federation of Gymnastics Disciplines Acrobatics Aerobics Artistic Rhythmic Trampolining Tumbling African Gymnastics Union (UAG) ALG ANG BOT BUR CPV CGO EGY ETH LBA MAR MOZ NAM NGR SEN SEY RSA SWZ TRI TUN ZIM Pan-American Gymnastics Union (PAGU) ARG BAH BAR BER BOL BRA CAN CHI COL CRC CUB DOM ECU ESA GUA HON JAM MEX MEX PAN PAR PER PUR TTO USA URU VEN Asian Gymnastics Union (AGU) BRN BAN BEN CAM CHN TPE HKG IND INA IRQ IRI JPN JOR KAZ KOR PRK KUW KGZ LIB MAC MAS MGL MYA NEP PAK PLE PHI QAT KSA SIN SRI SYR TJK THA TKM UZB VIE YEM European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) ALB AND ARM AUT AZE BLR BEL BUL CRO CYP CZE DEN EST FIN FRA GEO GER GBR GRE HUN ISL IRL ISR ITA KOS LAT LIE LTU LUX MKD MLT MDA MON NED NOR POL POR ROU RUS SMR SRB SVK SLO ESP SWE SUI TUR UKR Oceania AUS NZL Events Olympics World Championships