FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE GYMNASTIQUE
Rhythmic's Technical Committee
Zurich (SUI), 28.04.2011 - 01.05.2011
MINUTES Symposium (summary)
4 continents took part in the Symposium (Europe, Africa, Asia, American), 29 Countries with 38
participants.
(ALG, AUT, ARG, BLR, BUL, CAN, CPV, CYP, CZE, ESP, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, GRE, ISR, ITA,
JPN, KAZ, NED, NOR, ROU, SRB, SUI, SWE, ROU, RUS, USA, UKR,UZB).
Day 1: 29/ 4/ 2011
Welcome of President FIG Prof. Bruno Grandi to participating countries in this first symposium in
many years. "Our aim is to do everything to gain spectators, television, and media to view the
sports they like. We have to consider that spectators don't like to stay long, and T.V buys only its
own gymnasts. We have to be accurate in our timing."
Time should be reduced during competition. The judge has to be correct and give the accurate
score quickly and efficiently because countries pay a lot of money to be evaluated correctly.
"The COP became a political point; it can't be only for some countries. We have to modify our
regulations and our sport to become more correct not only in RG but also in Artistic gymnastics.
We leave from here to write a good COP. There will always be positive and negative, but there
must be a philosophy and scientific basis of COP. It's not possible to continue with music and
something performed close to it. There must be harmony within the exercise. Rhythm is the
fundamental thing of this sport. My demand is that everyone together--the TC, coaches--make a
big effort to reach what we want; it's a spirit, perfection. It's not easy to see. The COP is a guide
with logical criteria for the lowest / highest points of difficulty. We must find a way for eliminating
subjectivity. If we mix Artistry and difficulty, it's a big catastrophe. It's a big mistake to divide work
of body and work of apparatus; how will the apparatus move without body?
Find personalization of each exercise. The most beautiful from all apparatus is HOOP. In Artistic
gymnastics the basic philosophy of apparatus is that the body turns around the apparatus, but in
RG the apparatus turns around the body. Only Hoop is big in size and can be passed over, under,
through etc. Now is the moment when the whole world gives aid and help before finalizing the
document.
FIG Vice- President Dr. Micheal Leglise confirmed President Grandi's guiding vision for the
Symposium.
FIG RG TC President Mme. Maria Szyszkowska thanked all the participants for taking part in the
Symposium and confirms that President Grandi has touched a big problem in RG because we
want to grow RG to the highest level. President Grandi's remarks are important. Participants must
feel a responsibility for the future COP and the future of RG.
The TC had many consultations, meetings, and discussions with many different people and
groups. The COP must be shorter, without any repetition and a clear understanding for everyone.
Currently judges and coaches have different interpretations of the COP with lots of questions about
D2 symbols, and whether the difficulty is valid or not. We need 0.8 points difference between
judges because there is no black and white. We need the public to confirm and accept the score.
Music is very important. One famous coach said, " not all can perform dance steps" when I told her
that she must start to think about how to choose music for the future to encourage dance. Music
must be accepted and understood by the majority.
Subjectivity in judging and bias is a big problem now and will remain for future. Fairbrother
provides a ranking of judges. All judges with an international brevet must be objective. 6 warning
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FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE DE GYMNASTIQUE