The
History of Horizontal Bar "High
Bar" was originally a name for a horizontal pole in chicken stalls,
and was taken by Jahn as name for the gymnastics apparatus. However, ever
since gymnastics on horizontal bars or ropes was keenly done all over the
world. Already jugglers of late Hellenistic or early Chinese times
and even Eskimos have performed giant swings.
The Horizontal Bar was continuously developped and improved. Let
it be because an ingenious gymnast performed exercises which could not be
done by others on the existing apparatuses, or because coaches, gymnasts,
and engineers opened the way with help of new constructions for even more
bold swings and flights - of which many experts think that they are the
finishing chapter of gymnastics on High Bar, the "king of apparatuses"!
From upswing to somersaults
- ARTistic gymnastics
on the horizontal bar
"High
Bar" was originally a low German name for a horizontal
bar for hanging up cloths, sausages or plates, and in chicken stalls for
sitting places of the poultry - and was taken by Friedrich
Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852) as name for the gymnastics apparatus
introduced by him in 1812. Predecessors are horizontal or slightly slope
bars and tightened ropes on which ever since exercises were done similar
to high bar routines.
Already
jugglers of late Hellenistic and of early Chinese times, and even
Eskimos have performed giant swings. Nikephoros
from Byzanz reports excercises done by a group of tightrope
walkers on a horizontal tightened rope, there were knee hang,
knee hang wave and the giant wave (the first description of
this exercise).
However, not before Breughel's widely known painting of the
games, playfull exercises on bars in our culture were documented
as they are still done by children and probably for centuries
whereever there was an opportunity. On bars of bambus Japanese
performed 'horizontal bar exercises' in the 18th/19th century
as painted by the famous painter Hokusai (1770 - 1849).
Ever
since and everywhere: >>> Giants on wooden bars
Johann Christoph GutsMuths (1759-1839)
asked his students to climb and even to do routines on a slightly
rising crossbeam, but he still did not know high bar in his
text book of 1793. In 1812 Jahn wanted
horizontal bars to be put in different heights between
young oaks on the Hasenheide and the students used them
so keenly that the number of the bars had to be increased to
six.
<<
"Natural
gymnastics on high bar":
Jahn'sches climbing on the Hasenheide
At the time
of its introduction the bar was made of wood and
about 8 cm thick. Jahn-student Dürre reports of a hexagon horizontal bar in this year and of the first exercises:
Jahn knew only simple elements like upswing, from stand or hang, and
simple rotations, with which the gymnastic art on high bar was
born. Jahn reports in the preface of his "German Art of Gymnastics"
(Deutsche Turnkunst, 1816) of "60 different upswings of one kind"
(of the knee upswing) and then of the brothers Thaer, the first namely known high bar gymnasts
who even managed to do 132 upswings.
>> The wooden bar was first
stabilised with an inlay made of iron or steel like the pencil
with graphite. At about the same time when Kunz invented the upstart around 1850, naked and rough iron bars
were introduced.
>> At the beginning of the 20 th century elastic bars
made of steel were established. Already in 1906 bars with a
length of about 220 cm and a diameter of about 33 mm were prescribed
in the official "Norms for gymnastics apparatusses".
These measurements have changed only slightly.
>> Since the DIN-measurement of 1951 modern bars are 240
cm long, only 28 mm thick and consist of a special spring steel
with a core of cable rope, which decreases the danger of injury
at a break of the bar.
1920 the bar was still adjusted inflexible onto the pilar, at
the modern horizontal bar, however, the head of the fixation
is twistable in vertical and horizontal direction. Even the
pilar allows a certain turn in the horizontal direction. Movement
of the bar is possible in every direction, now!
World Champion '58, Boris Shakhlin (URS): >>
- calledt "the iron man"-
Until 1954 gymnastics was still done outside
At the same time as the bar was further
developped the other parts of this apparatus changed, too: At the inflexible
"post high bar", often secured into the floor, the posts were
higher than the bars and thus giant and circle kehren were still not
performed. Around 1900 is was coninuously replaced by an apparatus tightened
with iron sticks and chains. Here, too, a variable height of the bar
was important. Now, the bending through of the bar being under pressure
was limited, even though there were still many variations of the form
of the apparatus to come.
Bernd Jäger (GDR)
To increase performances through improvement of elasticity was an idea not thought about before the WW I. In German
gymnastics this happened not before the start of the
sportive, that means Olympic and international artistic
gymnastics during the preparation for the Olympic Games
1936 through the Olympic candidates Ernst
Winter (Frankfurt/Main) and Richard
Reuther (Oppau). But one should not imganine these constructions
as being too stiff: Already at the Olympic Games 1908
in London a gymnast performed a double somersaulto,
even though after plety of giants backwards!
Alexander
Tkatschew's (URS) counter-straddle of '77
Alberto Braglia from Italy, the world's best
gymnast of his time, also performed on a good apparatus
in Stockholm 1912, on which he could show his highly
admired artistic gymnastics.
Firstly, the tightening had not been at the height of
the variable bar, but later the pilar was integrated into the
springs process. <<< With the "Jäger"
somersault the development of flying
elements on high bar
started in 1974
For, so Richard
Reuther who was representing the German Gymnastics
Federation in the committee of norms, in the year 1953:
"It has to be of that kind that
the elasticity of the whole body can be used unhinderingly on
the apparatus, without getting damaged. The apparatus must be
constructed in a way that it forces the gymnast to perform with
dynamic style. It has to form an elastic springing unity in
its coplete construction, in which the more antipowers are caused,
the more powers are comming to effect from outside."
Eberhard
Gienger (FRG) >>
The World Champion of '78 is
the inventor of the popular Gienger-Saltos ('77)
For
the development of the "flying" on high bar the invention
of the Bulgarian Stojan Deltschew was essential, too. Actually,
his straddle somersault forwards with 1/2 turn was the origin
for Gienger. "Somehow I did not manage this
thing, the Deltschew-somersault, and suddenly my own version was
created!", so Gienger said.
In the "Norms
of apparatuses" of 1979 still some things were
changed to adjust the apparatus for further developments. This efects
especially the height of the Horizontal Bar and therefore also the change
of the (double-)fixation. From 1906 to 1965 the high bar had a maximum
height of 2,550 mm, now the maximum height was 2,750 mm with 5
mm tolerance. From now on a long gymnast could execute his routine despite
thicker floor mats under the bar, that had become very important becasue
of new flying elements -as well as a shorter gymnast on the normal horizontal
bar with a height of 2,550 mm. The following rule was prescribed for
the safety of the gymnast: "The bar has to endure at least
the 8-fold body weight of a gymnast performing in the middle of the
bar and is not supposed to break or bend."
Ralph Büchner (GDR/GER)
Gymnastics on high bar on highest level - the
World Champion of '91
The
Horizontal Bar has a long and developed history and each part has its own one.
First, everything served for a better handling and a higher
safety, then especially for increasing top performances when
gymnastics became a high performance sport.
Let it be, that
an ingenious gymnast performed exercises that could not be done
by others on the existing apparatuses,
or that coaches, gymnasts
and engineers opened the way with help of new constructions
for even more bold swings and flights, of which many people
think that they are the finishing chapter of artistic gymnastics
on high bar:
Jari
Tanskanen (FIN)
The surprise World Champion in Lausanne 1997 the 'king of
apparatuses'
- in the mean time even with
additional twists as the Non-Plus-Ultra of modern gymnastics
- these elements require constructions of the most modern kind.
Only excellent qualities of the material enable gymnastics on
high bar that corresponds with the dynamic of human movements.
Hereby, the co-ordination of the quality of the bar, the pilars
and the tightening is essential.
Free flights with
or without turns of 360° to re-grip the bar demand a techical
perfercted apparatus.
Janssen&Fritsen offers the
athletes such a harmonic construction, that is called legitimately
the "king of apparatuses".
Created and translated
by:
Florian Schmid-Sorg
* Sources/Quellen:
"Der Vorturner", 1927/28; "Das Turnjahrhundert
der Deutschen", Götze/Herholz: Beckmanns Sportlexikon
A-Z, Leipzig, Wien 1933; "Geschichte der Turngeräte",
J. Göhler/R. Spieth; "Mondsalto", gymbooks Verlag
1994, A. Götze/J. Uhr; "FlickFlack...", Sportverlag
Berlin, A .Götze/H.-J. Zeume; "The History of British
Gymnastics", 1988 by BAGA; Katalog J&F
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