Characteristics of Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics from the Perspective of “Body Difficulty” and Performance Time

Abstract

Tendencies in rhythmic gymnastics were investigated, to obtain basic information about the of performance gymnastics. Participants were gymnasts (N = 27: 22 experienced gymnasts and 5 junior gymnasts) that participated in individual exercises at the 66th Japan rhythmic gymnastics competition. We examined four exercises, hoop, ball, clubs, and ribbons. For each exercise, we recorded the time and the number of “Body Difficulties” and the time taken to execute one Difficulty. Moreover, we recorded the time for each movement. Then, we used these values to examine the reliability and validity of the chronological index of a composition. The correlation between each index and the Difficulty score was calculated for each apparatus. Based on the scoring rules for “Difficulty”, the duration of Body Difficulty was defined from preparation to the end of each Difficulty. We conducted a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the apparatus and movements as independent variables, which indicated a significant interaction effect in the number of Difficulties that were executed. Moreover, there was a significant main effect of apparatus and movement. Furthermore, performance time showed significant interaction effects (all p < 0.01). However, no significant interaction was observed for the time for executing each Difficulty.