What I loved about early uneven bars was how you could create your own moves virtually at any point, along with original mounts and dismounts. Nowadays, everybody does the same skills and it's just not exciting anymore.
It would be great to see some of these beautiful mounts and dismounts return. If only the judges new how to execute the correct level of difficulty for scoring.
I used to wonder why this particular type of gymnastics is referred to as artistic and the one where they are twirling different objects etc was called rhythmic. Well now I know, thanks to the footage of earlier gymnastics. I totally see the art in the older form vs now. It looks so much more graceful from the 50s through the 80s. And the whirling/whips were beautiful. I'm a big gymnastics junkie but after seeing this, I think I like the older stuff better but can still appreciate modern gymnastics.
This is a cool video, but I have to say, the earlier performances were more interesting. Having the second bar where they could bounce off of it and twist around and stuff was more interesting. Now, they might as well just have one bar and swing around it a few times. Admittedly, the thing where they hit it with their hips so hard does look painful and dangerous. Not really into that if it is.
well, almost everything you do in gymnastics is dangerous. but dangerous as in damage to internal organs? no, belly beats and wraps didn't do that. if you hit the bar right, it didn't hurt. obviously, the bars had to be set at exact specifications at all times because if you hit the bar too high, you bruise your hipbones. and if you hit the bar too low, you hit with your thighs and not only bruised but lost momentum to swing back up. my coach was an elite gymnast and she explained it to me because I was curious about bars back in the day. then she let me try in practice and there was no pain (i tried it without the foam once i got the hang of it and it was fun). also, belly beats are not banned. they never were. they were phased out as the bars got set further apart. they're just impossible now. maybe you should learn a few things about gymnastics.
Kai S I was a gymnast in the late 70’s. I agree with you. If the bars were set at the proper distance for you and you did it right, it didn’t hurt at all.
I, for one, am glad they spread the bars apart. It made sense back then when the sport was more about strength and balance, the movements were a lot slower. Then it got faster and bouncing the hip constantly against the bar just looked painfull (and it was, indeed, harmful) to the athletes.
Thanks for putting together this footage. As a former gymnast, my hero was Mary Lou Retton and was sad to see her signature move not in the video. But some of the cool intricacies of the 80's I think need to make a comeback. They were awesome, and putting them together with the power and height of today's girls, you could have interesting bar routines again.
It's fascinating to see the evolution of the uneven bars over the the past 50-60 years. Not only has the apparatus itself evolved (in the old days, the bars were just men's parallel bars set at different heights), but the routines have gotten more fluid and acrobatic. I remember reading about gymnasts of the '50s and '60s when I was a kid, but there was no Internet back then, so I was never able to just look up videos of their routines. There was a beauty in the simplicity of their routines.
Agreed. It makes the routines less interesting to watch and forces them to be the same instead of allowing for more impressive and original artistic moves. I mean, most of these moves are probably banned. Now it's all about release elements, handstands and turns. Kind of boring. 70s-90s is where you see the superb artistry combined with difficult skills on all 4 events. UB has changed the most though. I actually think the new scoring system makes sense.
i think most of the gymnast want a high score value nowadays and that is why they are not focusing in the artistry anymore and just in difficulty. The judges demand more now than they used in the past. wnat they should do is to allow the gymnast to stay more time in the apparatus to perform longer routins that include the beautiful artistry and they should give them credit for that too.
In the 50's, it is completely a different event than today. It's amazing how far it's evolved! In the 50's, I liked some of the wrapping twisting moves and how the moves were really suited to the closer together bars. However, around the 70's, it seems to be a competition of "How much can you do without smacking painfully into a bar?" rather than just asking the open-ended question: "How much can you do?"
What I like about the bars of the 70s is how quick the routines go- it's superhuman. Wit them farther apart, a lot of time is taken up by swinging. I also really like how they would swing from high bar, catch onto the the low by their stomach and then flip under and dismount. So exciting!
Wow. A tribute not just to the the uneven bars, but also to human creativity and the possibilities of the human body! Thanks for sharing some awesome footage!
This was so fun to watch. I'm one of those who thought it much more fun in the days when the bars were closer together - more inventive moves. The old footage was amazing - I loved 1) women doing gymnastics with big ol' buns on their heads, and 2) the fact that there were spotters there when the girls were barely doing swings. Thanks for posting it!
Wow that was really impressive! Cool to see where everything has come from. I use to wonder how they competed with so little room between the bars but it literally looked like they were twirling. Looks like they had so much finesse to just be able to keep going. It seems today it's more about power I guess. Both are great though. Awesome video!
SO True! Uneven bars has practically become high bar for girls. I miss the old days. look how close the bars are together in the early years as compared to now.
That is really cool! It was interesting to see the progression/evolution of the release moves. When you see it all together like that, you can see how the moves evolved. I really like some of the more original moves in the 50s-70s. Wish we had more of those now because they make the whole routine look more elegant and interesting.
Wow... no Khorkina. Thank you! I like how you showed the guts it took for Nadia to do the release moves and dismount that she did. She was WAY ahead of her time. To dismount from the high bar like that was so, so risky back then. She had moxy!
Not really I started to watch modern gymnastics first. Then I really started to enjoy it and looked into it more. I discovered the older routines, ones from the 60s or so, and fell in love with the oldies :) Now I like 60s 70s gymnastics as a whole, more than modern gymnastics.
Actually the turning point was Doris Fuchs Brause......she never got the credit she deserved! Nobody was doing what she did on the uneven bars at the time and after that, it became the standard! Look up her UB routine!
But gymnastics has never been about "faster and stronger." It's inherently different from "speed" sports like running or swimming. Gymnastics is more like figure skating and diving, where both technique AND form/artistry matter. The gymnasts of previous eras were just as strong as the gymnasts of today, if not stronger. If anything, they're the ones who had to do amazing routines on harsher equipment (wooden beams with no padding, harder mats for floor exercises, etc.).
LOL! I was just about to mention how Queen Khorkina was not included in a montage about bars especially; but you already brought up my point perfectly. :)
In the old days, when the bars were closer together, they had to carefully adjust the bar settings for each gymnast so that the gymnast wouldn't bruise her hip bone when doing those wraps around the lower bar. Plus, the girls were starting to do more giant swings and bigger release moves, which required the bars to be farther apart. That's why the distance between the bars became widened.
You may appreciate their strength and level of difficulty, but the name is "Artistic Gymnastics" and competition after competition, the artistic part is gradually vanishing. If something is artistic, it has to have beauty, creativity, personality. Regarding the swimming, they really have to be faster and stronger, but in synchronized swimming what matters is: beauty, charisma, personality, along with the technique.
I love this video. Its so weird to see some of the earlier gymnastics. It looks so simple but I guess back then it was a big deal like the gymnastics today is.
Wow. Thank you for the exquisite montage. The uneven parallel bars are my absolute favorite. I keep thinking to myself, '''What can gymnasts do to 'up the ante' (i.e. do something that has never been done before) I guess we'll find out....! Peace&Love Pianocidal
Nobody here is saying that the current gymnasts are not working hard. We all know that the Code of Points has pushed gymnasts to perform at a higher level of technical difficulty overall, but the level of artistry and creatively that was seen in previous eras of just isn't there. This is a widely shared view among many gymnastics fans and experts who have followed sport's evolution. There's nothing wrong with appreciating history. The pioneering gymnasts of the past deserve respect, too.
Around the late 80s I think. I read that it was to allow for giant swings but also there was concern about the hip bouncing (bruises, possible kidney damage).
I think one of the main differences between the old routines and new ones is the new ones require the gymnasts to be in so much better shape, strength and endurance is a must, the old ones were very intricate and I'm guessing timing was very important, which it still is today, but you kind of have a break while you're in the middle of a giant, or kip to handstand, whereas the old routines it was one quick move after another, so that could be frightening. It's much more dangerous now though
Yes! The focus used to be the hip distance to the bars but as the tricks became more demanding that the bars have much mire room leaving those cool tricks behind. I was just 7 when Nadia inspired me to learn her first Olympic 10- and I did for a while . But by the time I was competing 6 years later- our bats were set for more Ariel moves and not just a "front hip circle to an Eagles nest" lol- at 7- was considered advanced!! This was an awesome look at the transitions- I have to ask why Mary Lo
Yes, she was great, and only 11 years old in this video! Heres some information about her: -hometown:Bucharest -homeclub:CSS Triumpf Bucharest -birthdate: 8 August 1977 -If you look closely you can see Mariana in the Romanian Dream documentary -she competed at the mixed pair competition with fellow romanian Adrian Sandu -She was a great gymnast who never had the chance to shine.Her trainer had a fight with Octavian Belu, so she wasnt allowed to go to Deva.
I myself am a gymnast and we had a "rustic day" at our club once. One of the Parallel bars was raised up to the height of the high bar so we had a set of not-so-Asymmetric Bars to work on and it was easy comapred to the bars I usually use. It may be boring, but yoiu think what we gymnasts have to do on those bars, however close or paralell they are.
I love watching the older routines. It seemed like w/ the bars closer together it made them have to be more creative in order to outdo one another. I'm not a gymnast so I don't know what is really considered harder, but what does Nastia Liukien do that's supposedly so much harder than what some of these girls were doing?
That's because the high bar and low bar were sooo close to eachother. Now they can do soo many more dificult skills without distributing their weight on two different areas like holding the high bar at the same time as your waist is dangling on the low bar. but it was origionally men's parallel bars positioned at different heights. Now the standard bars allows for much more difficult skills, but not as smooth as before.
I have to add that the Korbut and Mukhina's version were dazzling, crowd-pleasing skills-I wish those would still be allowed. And Nadia's Comaneci Front to Csazlavska combo is pretty awesome to this very day-she was truly far ahead of the rest at those Games.
I already done some of the balance beam a year ago, but never had the chance to complete it... I'll try to finish it soon.. and thanks for your comment
I didn't know that the bars were closer together in the past, allowing for transfer between the 2 bars to be much easier and more fluid. Seems like the routines were more artistic in the past, but now the athleticism is insane. It resembles the mens high bar routines with all the high flying tricks that are done now. The lower bar doesn't seem to be used as much. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing - I guess it depends on whether you like artistic or athletic style routines
Wow, bar routines back in the day were so different, it almost seems like an entirely different event altogether. Some of those mounts they were doing were so cool. And when they were doing the swinging around by their midsections w/no hands. But when they were doing it thay way, did they adjust the bars depending on the height of the girl? Wonder what's considered more difficult-the old routines or the more recent routines. Looked like it was somewhere in the 80s when the bars changed
I was a gymnast and I remember doing beats on the bar.... Man did u get some bruises on your hips!!! Gymnastics has come al long way! Though I truly enjoyed the early on bar routines so creative!
i totally agree! have a look on youtube at olga korbuts uneven bars routine from the olympics of 72 - NO ONE has ever performed such a difficult routie since, and so perfect!
5:12 is AWESOME. They'd have to ban flipping over the low bar to mount the high one. I know there were rules but, from the 50s-80s it seemed like anything goes as long as the put their hands up at the end to show they are ready to start & that they are finished
@jenniffir it´s not weird because they had to start somewhere. it wasnt until 1972 that olga korbut changed gymnastics by combining tricks together and doing stuff that had never been seen before. in beginning gymnastics used to be similar to ballet and they also had more mature women until olga and then nadia.
i have been looking for a video of kathy rigby's bar routine. I remember that it was the first time that I had seen someone do a handstand on the top bar! I have never found that tape! Back then, there no video recorders, repeats or rewinds. I saw it once and that was it!
First of all, nobody here is "bashing" the new gymnasts. We're showing our appreciation for an era in gymnastics that produced iconic gymnasts who changed the face of the sport. In the process, comparisons between the more "artistic" gymnastics of the old days and the "faster" gymnastics of today are inevitable. Keep in mind that the sport is called "artistic gymnastics" for a reason. Second, nobody here has "ruined" this viewing experience for you. People are entitled to their opinions.
@ThePingShowJL well, no it revolves around both of the rythmic and the artistic one, i guess we have trampoline gymnastics too but it's not common at atll, and i don't think we have trampoline gymnastics..... though i guess maybe after that team silver medal at the youth olmpics in the rythmic gymnastics may be a good start...
this video is awesome! Im not into gymnastics very much but this is too cool.. It seems as though having the bars closer to each other led to more possibilities and hence more creativity. Comaneci did stuff thats beyond imagination!
@nmd556 It's arguable which one is more difficult. The 50s were faced with unique challenges that don't exist in current gymnastics. And as the bars moved farther apart but were still parallel and were not a full body's length away, the challenges of spinning and tricks were even greater. So maybe the rules of the sport which make it about brute force and strength make it more difficult in competition now, but 'in the old days' when it was about art and perfection it was more difficult.
What I loved about early uneven bars was how you could create your own moves virtually at any point, along with original mounts and dismounts. Nowadays, everybody does the same skills and it's just not exciting anymore.
It would be great to see some of these beautiful mounts and dismounts return. If only the judges new how to execute the correct level of difficulty for scoring.
I used to wonder why this particular type of gymnastics is referred to as artistic and the one where they are twirling different objects etc was called rhythmic. Well now I know, thanks to the footage of earlier gymnastics. I totally see the art in the older form vs now. It looks so much more graceful from the 50s through the 80s. And the whirling/whips were beautiful. I'm a big gymnastics junkie but after seeing this, I think I like the older stuff better but can still appreciate modern gymnastics.
I couldn't agree more. They really shouldn't even call it artistic gymnastics anymore.
+Lizzie Beth they should just call it gymnastics not artistic gymnastics bc I don't see anymore artistic stuff anymore
love the music that you have chosen for this montage.. Make it sounds so classy...
Agreed
This is a cool video, but I have to say, the earlier performances were more interesting. Having the second bar where they could bounce off of it and twist around and stuff was more interesting. Now, they might as well just have one bar and swing around it a few times. Admittedly, the thing where they hit it with their hips so hard does look painful and dangerous. Not really into that if it is.
I think around 1976 was perfect. Nowadays, ALL routines are basically exactly the same. No creativity at all or signature moves.
yeah, most routines look the same nowadays. belly beats were not at all dangerous. if you hit the bar right, it was painless.
Not at all dangerous? Are you serious? You should learn a few things about the woman's body. There's a reason why this element was banned
well, almost everything you do in gymnastics is dangerous. but dangerous as in damage to internal organs? no, belly beats and wraps didn't do that. if you hit the bar right, it didn't hurt. obviously, the bars had to be set at exact specifications at all times because if you hit the bar too high, you bruise your hipbones. and if you hit the bar too low, you hit with your thighs and not only bruised but lost momentum to swing back up. my coach was an elite gymnast and she explained it to me because I was curious about bars back in the day. then she let me try in practice and there was no pain (i tried it without the foam once i got the hang of it and it was fun). also, belly beats are not banned. they never were. they were phased out as the bars got set further apart. they're just impossible now. maybe you should learn a few things about gymnastics.
Kai S I was a gymnast in the late 70’s. I agree with you. If the bars were set at the proper distance for you and you did it right, it didn’t hurt at all.
I, for one, am glad they spread the bars apart. It made sense back then when the sport was more about strength and balance, the movements were a lot slower. Then it got faster and bouncing the hip constantly against the bar just looked painfull (and it was, indeed, harmful) to the athletes.
Thanks for putting together this footage. As a former gymnast, my hero was Mary Lou Retton and was sad to see her signature move not in the video. But some of the cool intricacies of the 80's I think need to make a comeback. They were awesome, and putting them together with the power and height of today's girls, you could have interesting bar routines again.
It's fascinating to see the evolution of the uneven bars over the the past 50-60 years. Not only has the apparatus itself evolved (in the old days, the bars were just men's parallel bars set at different heights), but the routines have gotten more fluid and acrobatic. I remember reading about gymnasts of the '50s and '60s when I was a kid, but there was no Internet back then, so I was never able to just look up videos of their routines. There was a beauty in the simplicity of their routines.
Agreed. It makes the routines less interesting to watch and forces them to be the same instead of allowing for more impressive and original artistic moves. I mean, most of these moves are probably banned. Now it's all about release elements, handstands and turns. Kind of boring. 70s-90s is where you see the superb artistry combined with difficult skills on all 4 events. UB has changed the most though. I actually think the new scoring system makes sense.
i think most of the gymnast want a high score value nowadays and that is why they are not focusing in the artistry anymore and just in difficulty. The judges demand more now than they used in the past. wnat they should do is to allow the gymnast to stay more time in the apparatus to perform longer routins that include the beautiful artistry and they should give them credit for that too.
i like the 80's, its a mix of athletic and the gracefulness.
I agree! I liked how the uneven bars were closer, there was so many interesting moves they could do because of it that they can't do now.
I really miss the bars so close together, was much more intricate and interesting to watch. I agree they should reintroduce it as an additional event.
In the 50's, it is completely a different event than today. It's amazing how far it's evolved! In the 50's, I liked some of the wrapping twisting moves and how the moves were really suited to the closer together bars. However, around the 70's, it seems to be a competition of "How much can you do without smacking painfully into a bar?" rather than just asking the open-ended question: "How much can you do?"
What a fantastic montage! Thank you for this. So well edited, and so illuminating. Great, GREAT work.
they should have a set of bars like the ones now and a set like the ones then.
Excellent job for the montage! i don't know how you did that, but it's a masterpiece!
I love watching this. The olympic level routines of the 1950's seem like beginner routines today. I've tell my daughter this all the time.
What I like about the bars of the 70s is how quick the routines go- it's superhuman. Wit them farther apart, a lot of time is taken up by swinging. I also really like how they would swing from high bar, catch onto the the low by their stomach and then flip under and dismount. So exciting!
Wow. A tribute not just to the the uneven bars, but also to human creativity and the possibilities of the human body! Thanks for sharing some awesome footage!
This was so fun to watch. I'm one of those who thought it much more fun in the days when the bars were closer together - more inventive moves. The old footage was amazing - I loved 1) women doing gymnastics with big ol' buns on their heads, and 2) the fact that there were spotters there when the girls were barely doing swings. Thanks for posting it!
whoever made this, you're amazing!
Fantastic montage--thanks for taking the time to put it together, fascinating!
Can we talk about 1:05 though? LOL. It looks like so much fun. It's like a whimsical spinning thing.
Lol true
That's the great Vera Caslavka!
Hell yeah, she should have just done that for 87 seconds and then dismounted.
It's fascinating to see the progression of the sport. Thanks for posting this!
Wow that was really impressive! Cool to see where everything has come from. I use to wonder how they competed with so little room between the bars but it literally looked like they were twirling. Looks like they had so much finesse to just be able to keep going. It seems today it's more about power I guess. Both are great though. Awesome video!
Wow, cool stuff! The stuff in the 50's was a trip...amazing to see the progress.
the stuff they did in the 50's-70's was way more impressive than what they do now
SO True! Uneven bars has practically become high bar for girls. I miss the old days. look how close the bars are together in the early years as compared to now.
That is really cool! It was interesting to see the progression/evolution of the release moves. When you see it all together like that, you can see how the moves evolved. I really like some of the more original moves in the 50s-70s. Wish we had more of those now because they make the whole routine look more elegant and interesting.
very well done making this video! interesting the evolution, and the routines fit to the beat and notes of the music :D
Great montage. It is interesting to see how things change so dramatically over these years.
you just made my youtube watching time much batter with your movie, its was absolutely impressive.thank you
thank you for the video
You can make really Good montages. Your montages are really beautiful
Great vid! It's nice to see the evolution of the uneven bars. You never see these types of routines all in one place.
i know but if they decided to bring that back it would suck because they banned most of those moves
This is great. I was wondering when it made such a big change, but this video shows it's ALWAYS made big changes. :)
Wow... no Khorkina. Thank you! I like how you showed the guts it took for Nadia to do the release moves and dismount that she did. She was WAY ahead of her time. To dismount from the high bar like that was so, so risky back then. She had moxy!
Not really I started to watch modern gymnastics first. Then I really started to enjoy it and looked into it more. I discovered the older routines, ones from the 60s or so, and fell in love with the oldies :) Now I like 60s 70s gymnastics as a whole, more than modern gymnastics.
Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut--I'm a huge fan.
The turning points: Nadia and Olga Korbut.
Actually the turning point was Doris Fuchs Brause......she never got the credit she deserved! Nobody was doing what she did on the uneven bars at the time and after that, it became the standard! Look up her UB routine!
Fantastic montage. Thanks for putting it together.
Its great to see the changes in bars, great vid!
But gymnastics has never been about "faster and stronger." It's inherently different from "speed" sports like running or swimming. Gymnastics is more like figure skating and diving, where both technique AND form/artistry matter. The gymnasts of previous eras were just as strong as the gymnasts of today, if not stronger. If anything, they're the ones who had to do amazing routines on harsher equipment (wooden beams with no padding, harder mats for floor exercises, etc.).
It just looks like the bars got farther and farther apart!
wow, its amazing how much it changed! great vid!
im not saying what they do today isn't difficult because it is i'm just saying the older gymnastics looks more graceful.
LOL! I was just about to mention how Queen Khorkina was not included in a montage about bars especially; but you already brought up my point perfectly. :)
I love this. The old routines look so good - I wish we could still see that on tv :(
In the old days, when the bars were closer together, they had to carefully adjust the bar settings for each gymnast so that the gymnast wouldn't bruise her hip bone when doing those wraps around the lower bar. Plus, the girls were starting to do more giant swings and bigger release moves, which required the bars to be farther apart. That's why the distance between the bars became widened.
Great montage ! It's very beautiful !
You may appreciate their strength and level of difficulty, but the name is "Artistic Gymnastics" and competition after competition, the artistic part is gradually vanishing.
If something is artistic, it has to have beauty, creativity, personality.
Regarding the swimming, they really have to be faster and stronger, but in synchronized swimming what matters is: beauty, charisma, personality, along with the technique.
this is so much harder than what we have to do now
I love this video. Its so weird to see some of the earlier gymnastics. It looks so simple but I guess back then it was a big deal like the gymnastics today is.
Wow. Thank you for the exquisite montage. The uneven parallel bars are my absolute favorite. I keep thinking to myself, '''What can gymnasts do to 'up the ante' (i.e. do something that has never been done before) I guess we'll find out....!
Peace&Love
Pianocidal
It was great to see some of my favorite moves in this montage. They don't do a lot of this stuff anymore.
Wow... this is a great video.. what a way this event has come!
It's amazing to think what the routines will have in the next 20+ years. Still, there is something beautiful and unique to each evolution.
This is awesome to see the evolution of this sport
I love the way that in the 50s and 60s that almost danced on the bars. Love it
Much agreed! Gymnastics has become practically robotic these days.
It’s all the same. 70s-80s best.
Awesome montage to an awesome song. I love Tori Amos, and Little Earthquakes is one of my favorite songs by her.
Nobody here is saying that the current gymnasts are not working hard. We all know that the Code of Points has pushed gymnasts to perform at a higher level of technical difficulty overall, but the level of artistry and creatively that was seen in previous eras of just isn't there. This is a widely shared view among many gymnastics fans and experts who have followed sport's evolution. There's nothing wrong with appreciating history. The pioneering gymnasts of the past deserve respect, too.
70's were the best :)
thanks for posting this!
TH-cam sucks!!! Little Earthquakes went with this video so well!!! Now when I watch, the music makes me think I'm at some tea party.
When and why did they change the width between the bars?
To make it harder I'm assuming
Around the late 80s I think. I read that it was to allow for giant swings but also there was concern about the hip bouncing (bruises, possible kidney damage).
+Carol Hutchinson thanks!
What's that release move called when there just swinging straight body and catch the low bar it was performed in the 70s and on p please help
I think one of the main differences between the old routines and new ones is the new ones require the gymnasts to be in so much better shape, strength and endurance is a must, the old ones were very intricate and I'm guessing timing was very important, which it still is today, but you kind of have a break while you're in the middle of a giant, or kip to handstand, whereas the old routines it was one quick move after another, so that could be frightening. It's much more dangerous now though
Yes! The focus used to be the hip distance to the bars but as the tricks became more demanding that the bars have much mire room leaving those cool tricks behind. I was just 7 when Nadia inspired me to learn her first Olympic 10- and I did for a while . But by the time I was competing 6 years later- our bats were set for more Ariel moves and not just a "front hip circle to an Eagles nest" lol- at 7- was considered advanced!! This was an awesome look at the transitions- I have to ask why Mary Lo
Yes, she was great, and only 11 years old in this video! Heres some information about her:
-hometown:Bucharest
-homeclub:CSS Triumpf Bucharest
-birthdate: 8 August 1977
-If you look closely you can see Mariana in the Romanian Dream documentary
-she competed at the mixed pair competition with fellow romanian Adrian Sandu
-She was a great gymnast who never had the chance to shine.Her trainer had a fight with Octavian Belu, so she wasnt allowed to go to Deva.
Awesome array of footage!
I myself am a gymnast and we had a "rustic day" at our club once. One of the Parallel bars was raised up to the height of the high bar so we had a set of not-so-Asymmetric Bars to work on and it was easy comapred to the bars I usually use. It may be boring, but yoiu think what we gymnasts have to do on those bars, however close or paralell they are.
I love watching the older routines. It seemed like w/ the bars closer together it made them have to be more creative in order to outdo one another. I'm not a gymnast so I don't know what is really considered harder, but what does Nastia Liukien do that's supposedly so much harder than what some of these girls were doing?
That's because the high bar and low bar were sooo close to eachother. Now they can do soo many more dificult skills without distributing their weight on two different areas like holding the high bar at the same time as your waist is dangling on the low bar. but it was origionally men's parallel bars positioned at different heights. Now the standard bars allows for much more difficult skills, but not as smooth as before.
wow I love this video!! great job!
I have to add that the Korbut and Mukhina's version were dazzling, crowd-pleasing skills-I wish those would still be allowed. And Nadia's Comaneci Front to Csazlavska combo is pretty awesome to this very day-she was truly far ahead of the rest at those Games.
very nice...it's amazing knowing people can do that~
I already done some of the balance beam a year ago, but never had the chance to complete it... I'll try to finish it soon.. and thanks for your comment
I didn't know that the bars were closer together in the past, allowing for transfer between the 2 bars to be much easier and more fluid. Seems like the routines were more artistic in the past, but now the athleticism is insane. It resembles the mens high bar routines with all the high flying tricks that are done now. The lower bar doesn't seem to be used as much. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing - I guess it depends on whether you like artistic or athletic style routines
I really loooooooove the 50's to the 80's. the way they manage around the bars is like an optical illusion!! plus those dismounts, holy cow
Wow, bar routines back in the day were so different, it almost seems like an entirely different event altogether. Some of those mounts they were doing were so cool. And when they were doing the swinging around by their midsections w/no hands. But when they were doing it thay way, did they adjust the bars depending on the height of the girl? Wonder what's considered more difficult-the old routines or the more recent routines. Looked like it was somewhere in the 80s when the bars changed
I was a gymnast and I remember doing beats on the bar.... Man did u get some bruises on your hips!!! Gymnastics has come al long way! Though I truly enjoyed the early on bar routines so creative!
i totally agree!
have a look on youtube at olga korbuts uneven bars routine from the olympics of 72 - NO ONE has ever performed such a difficult routie since, and so perfect!
5:12 is AWESOME. They'd have to ban flipping over the low bar to mount the high one. I know there were rules but, from the 50s-80s it seemed like anything goes as long as the put their hands up at the end to show they are ready to start & that they are finished
great video! i think they have great routines before than now. i hope they bring back some of those routines.
@jenniffir it´s not weird because they had to start somewhere. it wasnt until 1972 that olga korbut changed gymnastics by combining tricks together and doing stuff that had never been seen before. in beginning gymnastics used to be similar to ballet and they also had more mature women until olga and then nadia.
Oh, my God. That was incredible.
Mind, blown. Brains, everywhere.
i have been looking for a video of kathy rigby's bar routine. I remember that it was the first time that I had seen someone do a handstand on the top bar!
I have never found that tape!
Back then, there no video recorders, repeats or rewinds. I saw it once and that was it!
Yeah Im agree with you martycubfan.
The music is Little earthquakes by Tori Amos
the way they used to switch bars was waaaay more difficult than now. it was very quick and beautiful
First of all, nobody here is "bashing" the new gymnasts. We're showing our appreciation for an era in gymnastics that produced iconic gymnasts who changed the face of the sport. In the process, comparisons between the more "artistic" gymnastics of the old days and the "faster" gymnastics of today are inevitable. Keep in mind that the sport is called "artistic gymnastics" for a reason. Second, nobody here has "ruined" this viewing experience for you. People are entitled to their opinions.
Fascinating to watch the progression of difficulty.
@ThePingShowJL well, no it revolves around both of the rythmic and the artistic one, i guess we have trampoline gymnastics too but it's not common at atll, and i don't think we have trampoline gymnastics..... though i guess maybe after that team silver medal at the youth olmpics in the rythmic gymnastics may be a good start...
wow thanks, im glad to know that ! watch the newer one then, its link is in the description.
this video is awesome! Im not into gymnastics very much but this is too cool..
It seems as though having the bars closer to each other led to more possibilities and hence more creativity. Comaneci did stuff thats beyond imagination!
The mount around 5:13 was incredible and looked very difficult. I miss the artistry in gymnastics.
@ViknAl watch the newer one, it's linked in tyhe description, and it includes khorkina
@nmd556 It's arguable which one is more difficult. The 50s were faced with unique challenges that don't exist in current gymnastics. And as the bars moved farther apart but were still parallel and were not a full body's length away, the challenges of spinning and tricks were even greater. So maybe the rules of the sport which make it about brute force and strength make it more difficult in competition now, but 'in the old days' when it was about art and perfection it was more difficult.