Rings
Rings (officially called the still rings) is a men's artistic gymnastics event. It's the third of six events when competing in Olympic order (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and high bar.)
Rings: The Strong Man's Event
While many of the men's apparatus require strength, being good on rings requires a super-hero level of physical prowess. The skills are so hard that it's tough to really understand how much strength top gymnasts have. Try this: Hold your arms out straight from your body, so the fingers of one arm form a straight line to your shoulders and then out to your other arm and fingers. Now imagine holding a ring in each hand, and keeping your body taut, suspended high in the air while forming that same straight line.
That's an iron cross, and it's only a medium-level difficulty strength move. The best in the world on rings do moves that are much harder. (See more skills on a later page.)
Because of this, rings specialists tend to have Popeye-sized arm and chest muscles and are short and stocky. Taller gymnasts have a harder time on the event, because the further their feet and hands are from their torso, the harder it is to hold strength positions. Long arms and legs are a huge disadvantage.
The Rings
The ring stand at its peak is about 19 ft. off the floor, with the rings themselves about 9 ft. off the ground. The rings hang about 20 in. apart, though their width varies as the gymnast performs his routine.
Men perform a variety of different skills on the rings, including strength moves, swinging moves, and dismounts:
The gymnast's body position on strength moves is very important: Though proper positioning varies from skills to skill, usually the gymnast should be parallel to the ground, with his body in a straight line. Strength moves should be held for two seconds each, and the rings should be still, never swinging. If the gymnast performs a swinging move on the event, he's expected to kill the momentum and stop the rings from swinging on subsequent handstand and strength moves.
As in all of gymnastics, the goal is to perform ultra-difficult skills and somehow make them look easy, so while this is perhaps most difficult to do on rings than on any other event, the best gymnasts will make superhuman feats of strength look simple, without their bodies shaking while in hold positions. As always, the aim is to stick the dismount as well.
Rings (officially called the still rings) is a men's artistic gymnastics event. It's the third of six events when competing in Olympic order (floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and high bar.)
Rings: The Strong Man's Event
While many of the men's apparatus require strength, being good on rings requires a super-hero level of physical prowess. The skills are so hard that it's tough to really understand how much strength top gymnasts have. Try this: Hold your arms out straight from your body, so the fingers of one arm form a straight line to your shoulders and then out to your other arm and fingers. Now imagine holding a ring in each hand, and keeping your body taut, suspended high in the air while forming that same straight line.
That's an iron cross, and it's only a medium-level difficulty strength move. The best in the world on rings do moves that are much harder. (See more skills on a later page.)
Because of this, rings specialists tend to have Popeye-sized arm and chest muscles and are short and stocky. Taller gymnasts have a harder time on the event, because the further their feet and hands are from their torso, the harder it is to hold strength positions. Long arms and legs are a huge disadvantage.
The Rings
The ring stand at its peak is about 19 ft. off the floor, with the rings themselves about 9 ft. off the ground. The rings hang about 20 in. apart, though their width varies as the gymnast performs his routine.
Men perform a variety of different skills on the rings, including strength moves, swinging moves, and dismounts:
- Strength moves such as the iron cross mentioned above, are included in every routine, and top rings workers combine several strength moves, doing one after the other to increase their difficulty scores (D-scores). Examples of strength moves include the iron cross, Maltese, planche, and inverted cross.
- Swinging moves can look similar to those done on high bar, with the gymnast performing a giant circle in a straight body position. The major difference, though, is that on rings, the gymnast often stops at the top and holds the handstand position. (This is often a requirement in a rings routine.) Gymnasts also perform flips forward and backward while swinging and holding onto the rings. Examples of these are the Guzoghy and Yamawaki, double flipping skills named after former gymnasts. Gymnasts who aren't as physically strong in the upper body often try to incorporate more swinging moves than strength moves into their routines, but it's still tough to get a high D-score without high-level strength moves.
- Dismounts look a lot like dismounts off high bar, except it's more difficult for the gymnast to get momentum off of rings, so they aren't at quite as high a level. The gymnast usually performs a giant circle beforehand before letting go of the rings, performing multiple flips and twists, and landing on the mat, directly below. Advanced dismounts include the layout double-twisting double back and the triple back (three flips backwards).
The gymnast's body position on strength moves is very important: Though proper positioning varies from skills to skill, usually the gymnast should be parallel to the ground, with his body in a straight line. Strength moves should be held for two seconds each, and the rings should be still, never swinging. If the gymnast performs a swinging move on the event, he's expected to kill the momentum and stop the rings from swinging on subsequent handstand and strength moves.
As in all of gymnastics, the goal is to perform ultra-difficult skills and somehow make them look easy, so while this is perhaps most difficult to do on rings than on any other event, the best gymnasts will make superhuman feats of strength look simple, without their bodies shaking while in hold positions. As always, the aim is to stick the dismount as well.
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