What is gymnastics? / By Jakob Bolin.

  • Bolin, Jakob, 1863-1914.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What is gymnastics? / By Jakob Bolin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nastic material must take place among the vast number of possible movements. The principle of all-possibility is dead. The principle of selection, the fundamental principle of the Swedish system since its inception, reigns supreme. But when we come to the practical application of this principle there is, and must, of course, always be, a considerable divergence of opinion, whether or not a definite form of movement is of such a character as to warrant its incorporation in a rational system of gym- nastics. This divergence of opinion does. not, however, need to be so great as it at present appears. As knowl- edge grows, the basis upon which the selection is under- taken must necessarily become more uniform, while at the same time perfect freedom to use such forms as are not interdicted by any definite principle will exist for all, as it now does in all systems. To make the various opinions coincide more closely than they do at present, it is necessary for us to establish a basis by which we may be guided in making, among all possible movements, the selection of those forms which may properly be used as gymnastic exercises. If we then for the present turn away from the definition of Guts Muths to that of ‘Ling, the originator of the Swedish system, we find him making the declaration that “gymnastics” (in a wider sense than that in which we here employ the term) “is bodily movements in harmony with the laws of the organism,” or, as he at another occasion expressed himself, “movements in harmony with the conditions and needs of the organism.” This demand of Ling for correspondence between the character of the movement and the condition of the moy- ing organism was, of course, not original with him. Guts Muths expressed the same idea in different words. It supports those tendencies toward a selection which we
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