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.

    8/32 page 6
    ing his assertion that only strong movements shall be considered as exercises, we have reason to enter into in- vestigation whether or not the first part of his statement contains the truth, and if so what movements really are exercises and which are not. Guts Muths, as far as I know, never expressed himself definitely on the question what kind of movements he would recognize as legiti- mate exercises, though there are several passages in his works by which he plainly shows that he agrees with Galen in the exclusion of some movements. On the other hand, many of his countrymen have repeatedly repudiated this position. Not always in intention, per- haps, but by their words. Spiess admittedly strove for a gymnastic system which was to include all possible movements of the body. Pestalozzi, when speaking of his articular movements, used the expression “com- pleteness” in the sense of embracing all possibilities, though he never carried out his idea of completeness to the extent that Spiess did, and, of course, would have absolutely refused to countenance the absurdities found in de Laspée’s work,’ even though the latter audaciously claimed to found it on Pestalozzian principles. It is works like this gymnastic curiosity which show us plainly the necessity of being strict in our first funda- mental statements. No one can deny the great value of Pestalozzi’s work for physical training, and still we have here a book, claimed to be based on those of the great pedagogic reformer, which show us in a hundred ways how gymnastics should not be taught, be it on Pestaloz- zian or on any other common-sense principles. But we need not go back to the pioneers in the field of physical training, whose words may and frequently 1. HENRY DE LAspé&e: Calisthenics, or the Elements of Bodily Culture on Pes- talozzian Principles. London: Chas. Griffin & Co. 1865.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3