The Apparatus
The apparatus originated as a 'free exercise' for men, very similar to the floor exercise of today. It wasn't until 1948 that women were allowed to compete on the floor.
Most competitive gymnastics floors are spring floors. They contain springs and/or a rubber foam and plywood combination which make the floor bouncy, soften the impact of landings and enable the gymnast to gain height when tumbling. Floors have clearly designated perimeters—the "out of bounds" area is always indicated by a border of white tape or a differently colored mat.
The allowed time for a floor exercise is up to 70 seconds for males and up to 90 seconds for females. Unlike men, women always perform routines to music.
Read more about this topic: Floor (gymnastics)
Famous quotes containing the word apparatus:
“It is part of the nature of consciousness, of how the mental apparatus works, that free reason is only a very occasional function of people’s “thinking” and that much of the process is made of reactions as standardized as those of the keys on a typewriter.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Our talk of external things, our very notion of things, is just a conceptual apparatus that helps us to foresee and control the triggerings of our sensory receptors in the light of previous triggering of our sensory receptors.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)