EDITORIAL

Abstract

Dear friends, In October 2013 we will celebrate 150 years since the first gymnastics club was established in Slovenia. As the weather in October is already cold and school and sport programs start in September after summer holidays, the main part of celebrations was set for June. A Big Sokol Zlet was held in Ljubljana with over 1000 participants and a few thousand spectators on 17 June 2013. Mr Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, awarded 'Športni klub Narodni dom' with the Golden Order for Services in the civil field. In addition to the Zlet, an exhibition has opened in the National Gallery which includes several rewards that are available for public viewing for the first time, such as medals of the father of Slovenian gymnastics Dr Viktor Murnik: Legion of Honour from the French president, White Lion from the Czechoslovakian president, Sveti Sava from the king of Yugoslavia, Order for Service from the president of Yugoslavia. To date, the club has organised two world championships (in 1922 and 1970); its member Peter Šumi won the world championship title twice in a row in 1922 and 1926 (his gold medal from Lyon is on display) and the team from Slovenia won the 4th place in Torino in 1911. On display is a cup received as a gift from other teams in 1922; Miroslav Cerar's Olympic medals, Mitja Petkovšek's World and European championships medals, Sašo Bertoncelj's prizes and a laurel wreath from Zlet in 1933. In December, an academic symposium on Sokol's impact on life in Slovenia will be organised. Big anniversaries are always opportunity to dig into archives. I encourage you to look into your country's history of gymnastics and submit articles on how gymnastics evolved there (e.g., like Abbie Grossfeld and Anton Gajdoš with friends have done already). After all, one of the definitions of learning is transmitting knowledge and experience from one generation to another. With our Journal we wish to transmit knowledge of our researchers so that it can be applied to practice. In the June issue we have seven articles. Researchers Roman Farana, Daniel Jandacka and Irwin Gareth united to explore the impact forces on elbows during the round off. The round off can be used on floor, vault, beam; it is used by man and women and the paper provides practical advise on the position for hands. Oya Erkut Atilgan from Turkey submitted the first article in our Journal related to trampolining. I hope it will encourage other trampolinist to participate with their research papers. The third article is from the United Kingdom by Hannah Clowes and Zoe Knowles. They explore the effectiveness of pre-performance routines of elite artistic gymnasts. As British gymnastics were vey successful at OG in London last year the article is well worth reading. The fourth article is from Slovenia: authors Jerneja Fišer Kurnik, Tanja Kajtna, Klemen Bedenik and Marjeta Kovač investigated what advantages parents anticipate to enrol their child in gymnastics. Trevor Dowdell from Australia submitted his paper 'Achievement goals and motivational climate in competitive gymnastics classes' which provides guidelines on how to promote successful climate in a club. George Dallas and Paschalis Kirialanis from Greece wrote an interesting paper on how the vibration method influences flexibility and strength. The last article is from China: Helen Chen provides a case study on diet for high performance gymnastics. Unfortunately, there is some sad news to impair. A truly good friend (my first lecturer at an international judging course) and a member of our editorial board Mikko Pehkonen has passed away. We thank his friends from Finland for sharing their thoughts about Mikko. Just to remind you, if you quote the Journal: its abbreviation in the Web of Knowledge is SCI GYMNASTICS J. I wish you pleasant reading and a lot of inspiration for new research projects and articles. Ivan Čuk, Editor-in-Chief