Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of World Standing in Group Competition in the Sport of Rhythmic Gymnastics.

It seems sensible to utilise performance analysis techniques in Rhythmic Gymnastics as well, as the performance structure in group routines is complex, and it is difficult to find the reasons for success or failure of a team. However, no such analyses of Rhythmic Gymnastics could be found in the published literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to define effective methods for computerised analyses of group compositions in Rhythmic Gymnastics. These methods need to be suitable to analyse the world's leading gymnastics groups, as well as to provide teams with feedback on their performance compared to that of the world leaders. The judgement of group competitions in rhythmic gymnastics is influenced by subjective aspects, although the evaluation is based on uniform criteria. It is a complex and difficult task because the execution of the movements and the change from one appliance to another takes place extremely fast. Therefore, one team of judges assesses the artistic aspects and another team assesses the difficulty of the choreography on the basis of a reference list. Quantitative parameters of the performances are not considered. Therefore, the performances are not exactly comparable. In order to get a detailed analysis of the actual performance of elite groups and to compare the choreography, a computer program has been developed. This program makes it possible:

1. to document the participation of individual gymnasts during the execution of selected difficulties and while changing to another appliance,

2. to produce an overview of the frequency of the individual elements,

3. to determine the area covered, the number of appliance changes and the distances covered with each appliance, and 4. to compare the synchronicity of executing the movements.

Commercial software was identified that could be used to record the gymnasts' positions and actions, and a new computer program was written to visualise the path of each gymnast. A complete analysis of the routines of 4 teams was performed, including the distance covered by each gymnast and the number of actions and interactions of the gymnasts was executed on the basis of videos from the World Cup of Rhythmic Gymnastics in Düsseldorf (Germany) 2005. A first analysis showed that the top teams differ from the German team in terms of the:

1. number of big appliance changes,

2. average width of the throws,

3. distance run by the gymnasts,

4. number of elements with high difficulties executed by all competitors,

5. number of formation forms and

6. practice speed.