If gymnastics were easy they'd call it football.

Over the past several years there has been a huge controversy about gymnastics being the hardest sport.  Everyone has heard of the saying “if gymnastics were easy they’d call it football” am I right?  Well according to gymnasticszone.com scientists have proven with lots of evidence that this saying is truthful.  Although football players are strong and have very quick reaction times, gymnasts are stronger and get injured a lot more.

First off gymnasts are stronger mentally and physically.  They constantly have to get over their fears in order to get new skills.  Trust me doing flips on a 4 inch wide beam is not a walk in the park.  Letting go and flying though the parallel bars just to catch them again isn’t as easy as it looks and finally running at a stationary object and flipping off of it by far isn’t calming.  One mess up and you can give yourself a concussion by hitting your head on the back of the vault or landing weird and breaking your ankle.  It is hard being a gymnast because so much pressure is put on you.  If you’re not strong enough then you’re not good, period.  According to gymblog.wordpress.com Abby Stack from the University of Georgia wrote a newspaper article called “a weight room competition” about gymnastics proving themselves to the UGA football players in the weight room.  She concluded that the gymnasts could do “more push-ups, more pull-ups, more jump rope, more leg lifts, more handstands, just every thing,” then the football players.  I know, I know it’s hard to believe because gymnasts are so tiny.  What can I say we hide it pretty well.  Mark Richt, the football coach can believe this.  Richt says that it is hard to tell gymnasts are so strong from far away, but if you are in the same room “you can tell they are built”.  Gymnasts are also very strong since their strength to body ratio is small.

Finally gymnasts get injured a lot more then football players. To be honest gymnasts don’t know how to save themselves when they fall.  When we fall our first instinct is to stiffen up and catch ourselves with our arms, which causes more upper-extremity injuries.  Gymnasts, unlike football players are not taught the correct falling postures.  In football you are taught to go into a tackle using the top of your head to prevent neck injuries.  According to www.acep.org “Between 1990 and 2005, an estimated 425,900 children from 6 to 17 years of age were treated for gymnastics-related injuries in U.S. emergency departments, representing an average of 4.8 injuries per 1,000 gymnasts per year.”  This tells us that gymnasts get injured a lot and should be taught injury prevention strategies.  Gymnastics is a very demanding sport where gymnasts are prone to more injuries because of the lack of prevention strategies.  In this video Kerri Strug is preforming vault at the 1996 Olympics.  In order for the US to win she has to stick her vault, it’s all up to her.  During her first vault she injures her left ankle and falls which is over a point deduction.  She is limping pretty bad walking back but is determined to preform her last vault.  When she goes she’s in a lot of pain but ends up sticking her vault basically on one leg and ends up getting first place.  The US wins the Olympics because of her.  She ended up tearing two ligaments in her left ankle and has to be carried out.  Us gymnasts are tough and don’t let an injury face us until we finish our routine, unlike football players who lay in the field for 10 minutes and cry when they get hurt.

Gymnastics takes a lot of strength and a lot of courage to perform and are more prone to injuries than any other sport because of the lack of education.  Gymnasts are the full package which makes gymnastics harder than football.