Reflections And Lessons Learned:A Comparison Of Women’s Competitive Gymnastics In China And Japan

Competitive gymnastics is China sport traditional strength and also the dominant event in China’s Olympic glory program.Since Ma Yanhong won the gold medal in uneven bars at the 1979 World Gymnastics Championships,it has opened a new chapter of Chinese women’s competitive gymnastics.In 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,it reached its peak,winning the women’s team championship and 6 medals,which won great honor for China.But with the continuous development of competitive gymnastics in various countries,it has posed severe challenges to Chinese women’s gymnastics.How to promote the sustainable development of Chinese women’s gymnastics and maintain the position of the first echelon in the world has become the focus of the gymnastics industry.Japan is a powerhouse in competitive gymnastics,whose men’s gymnastics dominated the world for nearly two decades from the 1960 s.Although the overall strength of Japanese women’s gymnastics is not as good as that of men,but in the recent five years on the international arena,the competitive strength began to show,including three world Championships overall performance better than the Chinese women’s gymnastics team.The achievement of Japanese women’s gymnastics was born in the rich gymnastics cultural soil in Japan.The popularity of Japanese gymnastics is high,and there are references in the management system,training system,competition system and reserve talent training mode.This research adopts the methods of literature,expert interview,mathematical statistics,comparative research,logical analysis and other scientific research methods to compare and study the development history,gymnastics culture,management system,training system,competition system,reserve personnel training mode of women’s competitive gymnastics in China and Japan and the development of women’s competitive gymnastics in China and Japan after 1979.The conclusions are as follows:(1)The cultural attributes of the gymnastics masses in China are relatively low and the awareness of the values of the gymnastics programme is relatively weak.In Japan,the cultural attributes of the gymnastics masses are relatively high and the sense of values of the gymnastics programme is relatively strong.(2)Chinese competitive gymnastics is vertically managed by the government.In contrast,Japanese competitive gymnastics is flatly managed by the government,with the actual management of the gymnastics association and the assistance of other institutions.(3)The Chinese competition system is a hierarchical system under the national system with relatively few events.The Japanese competition system is based on association management,with graded and staged competitions,with a large number of events and a hierarchy of events.(4)China’s competitive gymnastics reserve talent still follows the pyramidal three-tier training network model,with a high degree of specialisation at all levels of training and a small base of basic training population.In contrast,the Japanese model of reserve talent training is based on school and club training,with layers of training progressing at each level and a large base of reserves,and emphasis is placed on the integration of sports and education.(5)Through the comparative study of women’s competitive gymnastics in China and Japan,we can draw lessons from the development of women’s competitive gymnastics in Japan: to do a good job in promoting the value of gymnastics,popularize school gymnastics and enhance the cultural atmosphere of gymnastics: to improve the management system;to enrich gymnastics events and improve the training system;to deepen the integration model of gymnastics and education to cultivate competitive gymnastics talents;to focus on scientific research and innovation in gymnastics to promote high-quality development.