Analysis of the conditions for the development of artistic gymnastics in the State of São Paulo

Abstract

This descriptive quantitative paper presents a diagnosis of Artistic Gymnastics (AG) in the state of São Paulo from development conditions of the institutions that promote this sport (existent time of the sport in the institution, equipment’s infrastructure, number of professionals, quantity and level of the gymnasts in male and female). For data collection was used a structured questionnaire with closed questions and the data analysis was made from descriptive statistics. Participated in this study 56 AG coaches responsible for 28 institutions from 18 cities of the State of São Paulo. The collected data show that conditions designed for practice are not satisfactory regarding to the development conditions for AG in competitive level, with few professionals related to the number of practitioners, few practitioners in sport initiation, which directly influences the low amount of gymnasts in competitive level and many institutions do not have at least the official equipment of the sport. The non-appropriated conditions of AG development in the state of São Paulo complicate and directly influence the potential to revelation and development of gymnasts to high performance sport in the state. These results may directly reflect on Brazilian AG since São Paulo is a representative State in Brazilian championships and the São Paulo Gymnastics Federation has the largest number of affiliated entities in the country.