Wheel gymnastics (German: Rhönradturnen) is a form of gymnastics that originated in Germany. Wheel gymnasts do exercises in a large wheel or hoop known as the Rhönrad, gymnastics wheel, gym wheel, or German wheel, in the beginning also known as ayro wheel, aero wheel, and Rhon rod.
Wheel design The large wheel consists of two circles in parallel, which are framed together with six spokes. Two are simple tubes, two are equipped with a handle and two have a footrest. The diameter of the wheel depends on the length of the gymnast, so that the gymnast can hold themselves on the grips when fully stretched. The wheels are available from a diameter of 130 to 245 cm. The wheels weigh between 40 and 60 kg. They are available in several depths and colors.
History The wheel was invented in 1925 by Otto Feick in Schönau an der Brend. The grandson of a blacksmith, Feick was inspired by the memory of an event from his childhood in Reichenbach, when he had tied sticks between two hoops that his grandfather had made and rolled down a hill. He filed for a patent as "wheel-gymnastic and sports equipment". He had invented the wheel in Ludwigshafen am Rhein c. 1920–1922, on the grounds of the VSK Germania, a sports club, of which he was the founding chairman. The patent was issued on 8 November 1925; the name "Rhönrad" has been registered and protected since 1926 ("Rhön" is the name of the mountain region where the wheel was invented). The Rhönrad was featured at the GeSoLei trade fair held in Düsseldorf in 1926. In 1936, this sport was shown at the Olympic Games in Berlin, but was not presented as an Olympic discipline. The focus of wheel gymnastics remains largely in Germany, but there are wheel groups in several countries and every 2 years the International Wheel Gymnastics Federation holds a World Championships competition. Former world champion wheel gymnast Wolfgang Bientzle moved from Germany to Chicago and runs his own company WHEEL JAM to educate and train people of every age to do Wheel gymnastics. Wheel gymnastics were used for pilot training with the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service to sport their dexterity and physical prowess before their peers, in particular by the Japanese Special Attack Units in Kamikaze pilot training. Using such contraptions would give them greater balance in order to inure them to the twists and turns they would experience in the air.
Disciplines Source:
Straight-line: In straight-line, the wheel is set in motion on both rims. The imaginary lines traced by the rims in contact with the floor are parallel. Straight-line can be performed with or without music. At the world championships the seniors (older than 18 years old) perform with music, while the juniors perform without music. Spirale: The wheel is set in motion on one rim and for most skills the wheel rim in contact with the floor traces an approximately circular path. There are 3 categories of elements in spirale. In the "big spirale" the path of the wheel is bigger than the diameter of the wheel and the angle between the wheel and the floor is bigger than 60° degree. In the "small spirale" the angle is less than 30° and the path of the wheel on the is smaller the diameter of the wheel. In the "vertical spirale" the wheel moves in an almost upright position. The path of the wheel on the floor is extremely small. The wheel rotates around the longitudinal axis. Vault: The gymnast sets the wheel in motion. After a run-up the gymnast mounts the wheel, from where he/she performs can perform various dismounts on to a landing mat. Examples of dismounts are tuck/pike/straight front sommersaults.
Code of points Source: The code of points describes exactly how the routines are judged. At the world championship 2022 in Sønderborg the IRV presented a big update for the code of points. The score of each discipline (except straight-line with music) is calculated in the following way. In straight-line with music the average of the execution and the artistic impression is added instead of only the execution: Difficulty (max 10.0) + Execution (max 10.0) - Neutral deductions = max 20 Points The difficulty score consist of max 8.0 (8 most difficult elements count) for the difficulty of the elements and 2.0 for fulfilling structure groups. The execution score is calculated by deducting 0.1 (minor deduction), 0.3 (medium), 0.5 (major) or 1.0 (fall / assist of coach) from the 10.0.
International Wheel Gymnastics Federation (IRV) The International Wheel Gymnastics Federation (short IRV), respectively original Internationale Rhönradturnverband is a federation for the sports cyr wheel and gym wheel. It was created 1995 in Basel by the members Germany, Switzerland, Japan and the Netherlands.
Members Members are the national federation of the following countries. There are 4 Types of members (Entry Member, Bronze Member, Silver Member and Gold Member). The higher the level the more the country has to pay and the more they can profit from the IRV.
Germany (since 1995, Gold Member) Switzerland (since 1995, Gold Member) United States (since 2009, Gold Member) Japan (since 1995, Bronze Member) Netherlands (since 1995, Bronze Member) Norway (since 1997, Bronze Member) Austria (since 2003, Bronze Member) Colombia (since 2011, Bronze Member) Israel (since 2012, Bronze Member) Denmark (since 2015, Bronze Member) France (since 2024, Bronze Member)
Activities The IRV organizes all international competitions like the World Championship. The federation is also responsible for developing scoring regulations, competition concepts and training programs. Larger projects of the various members are sometimes partly supported financially and announced on the website. The mission of the IRV is to spread the gym wheel and cyr wheel more around the world.
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