ARTISTIC CYCLING
HISTORY OF THE INDOOR CYCLIC
It is known from several historical traditions that more than hundred years ago - in the 19 th century the American Cycling acrobats Nikolas Edward-Kaufmann and John Featherley made their livings with stunts on bikes. This two artists had also been the initiators of the first Cycling Ball match played at Rodchester (USA) on the 14 th September in 1893.
The focus of this sport is in the German-speaking countries of Europe - such as Germany, Switzerland, Austria; furthermore the countries Belgium, France and Czech Republic must be named. Over the past years, the East Asian countries (Japan, Malaysia, China with Hongkong and Macau) have become more and more important. In those regions, the Indoor Cyclic seems to develop faster than in Europe.
In the disciplines Indoor Cycling Single and Twin (men and women) titles for World Champions are awarded, for juniors it is the European Champion. In Germany - the centre of the Indoor Cycling- annual national championships are arranged. In addition to the international disciplines in Germany team artistic cyling for four and six athletes (men/women, with normal bicycles as well as unicycles) are organized. The championships are taking place at communal, regional and federal levels with the categories Elite (men/women), Juniors (male/female) and Scholars (male/female).
At present, some 10.000 Indoor Cycling athletes (including cycle ball/polo) are licenced in 1500 clubs and are entering the contests. 20-25 nations are sending athletes to the annual world championships which inter alia took place in Hongkong (1993) and Malaysia (1996). The German Indoor Cycling athletes are strongly dominating this sport. Since 1964, they have won as many as 101 Gold, 87 Silver and 28 Bronze medals. The success rate for all medals possible is not less than 90 %.
The best age to start with Indoor Cycling is at the age of 6-7 years. Between 6 and 12 years the training of basics takes the central stage. Main focus: training of coordination, at the beginning general coordination, afterwards a special coordination training. This stage of life is crucial for the development of the coordination, therefore in the first instance the main focus is given to this. Furthermore, an age-approbiate training of technics and physical fitness is being carried out. From 13 up to 16 years an advanced training with focus on specific coordination and flexibility is following, the training of technical elements is intensified along with general and special weight training, specialization in Single or Twin Cycling. The training frequency is usually four times a week each with 2-3 hours.
Between the age of 15 and 16, the competitive training is starting with focus on complex training of technics, specific weight and endurance training, mental training, intensification of training and increase of contest frequency. Then the training frequency is around four and five training units a week each with 3-4 hours.
At the age of 17, again the training frequency is increased.