ABSTRACT
Gymnastics is perhaps one of the best "laboratories" for the study of skill acquisition and performance. Spatial orientation, kinesthesis and balance are involved in gymnastics training at all levels and nearly every day. Of course, gymnastics is not alone in the use, abuse and exploitation of these aspects of motor learning and control, but gymnastics is perhaps the richest activity for demonstrating the wide range of these factors in a single sport. The gymnast relies on three interacting sensory systems: visual system, vestibular system and somatosensory system. Vision is the dominant spatial orientation system, as anyone trying to navigate around a room in the dark can attest, but the visual system also relies on a concordance of information from other senses. The vestibular system is composed of the bilaterally paired semicircular canals and the otolith organs. Combining the somatosensory system with kinesthesis allows the gymnast the ability to determine when his body is horizontal in a Maltese cross.
