Baton Twirling

Baton Twirling.

Even though it is not famous sport, it has many attractive points to tell about. Since I was doing baton twirling for six years, I learned many things about baton twirling and morals of how to behave in society.

Baton Twirling is a sport which belongs to same category as ballet dance, figure skating and gymnastics. As you guys can understand from the word “Baton Twirling”, in this sport, twirlers twirl baton. Baton consists from shaft which is made from silver, and two ends of shaft have rubber made weights called ball and tip that is for keep valance of baton to twirl beautifully. Baton Twirling requires not just baton. It also requires dancing. There are many genres in dancing however; ballet and rhythmic gymnastics are commonly used in baton twirling.

Do you think baton twirling is just for girls and women, but not for boys and men? It is not correct. Before WWII had begun, the man, called Majer C. W. Booth, introduced and spread baton twirling by visited and performed in many different countries. However, soon WWII had started, therefore men had to go to military and men baton twirler population was decreased and became popular among women.

Baton Twirling is originally from traditional dance, which was danced with using knifes and twirling sticks. I think you have seen the dancer who is having sticks that has fire on both ends. That is one kind of origin of baton twirling. Also, from conductor of marching band

There are two big baton twirling associations: World Baton Twirling Federation (WBTF) which was established in 1977 because if the increasing of the number of baton twirler population, and World Twirling Association (WTA) to conduct World Championship, usually held in every August.

In baton twirling, there are many kinds of divisions when we compete to competition that are; solo, pair, two batons, three batons, and team routine. In Japan, my Junior and Senior High School competed to the competition in June, September, November, that is regional competition and January which is national competition.

I was belonging to baton twirling team in my Junior and Senior High School and little bit in the University. I competed in team routine. For the team routine, each team should have theme and by following this theme, we decides song, and choreography. Usually people tend to think that dancing especially ballet dancing has to be beautiful and flexible. However in the baton twirling, add to ballet basic movements, twirlers required more expression and accuracy of twirling technique is required too.

Baton Twirling is a wonderful sport even though it is not famous.

This series of articles that I will post are based on my experiences from JHS, HS and Univ. and introducing baton twirling because I want to share and spread what baton twirling is.