Introduction to Baton Twirling - Mizuki

Introduction to Baton Twirling           

                                                                                                                         Mizuki Kuwahara

             Baton twirling is a sport, involving dance with sticks that have two rods on the both ends. Although I quit the baton team in University, I still love baton twirling and I eager to tell and show everyone to what baton twirling is!

  

       (Brief History) The origin of Baton Twirling comes from traditional dance in East Europe and Asia, which was danced with knifes, rifles, torches and sticks to twirl and toss. I think you have seen the dancer who has stick with fire on the both ends and that is a kind of origin of baton twirling. Also, army marches and marching bands, they use rifles or fake rifles which have shape of rifle but made from plastics, and there is no place to put bullet in. In Marching Band there is a conductor, who has a long stick and moves it up and down to conduct the music and there are many color guards and flags that the members of the marching band throw it with the accompaniment to the music. These kinds of things effect to the invention of the baton twirling.

(Parts of a Baton) Baton consists from three parts: shaft, which is metal stick part, and ball and tip which are both end have these rubber weight. There is many length of shaft, we usually use baton which is same length as arm. Therefore we can enjoy baton twirling from little children to adults and change our baton to longer one when we grown up. Ball is little heavier than tip and this little difference in weight makes baton to twirl well when we throw it and keeps in good looks when we twirling it.

(Associations) Each countries have own associations in the country, however there are big two associations: World Baton Twirling Federation (WBTF) which was established in 1977 because of the increasing of the number of baton twirler population, and World Twirling Association (WTA) that conduct World Baton Championships and International Cup. In 1980, the first World Championship was held in Seattle, Washington, and nowadays usually it is held in once in a year in August. The members of WBTF are: “Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Catalonia, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Seychelles, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States”(Wikipedia). Members of the WTA are: “Australia Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Japan Slovenia and South Africa” (Wikipedia). I was surprised because there are no Korea and China and Asian country is just Japan and some African countries are involved in. These shows baton twirling is still not a major sport in the world, I guess.

(Style) Do you think baton twirling is just for girls and women? No, it is not true. As same as ballet dancer, gymnastics, and figure skating, there are boys and men baton twirlers. Majer C. W. Booth is an American man and first person who spread baton twirling is. He went many countries, performed there and spread baton twirling. However the WWII began therefore men had to go to army and women twirler population was increased. There are many kinds of competitive events in baton twirling. Solo freestyles or compulsory with one baton, Two baton, Three baton, Team and Pair. Each event performance is about three and half minute inside the 25m×15m (for team) area and it sounds like easy to keep dancing that long. However actually it is really use muscles and moves a lot, so it is said baton twirler use same power during the performance as when we run 800m with the speed as fast as the we can.

Next post will be about “Baton Twirling and Me”.

Resources: Wikipedia, Baton twirling　 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_twirling

           ウィズバトンネット、バトンとは？　http://www.wis-baton.net/baton.html