by Svitlana Saidova & Anastasiya Petrenko

Acrobatics is the youngest component of the Artistic Swimming catalogue of routines. Since platforms first appeared in routines, many different kinds of acrobatic movements have been introduced in team routines and more recently in duet routines. Coaches and swimmers in many cases are assisted by specialists from other acrobatic sports. This has made Artistic Swimming acrobatics evolve very quickly with new, risky, complex and spectacular acrobatics appear every season.

This rapid evolution challenges judges to identify and evaluate difficulty, execution and artistic impression of complex structures, airborne movements and a wide diversity of acrobatic action combinations.

The following presentation by Svitlana Saidova and Anastasiya Petrenko provides the classification and the specific lexicon, as well as all the fundamentals of acrobatic components. It also provides the necessary tools to precisely describe and analyse the different components. Drawings, diagrams and videos illustrate this presentation and make for a great reading.

About the authors

Svitlana Saidova is a member of the FINA Technical Artistic Swimming Committee (TASC) and an outstanding Artistic Swimming (AS) coach. She is the Head Coach of the Ukrainian National Team and has worked closely with Diving and Acrobatics specialists in the Ukraine. Ukrainian teams have demonstrated mastery in acrobatics since its introduction in Artistic Swimming. She is also a member of the Ligue Européenne de Natation TASC and the 1^st Vice-president of the Ukrainian Synchronized Swimming Federation and the President of Kharkiv Synchronized Swimming Federation.

Anastasiya Petrenko used to be a professional AS athlete and her best results were a 2^nd place at the Junior World Synchronized Swimming Championships in 2010 (free combination) and 2^nd place at the European Junior Synchronized Swimming Championship in 2011 (duet and team). She is now an AS FINA A Judge and is finishing her PhD. She has collaborated in introducing the academic scope through her study on acrobatics as part of her Master’s degree at the Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture (Ukraine).

Please click on the button below to access the presentation on the new approach to acrobatics in Artistic Swimming.