SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL                                                                                                      Vol. 12 Issue 3:  2020  
227 
 
 
EDITORIAL 
 
 
 
Dear friends, 
  
Dear friends, 
  
These days our lives are run by COVID-19. Our gymnastic family mourns Dieter Hoffman, an 
excellent German coach and expert, a FIG Academy lecturer, who recently died of Covid-19. We 
do not know what comes next but I am certain we all want to go back to our normal life.  
 
Despite many negative effects of Covid–19, it had a positive effect on our journal. Our authors 
wrote as many as16 articles for this issue which is a record for the journal.  
  
We are all adjusting to new circumstances. As you probably already know, conferences will be 
held online. Bulgaria will host a symposium on rhythmic gymnastics and Portugal on gymnastics. 
For more detailed information please see the following pages. Please join the symposia and take 
an active part with your ideas and views! 
 
For this issue our authors researched many different topics, including biomechanics, motor 
control, motor learning, theory of training, physiology, psychology, physical education, sociology 
and history, in relation to rhythmic and  artistic gymnastics and trampolining. 
  
Countries participating with articles include: USA, Slovakia, Tunisia, Germany, Brazil, Australia, 
Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Iran and Ukraine,  
  
Anton Gajdoš provides a short historical note on Nina Bocharova, the Olympic Champion from 
Russia in WAG at the Olympics 1952 in Helsinki. 
 
Our editorial board decided to make an exception and publish a letter – manifesto of International 
Socio-Cultural research group on WAG lead by Natalie Barker-Ruchti (USA) to the Editor and a 
comment on the letter by William Sands (USA). While we believe the letter and the comment 
present issues that  may be important to our audiences,  I’d like to stress that our journal remains 
focused on the publication of scientific articles presenting evidence-based solutions only. 
Nevertheless, there should be no doubt that our journal supports the United Nations Declaration 
of Human and Children Rights and believes its provisions should be respected. 
 
Just to remind you, if you quote the Journal, its abbreviation on the Web of Knowledge is SCI 
GYMN J.  
  
I wish you pleasant reading and a lot of inspiration for new research projects and articles, 
  
  
  
Ivan Čuk      
Editor-in-Chief 
 
 
 
 
SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL                                                                                                      Vol. 12 Issue 3:  2020  
228 
 
 
 
DIETER HOFMANN (1941-2020) 
 
 
 
 
Probably the most successful German 
coach of all times, Dieter Hofmann, 
passed away of COVID-19 
 
The former head coach of the GDR national 
team, Dieter Hofmann, died in Freiburg on 
18 April 2020 due to a lung disease caused 
by the Covid-19 virus. 
 
Dieter Hofmann left his mark on several 
generations of gymnasts. Before German 
reunification, his gymnasts won 52 gold, 
silver and bronze medals at international 
competitions. The highlight of his coaching 
career was doubtless the Olympic Games in 
Seoul, where the team of the GDR won the 
silver medal behind the USSR in the team 
final. Besides this great success, his 
gymnasts won one gold, one silver and 3 
bronze medals at the finals. 
 
In the transition period after the fall of the 
Wall in Berlin, he end the head coach of the 
Federal Republic of Germany, Franz 
Heiland, looked after the reunited German 
national gymnastics team at the historic 
cross-country friendly competition GER-
USA-USSR in the no less historic Munich 
Olympic Hall. 
 
After German reunification, he found a new purpose in life in the northern Swiss town of Liestal, 
where he expanded the local performance centre with his typical dynamism. His strategical, 
analytical and didactical thinking was well appreciated all over the world. Due to this endless 
enthusiasm, he taught in several courses of the FIG Coach Academy. His contribution to the 
development of gymnastics is well documented in the Age group development and competition 
program for Men's Artistic Gymnastics, which was created and compiled mainly by him and 
Hardy Fink as the Director of the Coach Academy.  
 
After his retirement, he settled in the Black Forest near Freiburg. Not only because of its 
geographical proximity to the Institute for Sport and Sports Science at the University of Freiburg 
he was a very welcome guest at the annual Freiburg International Gymnastics Congress, an event 
that brings together important scientists and trainers.  
 
Flavio Bessi