We all know that Adolph was a nasty bugger from the otherwise lovely city of Munich back in the the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s but what is an Adolph in a modern sporting context?
King of “sport and politics”
Funnily enough, the nasty Adolph despite his own physical ineptitude does have a number of lasting contributions to sport… some that could be regarded as borderline acceptable but most obnoxious in the extreme. Hitler didn’t invent the concept of politics in sport but he sure made an art-form of it. His use of sport (especially the Berlin Olympic Games) to promote his belief in the superiority of the German people while at the same time using it to denigrate and discriminate against other races was vile. From a borderline positive point of view his sponsoring of what may be the finest sporting documentary ever made… the cutting edge, Leni Reifenstahl movie about the Berlin’s Games titled Olympia, began its life as a Hitler idea. Olympia may have been a piece of glossy Nazi propaganda but the original movie-making techniques and gorgeous camera-work it employed took sport reporting to a whole new level.
Nothing to do with Nazis
I digress. We know about Adolph, the monster of Munich but what is an Adolph in sport these days. I have no idea how it got the name but an Adolph these days is a very tricky little move that you would see at a trampoline competition. If ever you happen to be at such a competition and one of the amazing gymnasts pulls of an extraordinary forward somersault with three and a half twists you will be able to turn to the person beside you and say knowledgably, “Wow, that was a pretty neat Adolph, wasn’t it?” Your neighbour in the grandstand will be impressed.
Click on the link below to get a pretty accurate idea of what this impressive little trampoline trick looks like.
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