Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1939, Page 237
PER HENRIK LING
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arrangements are needed to make use of Ling’s gymnastics in
their simple, yet effective forms. We find in Ling’s work thoughts
which are surprisingly modern. He directed his attention to the
dangers of industrial labour for the physical well-being of the
mdividual, and he wanted to prevent them by counteracting them
Wlth gymnastic exercises.
Already in Ling we can speak of social hygiene and thera-
peutics of movement, and his ideas are propagated in later times.
Ling’s gymnastic impulse of will is still working. ¥e remain
filled with admiring thoughts before the psychic intensity of the
man who, without resources, with poverty as a faithful com-
Panion and obliged to use an old gun-foundry, with a floor of
stamped clay as his first gymnastic hall in Stockholm, the Swedish
capital, was yet able to press on his cause and at the same time
ínspire enthusiasm for it in his pupils.
New generations carried on Ling’s ideas. To-day we find
gymnastics introduced in all the schools of Sweden. The voluntary
gymnastic movement has increased enormously. This is shown
by the fact that the Swedish Union of Gymnasts now numbers
^60,000 members, includes 23 gymnastic districts, 2156 associa-
tions and 3595 gymnastic groups.
It is hardly necessary to add that Swedish gymnastics have
gained ground in many foreign countries. They are so many that
Jt is not possible to enumerate them all.
The Lingiad which will be celebrated this summer in the
capital of Sweden is a memorial to the founder of Swedish gym-
pastics, but it also recalls the work which has been done, dur-
tng the one hundred years since his death, by his followers among
'whom we count not only Swedes but also many foreigners. Many
°f the latter are most certainly among the visitors to the Lingiad.
Those who have another gymnastic standpoint than the Swedish
°ne, will, no doubt, also, give interested attention to the work
°f “the Swedish Gymnasiarch,” as it now appears after years of
experience and evolution. Perhaps the awakened interest also may
stimulate a continued study of Ling’s teachings.
With Ling, as with other great pioneers, a thorough under-
standing of the significance of his work and character comes only
through painstaking study. But this study is, now more than
ever, worth the making.
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