If you don't know much about wheel gymnastics, you can get a little introduction on this page. On my link page you also find two links which connect you to sites related to wheel gymnastics, which provide more information, for example, what a German wheel is, who invented it, which different kinds of events there are and so on.
Here is my little photo collection of eight photos of myself and one of Julia Pohling, who is the world champion from Taunusstein near Frankfurt in Germany.
Here I'm showing an exercise which is called "Freiflug" (if you want you can translate it as "free flight". Here one's feet are fixed in the bindings and has to try hard to keep the body straight by means of tension of all muscles and not to give in to gravity ;-)
This is a "Spindelbrücke" ("spindle bridge"). It is called "spindle bridge" because the body forms a bridge within the wheel and the shoulders are twisted against the pelvis, just like a spindle. It is a very easy exercise, however, at a competition it is something to lose points with, because there are so many things that have to be done correctly that you usually forget at least one of them (feet together, pelvis parallel to the bar in the wheel, head at the arm etc.)
This is one of my favourite exercises. I am on the verge of pushing myself onto the bar to sit on it after hanging on the bar with my knees.
The following photos are taken by Christine, one of the girls I coach, during a training.
This exercise is dead easy, but looks nice. It is the second of my display.
This one is the splits in the wheel. One can't gain many points in a competition, but people are always very impressed when we do it in shows. It looks nice and is easy.
In contrast, people are not very impressed by this bridge, but it is difficult and you gain many points. The handle for the hands is very narrow, so it is dificult to stem oneself into the wheel without falling down. It also happens a lot that the wheel stops before I am finished, so I roll all the way back.
Here again, you see my favourite exercise, whichis also called "hammock", it only ends differently. In the picture above, I seat myself on the bar after swinging (which can be seen well on this picture).
...Here, the wheel turns back and I'm putting my feet on the handle to go on in a bridge.
This is Julia Pohling doing a spiral at the Wold cup 2001 in Liestal in Switzerland. It is only done by those who compete nationally, because it is rather difficult. Here Julia stops the wheel and goes on in the opposite direction. It is difficult, because the wheel has to stay in a certain angle, otherwise it either falls flat on the floor or comes up to stand on both tyres..
I found this photo at the website of Gymmedia.