Ling’s Gymnastics Method in Brazil

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the state of São Paulo implemented a series of reforms aiming to improve public education. One of the actions taken by this government was bringing Swedish instructors to develop gymnastics in the public school system. Among the instructors who came on this mission was Fritjof Detthow. This article analyses Detthow’s efforts to implement the ‘Swedish method’ in São Paulo/Brazil and shows how his strategies have similarities and particularities compared to other disseminators of Ling’s gymnastics in the American context, namely Nils Posse and Hartvig Nissen. Although they moved to the United States in different circumstances, their goals and actions regarding the ‘Swedish method’ were like Detthow’s. For Detthow, as for other disseminators of Swedish gymnastics, this task was a work of slow infiltration, due to the various difficulties faced in the new continent, in which he emphasised the lack of training courses for teachers specialising in Physical Education and the little involvement of the Brazilian population with physical exercise. We also highlight the difficulty of translating terms and ideas from Swedish into Portuguese as a factor that contributed to the process of implementing Ling’s gymnastics being considered a ‘slow infiltration’

Art · Geography · Meteorology · Engineering · Physical Education and Gymnastics · Mechanical Engineering

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