Twirl was started as a form of dance. At dance festivals people would twirl with knives, rifles, torches, sticks, and a collection more. In the 1900 twirlers were mostly just men and boys because the batons were too heavy for most women to twirl around. Twirling includes gymnastics and loads of tricks that not even involving you using your batons. Now there are competition twirling teams and school twirl and lots of other twirling things. Twirling has changed a great deal since when it first started at dance festivals and being a mostly a boy sport now it has advanced to higher levels of tricks and success! Now in 2014 twirling is mainly a girl sport but I think it would still be cool if I could go out and see a twirling team with girls and guys!