Male Baton Twirling

Last night a man trying out for SYTYCD, Thomas Martin, said he was a champion baton twirler. This left many a question in my mind, so this morning I decided to do a little research on the topic. I found out some pretty interesting things.

Until the 1930's, baton twirling was done by men- it evolved from the drum majors with their mallets. Then girls started to twirl and the batons became lighter and more hallowed out. It started being seen as a female only sport/activity. Cheerleading also was done exclusively by males until females began participating and eventually took over. While there are many male cheerleaders today, it's still not that common of a sport for men. Baton twirling has taken an even longer time to get men back in the sport, but there are a few out there- mostly one lone man on an all female squad.

**UPDATE: A more representative example of male baton twirling- Mark Nash. A VERY impressive performance!