:: History

One theory on the history of Baton Twirling

Baton Twirling began in Eastern Europe and Asia. It is thought it started at dance festivals where the goers used knives, guns, torches and sticks to twirl with and toss. The "activity" progressed into the army's of some countries where they twirled with rifles during marches. When the army was parading, they added a rifle twirler to the front of the marchers. The rifle was then switched for a "mace". The mace was much larger than the batons of today and imbalanced. They are still used by some marching bands at parades nowadays. The mace barer or "drum major" twirled the baton whilst leading the army or band. The maces were altered for easier twirling and now resemble the batons of today. They were given smaller ends of light rubber, made from hollow light metal and balanced to give accuracy to the twirler. It is thought it was the involvement of females ("drum majorettes") and the progression of twirling that resulted in the of the lightening  and balancing of the baton.

History of the WBTF

1980 Seattle, USA - 1st World Championships

1981 Nice, France

1982 Tokyo, Japan - Ireland Joins the WBTF

1983 Milan, Italy - Irelands 1st athletes compete

1984 Calgary, Canada

1985 Frankfurt, Germany

1986 Turin, Italy

1987 Paris, France

1988 Nagoya, Japan

1989 Lausanne, Switzerland

1990 Texas, USA

1991 Padova, Italy

1992 Paris, France

1993 Den Bosch, Netherlands

1994 Toronto, Canada

1995 Geneve, Switzerland

1996 Genova, Italy

1997 Hawaii, USA

1998 Lyon, France

1999 Daytona Beach, USA

2000 Den Bosch, Netherlands

2001 Villebon sur Yvette, France

2002 Saskatoon, Canada

2003 Badalona, Spain

2004 Osaka, Japan

2005 St Paul City Minnesota, USA – 1^st International Cup – Irelands First Medals

2006 Rome, Italy

2007 Toronto, Canada

2008 Limerick, Ireland - Last International Cup and Worlds run Together

2009 Sydney, Australia - First stand alone International Cup - New events

2010 Den Bosch, Holland - First stand alone World Championships since 2004

2011Possibly Hawaii, USA - International Cup

2012 Cape Town, South Africa - World Championships

History of Baton Twirling in Ireland

The association was founded in 1973, when the sport as we now know it was introduced to the country, under the name of “Twirl Ireland Federation” by Mr Syl Doyne, who is now an honorary member of BTSAI. 

Over the years it grew to cover many counties in Ireland including Dublin , Cork , Kildare, Wicklow, Louth, Clare, Meath, Wexford, Kilkenny and Tipperary . It is still very active in these counties and other counties currently have membership pending, and many new corps recently joined from Meath, Louth, Clare, Cork and Kildare. 

After many achievements in England , The Isle of Man and France we were invited by the World Baton Twirling Federation to become the representative member for Ireland .

At this time we also received recognition from The Irish Sports Council as the National Governing Body of Baton Twirling in Ireland with the requirement that our name be changed to BATON TWIRLING SPORT ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND and so BTSAI was born in 1987.

1983 saw the first athletes from Ireland travel to the World Baton Twirling Championships in Milan Italy.

Ireland is proud to be the host of the 29^th World Championships and 4^th International Cup in 2008 when these spectacular events come to Dublin.

Since then our association has continued to send only the top athletes to these championships