A gymnastics routine is easier to follow when the movements have familiar names. A handstand, a giant swing and a double layout describe very different actions, even though they can appear within the same sport.
This guide explains common artistic gymnastics moves, from foundation skills to advanced examples. It covers the four women’s events and six men’s events, with floor and vault discussed together because both disciplines include them.
The Events at a Glance
| Event | Women’s artistic | Men’s artistic | Movements to look for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Floor exercise | Yes | Yes | Tumbling, balances and other acrobatics; dance and choreography are central to women’s floor |
| Vault | Yes | Yes | A run, springboard takeoff, hand support on the table and flight to a landing |
| Uneven bars | Yes | No | Circles, releases and transitions between bars at different heights |
| Balance beam | Yes | No | Balances, turns, leaps and acrobatics on a narrow beam |
| Pommel horse | No | Yes | Circles, scissors and travel while supporting the body on the hands |
| Still rings | No | Yes | Swings, strength holds, handstands and a dismount |
| Parallel bars | No | Yes | Swings above and below two rails, turns, flight and a dismount |
| Horizontal bar, or high bar | No | Yes | Large swings, turns, releases and a dismount |
These are the artistic gymnastics events described by FIG. Rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and other disciplines have their own apparatus and movement systems. FIG women’s overview, FIG men’s overview.
A Few Words That Make Skill Names Easier
A salto is a somersault performed in the air without hand support. “Flip” is the more familiar everyday term. A twist turns the body around its length, as if spinning around a line from head to feet. One skill can contain both somersaults and twists.
A mount begins a routine on an apparatus. A dismount ends it by leaving the apparatus and landing. A release move includes letting go and catching a bar again during the routine.
Body position adds another part of the name:
| Shape | Plain-English meaning |
|---|---|
| Tuck | Hips and knees bend, bringing the legs close to the body |
| Pike | Hips bend while the knees stay straight |
| Layout, or stretched | The body stays extended rather than folding into a tuck or pike |
| Straddle | Straight legs open apart |
For example, a double back tuck means two backward somersaults during one flight, with the gymnast tucked. A full-twisting double layout means two stretched backward somersaults combined with one complete twist. The number of flips and the number of twists are counted separately.
The body-shapes guide explains tuck, pike and layout in more detail.
Floor Exercise Moves
Floor combines individual skills into sequences. In a tumbling pass, a gymnast may use a roundoff and back handspring to connect into a salto. Those connecting movements and the airborne somersault perform different jobs.
Foundation skills and single somersaults
| Move | How to recognize it |
|---|---|
| Forward roll | The gymnast rolls forward over the shoulders and back, maintaining contact with the floor |
| Handstand | The body is held upside down on the hands, with the legs above the shoulders |
| Cartwheel | The gymnast moves sideways through hand support, with the hands and feet contacting the floor in sequence |
| Roundoff | A cartwheel-like movement that brings the legs together and finishes facing back toward the approach, ready to rebound |
| Front walkover | A controlled forward movement through handstand and a split-leg position, finishing one foot at a time |
| Back walkover | A controlled backward movement through a bridge and split handstand, finishing one foot at a time |
| Front handspring | A forward flight skill using a brief push from the hands on the floor |
| Back handspring | A backward flight skill in which the hands briefly support the body before the feet land |
| Side aerial | A cartwheel-like action performed without the hands touching the floor |
| Front aerial | A forward, split-leg aerial action with no hand contact, usually landing one foot before the other |
| Front tuck | One forward somersault in a tucked position |
| Back tuck | One backward somersault in a tucked position |
| Back layout | One backward somersault with the body stretched |
| Back full | A stretched backward somersault with one full twist |
A walkover is not simply a slow handspring. A handspring has flight as a defining feature. An aerial also differs from a handspring because it removes the hand support.
Multiple somersaults and named skills
A double back contains two backward somersaults. Its full name identifies the body shape: double tuck, double pike or double layout.
An Arabian starts with a backward takeoff and an early half turn into forward somersaulting. In a double Arabian, two forward somersaults follow that turning entry. It should not be described as a backward double salto with an arbitrary half twist added at the end.
Some advanced skills are commonly known by the gymnast’s name. On women’s floor, the Silivas is a double back tuck with two twists, the Moors is a double layout with two twists, and the Biles II is a double back tuck with three twists. The body shape is essential: Silivas and Moors contain the same number of flips and twists but are different elements.
Leaps, jumps and turns
Women’s floor also contains dance elements and choreography performed to music. A split leap takes off from one foot and shows a split position in the air. A split jump takes off from two feet. A switch leap changes the leading leg before the final split shape.
A full turn completes one rotation on the supporting foot. Variations change the number of rotations and the position of the free leg. For example, the Memmel is a double turn with the free leg held high in a split position.
Men’s floor is performed without music. It combines tumbling with non-acrobatic elements; its rules and difficulty values must be read in the men’s Code rather than borrowed from women’s floor.
Vault Moves and Families
Vault names describe how the gymnast reaches the table and what happens after pushing away from it. The flight from the springboard to the table is the first flight. The movement from the table to the landing is the second flight.
| Name or family | What happens |
|---|---|
| Front handspring | A forward approach and hand support on the table lead into flight to the feet; more advanced handspring-family vaults add somersaults and twists after the table |
| Tsukahara | A turning entry onto the table is followed by backward somersaulting; the exact entry, body shape and twists identify the variation |
| Yurchenko | A roundoff onto the springboard leads into a back handspring onto the table, followed by the second flight |
| Yurchenko full | The Yurchenko entry is followed by a stretched backward somersault with one full twist |
| Double-twisting Yurchenko | The same entry leads into a stretched backward somersault with two twists, often abbreviated DTY |
| Amanar | A Yurchenko entry followed by a stretched backward somersault with 2½ twists |
| Cheng | A roundoff and half-turn entry onto the table, followed by a stretched forward somersault with 1½ twists |
| Biles II on vault | A Yurchenko entry followed by two backward somersaults in a piked position |
The Biles II on vault and the Biles II on floor are different skills. The apparatus must be included when a name could refer to more than one element.
Introductory programs also use vault exercises on mat stacks. A handstand flatback exercise helps develop parts of the vault action, but it should not be assigned an elite vault value as though it were a completed table vault.
The vault moves guide explores vault families in more detail.
Uneven Bars Moves
Uneven bars has a low bar and a high bar. A routine combines circles around the bars, turns, flight elements, changes of bar and a dismount.
Circles and support skills
| Move | How to recognize it |
|---|---|
| Pullover | A rotation from a hanging position around the bar into front support |
| Kip | A coordinated swing and folding-and-opening action that brings the gymnast from below the bar into support |
| Cast | The gymnast moves away from front support, lifting the body behind and above the bar; advanced casts rise to handstand |
| Back hip circle | A backward circle with the hips staying in contact with the bar |
| Clear-hip circle | A circle in which the hips remain clear of the bar |
| Toe-on circle | A circle with the feet placed on the bar for the relevant part of the movement |
| Stalder circle | A clear straddled circle, with the legs passing outside the arms |
| Inbar circle | A clear-pike circle, with the legs passing between the arms without the feet supporting on the bar |
| Giant | A large circle around the bar with the body extended |
An entry can be important to the identity of the release that follows it. A toe-on entry and an inbar entry may lead to similar-looking flight but produce different named elements.
Releases, transitions and dismounts
A Tkatchev is a reverse-hecht release: the gymnast lets go, travels over the bar and catches it again. It is not simply a backward somersault. Tkatchev-family variations change the entry, body shape or turn.
A Jaeger contains a forward somersault before the catch. A Gienger contains a backward somersault with a half turn. Their rotation directions help distinguish them.
Bar-to-bar transitions include the Pak salto, a backward stretched flight from the high bar to the low bar. In the other direction, the Shaposhnikova uses a clear-hip entry on the low bar before flight to the high bar. The Maloney uses a toe-on entry instead.
A dismount finishes on the mat. Examples include a double back tuck, a double layout and twisting versions of these skills. A release and a dismount can contain similar flips, but only the release finishes with another catch.
The release-moves guide develops these families without treating every movement that lets go of the bar as the same skill.
Balance Beam Moves
Beam combines acrobatics with dance and balance on a surface only 10 centimeters wide. Some names also appear on floor, but the beam version has its own technical demands and scoring classification.
| Move | How to recognize it |
|---|---|
| Arabesque | A balance with one leg extended behind the gymnast |
| Full turn | One complete rotation on a supporting foot |
| Split leap | A one-foot takeoff into a split shape in the air |
| Switch leap | A leap that switches the leading leg before showing the split |
| Cartwheel | A sideways movement through hand support along the beam |
| Back walkover | A backward movement through a split handstand, with the feet returning in sequence |
| Back handspring step-out | A backward handspring that lands one foot before the other |
| Layout step-out | A stretched backward somersault that lands one foot before the other, without hand contact |
| Front aerial | A forward split-leg aerial with no hand support |
| Side aerial | A cartwheel-like aerial with no hand support |
| Onodi | A backward takeoff with a half turn into a forward handspring/walkover-type action through hand support |
| Back tuck | A backward tucked somersault landing on the beam |
The difference between a back handspring step-out and a layout step-out is especially useful for viewers. Both can finish on one foot and then the other, but the handspring uses the hands on the beam; the layout does not.
Beam routines also include a mount and a dismount. A double-back dismount, for example, finishes on the landing mat and should not be confused with a salto that lands back on the beam.
Pommel Horse Moves
On pommel horse, the gymnast supports the body on the hands while moving the legs around the apparatus. The handles are called pommels.
Circles carry the joined legs around while support moves between the hands. Flairs use a wide leg separation during the circling action. Scissors use alternating split-leg swings and changes of leg position.
Travel means moving along the horse while continuing the exercise. The Magyar and Sivado are named forward and backward travel elements, respectively. A spindle adds a turn of the body during circling.
The legs may look as though they are doing all the work, but the timing of hand placement and weight transfer is central to the movement. A change in travel distance, support or turning can identify a different coded element.
Still Rings Moves
Rings routines combine swing with positions held under control. The rings move independently, so a position involves controlling both the body and the apparatus.
| Move | How to recognize it |
|---|---|
| L-sit | Straight arms support the body while straight legs extend horizontally in front |
| Handstand | An inverted, extended position above the rings |
| Front lever | A horizontal hanging hold with the front of the body facing upward |
| Back lever | A horizontal hanging hold with the front of the body facing downward |
| Iron cross | An upright body with straight arms extended horizontally to the sides |
| Planche | A horizontal, face-down support position on straight arms |
| Inverted cross | An upside-down cross position |
| Maltese, or swallow | A horizontal, face-down strength hold around ring height, with the arms extended widely |
| Azarian | A slow backward roll with a straight body into a cross position |
A rings routine is more than a collection of poses. Swinging elements connect the positions, and a dismount brings the gymnast back to the mat. A held position and the movement used to enter it can also have different identities in the Code.
Parallel Bars Moves
Parallel bars has two rails at the same height. Gymnasts work above them in support, below them in a hang, and sometimes on the upper arms.
A support swing moves the body forward and backward between the rails while the hands support it from above. A swing to handstand carries that movement upward into an inverted position. An L-sit holds the legs straight and horizontal in front.
Turning skills include the Diamidov, a forward swing into a full turn on one arm to handstand. In a Healy, the gymnast turns on one arm from handstand into support. The start and finish help distinguish the skills even when both involve one-arm turning.
Other elements include long swings beneath the rails, flight back to support and somersaults within the routine. The dismount ends beside the bars on the mat.
High Bar Moves
High bar uses one horizontal rail. Large swings provide the movement for turns, releases and the final dismount.
A giant is a complete extended-body circle around the bar. Turning variations change the grip or direction. Tkatchev, Jaeger and Gienger families also appear on high bar, although men’s and women’s values must not be assumed to match.
The Kovacs contains two backward somersaults over the bar before a catch. A Kolman adds a full twist to the tucked Kovacs action. A Cassina combines the full twist with a stretched body position.
As on uneven bars, the catch distinguishes a release from a dismount. A high-bar dismount can contain multiple somersaults and twists, but it finishes on the landing mat.
What Do the Difficulty Letters Mean?
In FIG artistic gymnastics, an element’s letter represents its difficulty contribution: A is 0.10, B is 0.20, C is 0.30, and so on. Vault uses numerical values for complete vaults instead of adding a series of letter-rated elements.
An element’s exact variation matters. Apparatus, body shape, entry, turns and finishing position can change the classification. A familiar name alone is sometimes too broad to identify one value.
The letter is also not a training level. An A-rated element in an elite Code is not automatically a Level 1 skill, and a foundation movement can be important even if it does not earn separate elite difficulty credit. USAG DP and Xcel use their own requirement and scoring systems.
For that reason, this guide explains movement names without assigning a single FIG value to every broad skill family. The women’s skill-requirements directory helps readers who need program and level requirements rather than skill identification.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a flip the same as a twist?
No. A flip is a somersault, while a twist rotates the body around its length. A gymnast can combine both in one airborne skill.
What is the difference between a handspring and a salto?
A handspring uses hand support during the movement. A salto is a somersault in the air without hand support.
Does the same skill have the same value on every apparatus?
No. Each apparatus has its own element table, and men’s and women’s Codes are separate. Domestic programs may also use different values and restrictions.
Why are some skills named after gymnasts?
FIG can name an eligible new element after the gymnast who successfully performs it under the naming procedure. The apparatus and exact variation still matter because one gymnast can have several named elements.
Is this a training order?
No. It is a guide to identifying movements. A coach selects progressions around the gymnast’s strength, control, experience and program; an advanced skill’s place in a list does not make it the next training step.