High Bar for Boys: What to Expect in USA Gymnastics Compulsory Levels
High bar is the event where swing becomes everything. Its official name is the horizontal bar, and at elite level it is the event of giant swings, release moves and high-flying dismounts. Boys work up to that gradually. In USA Gymnastics they first compete on high bar at Level 3, and through the compulsory levels, Levels 3 to 6, every boy at a level performs the same set routine.
Contents
Those routines come from USA Gymnastics’ 2025–2028 Men’s Development Program Competition Manual. The swing grows level by level: by Level 5, giant swings already appear as bonus skills.
This guide covers where high bar sits in the boys’ levels, what USA Gymnastics has published about setting it up and judging it, and how the event develops into the elite version. You won’t find the routines here; they are in the paid manual, and lists based on the 2021–2024 manual are out of date.
High Bar in the Boys’ Levels
The Men’s Program Rules & Policies (version 10.27.25) leave levels, age requirements, equipment and routines to the competition manual (p. 31). Here is the public outline, level by level:
| Level | Where it sits | Public age rule |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Essential Elements, a pre-competitive program with no meet routines | Designed mainly for boys 4–10 |
| 3–6 | National Track, compulsory: one set routine per level, in Division 1 or 2 | From the calendar year a boy turns 6, until his senior year of high school |
| 6 (Future Stars) | A Junior Elite division that adds technical sequences | About 10–12 (Rules & Policies, p. 38) |
| 7–8 | National Track, optional: the gymnast’s own routines | Turning 12 in the calendar year |
| 9 | Optional | Turning 14 |
| 10 | Optional; its Junior Elite division competes under international rules | Turning 16 |
Essential Elements also uses a “Level 3” label, which is not the same as competitive Level 3. Alongside the National Track, the Club Track offers a more recreational route for boys 5 and older, with “modified optional” routines.
Boys normally compete at one level for the season, with a change allowed during the season “up to a point”, according to the compulsory-track page. Leaving the compulsory track doesn’t have to mean starting at Level 7: older boys can go straight to Level 8 or 9, depending on their age. Our men’s gymnastics levels guide explains the full pathway.
How High Bar Is Set Up for Young Gymnasts
A high bar routine is one long sequence of swinging around a single bar, moving between hanging below it and supporting on top of it, and changing grips along the way. That makes the bar’s height a big deal for small gymnasts, but USA Gymnastics doesn’t publish compulsory bar heights outside the manual, which holds the equipment specifications for each level. Your son’s coach or the meet information will know the setup.
For comparison, World Gymnastics (formerly FIG) sets the elite bar 280 cm (about 9 feet 2 inches) above the floor (Apparatus Norms, 2026 edition, p. 41).
How Judges Score a Compulsory High Bar Routine
Judges work from the manual’s numbered boxes, each listing a skill and its performance criteria. With everyone at a level doing the same base routine, execution decides most scores.
The two divisions matter here (National Track compulsory page). Division 1 gymnasts can add Specified Bonus (SB) skills; Division 2 gymnasts perform the base routine only, and are penalized for adding bonus skills outside a few listed exceptions (Men’s Development Program Newsletter #3, February 2025). Bonus can be awarded despite small or medium errors, or one large error, but not after a fall or with part of the bonus box missing (Newsletter #5, January 2026). Under the “50% rule”, a clearly attempted skill that gets far enough can still be credited, while one that isn’t attempted can’t. Neutral deductions come off the final score without touching the start value (Newsletter #2, December 2024).
Level 5 shows how the bonus system brings in bigger skills. Two of its Division 1 bonuses together add a cast to free hip circle, two giant swings backward and a ¾ giant swing backward, worth 0.6. Execution deductions across those two bonuses are capped at 0.3 in total, unless the gymnast falls (Newsletter #3). A boy can earn credit for his first giants before they look polished.
The elite rules show where that swing is heading. In the FIG men’s Code, bent knees during swings, a lack of swing or a pause, and extra swings at the start of the routine all cost execution points (FIG men’s Code of Points 2025–2028, p. 117).
What Comes Next: Optional Levels and Elite High Bar
From Level 7, routines are built for the gymnast rather than prescribed (National Track optional page). Skills are valued mostly on FIG’s letter scale, and routines earn credit for each element group they cover; the minimum value for full credit rises from an A at Levels 7 and 8 to a C at Level 9 and a D at Level 10 (Newsletter #2). The top of the program, Level 10 Junior Elite, is judged under FIG rules (2026 Championship Season Directives, p. 9).
USA Gymnastics’ description of the men’s events calls elite high bar the most crowd-pleasing event, with release moves that leave a small margin for error. FIG sorts its skills into four element groups (men’s Code of Points, p. 115):
| Element group | What it covers |
|---|---|
| I | Long hang swings, with and without turns |
| II | Flight elements (releases) |
| III | In-bar and Adler elements, which circle close to the bar |
| IV | Dismounts |
High bar rewards linking releases. Connecting a release to another release, or to a hard element from the swing or in-bar groups, adds a connection bonus of 0.10 or 0.20 depending on the values involved. A release with a salto over the bar must be followed by a giant swing, or 0.30 comes off (p. 115).
The top releases are worth a lot. The Bretschneider, a Kovacs (a double back salto over the bar) with two twists, is an H, and the Miyachi, the same skill stretched, is an I (pp. 125–126). Our guide to artistic gymnastics moves describes the Kovacs family in more detail, and the A-to-J difficulty values explains what those letters are worth. Only eight elements count toward the difficulty score: the dismount and the seven best others (Art. 6.1, p. 14).
At the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta, Brody Malone of the United States won the high bar title with the highest difficulty in the final, 6.400, and an 8.533 E-score for 14.933. Daiki Hashimoto of Japan matched his execution score but started from 6.200 and took silver.
Common Questions
When do boys learn giant swings?
The public USA Gymnastics material shows giant swings as a Level 5 Division 1 bonus. Exactly where they enter the base routines is in the 2025–2028 manual.
Do young boys do release moves on high bar?
Nothing in USA Gymnastics’ public clarifications for Levels 3–6 mentions a release. In the FIG Code, releases form their own element group, and they become central to the event at the top level.
Is high bar the same as the women’s uneven bars?
No. High bar is a single bar, and only men compete on it. Some skill families appear on both, but the two events have separate rules and values.
Where can I find the current high bar routines?
In the 2025–2028 Men’s Development Program Competition Manual, sold as an e-book on Google Play (USA Gymnastics course page), with corrections in the program’s newsletters. Routines from the 2021–2024 manual no longer apply.
Do the other events work the same way?
The levels, divisions and judging principles are shared, and the skills are not. Parallel bars, for example, mixes swing with timed holds and handstands: see boys’ parallel bars in the compulsory levels.
The Bottom Line
Boys start competing on high bar at Level 3 and perform set routines through Level 6, with bonus skills open to Division 1. The compulsory system builds swing step by step, and by Level 5 giant swings appear among the bonus skills. From Level 7, routines open up and head toward the elite event of giants, releases and big dismounts. For the exact current routines, the 2025–2028 manual is the source to check.