Skills and Events

Reading Gymnastics Skill Names: What “Salto” Tells You

8 Min Read

Salto is the gymnastics term for a somersault or flip. In an element description, the words around it identify the direction, body shape and amount of rotation.

Contents

“Salto backward tucked,” for example, describes the skill commonly called a back tuck. The formal wording can look unfamiliar, but it is giving the reader the same pieces of information in a different order.

Why the word appears in rulebooks

Competition descriptions need to distinguish skills precisely. “Flip” is useful in conversation, but it does not tell a judge or reader which element is meant. Rulebooks combine “salto” with other terms to make the description more specific.

The USA Gymnastics glossary identifies salto as a flip or somersault. Current FIG element tables then use detailed descriptions rather than treating all saltos as one interchangeable skill.

“Salto” is singular. English-language gymnastics writing commonly uses “saltos” for more than one. The plural alone does not tell the reader whether the gymnast performs consecutive skills or several somersaults in one airborne element.

Build the meaning from the surrounding words

Wording in a name Information it supplies
Forward or backward The direction of the somersault
Tucked, piked or stretched The body shape
Double salto Two somersaults within the element
With a full twist A complete twist combined with the somersaulting action
Dismount The skill’s role in leaving the apparatus at the end of the exercise

For instance, “double salto backward piked” identifies two backward somersaults in a piked shape. It does not imply two twists. The separate guide to twist names handles those additional counts and timing words.

Likewise, “stretched” is the rulebook wording commonly associated with a layout. The body-shape comparison explains how that differs from tucked and piked positions.

Translate an element description into an ordinary sentence

Take “salto forward piked.” The main action is one forward somersault, and the body folds at the hips with straight legs. Nothing in that phrase adds a twist. Reading one feature at a time prevents a long official name from sounding more complicated than the action it describes.

Next consider “salto backward stretched with 1/1 twist.” The gymnast completes a backward somersault in an extended shape while making one full twist. The fraction belongs to the twist, not to the somersault count. In everyday floor-tumbling language, this is a full-twisting back layout.

Now add “double” before “salto backward tucked.” There are two backward somersaults in the airborne element. Unless twisting is also specified, the name does not tell the reader to count any twists. This method works because each descriptive word answers a separate question rather than changing the meaning of every other word.

A double salto is different from two linked saltos

In a double salto on floor, the gymnast completes two somersaults before landing. In two linked single saltos, the gymnast lands from the first and takes off again for the second. Both descriptions involve two somersaults overall, but they describe different elements and connections.

That distinction matters when reading a routine breakdown. A plus sign or a sequence of skill names may describe a connection; the word “double” inside one element name describes the element itself. The exact notation should always be read in its context.

Imagine two routine notes: “double back” and “back layout + back tuck.” The first describes one element containing two somersaults. The second describes two named elements separated by a landing and another takeoff. Their total number of somersaults matches, but their organization does not. Counting only the total would lose the connection between skills.

That difference also helps when following requirements. A rule asking for a connection of elements is not necessarily satisfied by one element containing multiple rotations. Read what the rule actually counts: separate elements, somersaults within an element, or a particular kind of connection. These are different units.

Why a handspring is not simply another name for a salto

A handspring uses hand support during the movement. A salto’s somersaulting flight is unsupported. On vault, a complete vault can include both contact with the table and a salto after the hands leave it, so the phases need to be distinguished.

The same care helps on bars. A somersaulting dismount leaves the apparatus, while a release skill may include somersaulting action before the gymnast catches the bar again. “Salto” does not guarantee that every element finishes with a landing on the feet.

The tumbling-skills introduction provides the wider vocabulary for readers comparing rolls, handsprings and airborne skills.

Read apparatus and abbreviations before looking up a value

In official tables, “fwd” commonly shortens forward, “bwd” backward and “DMT” dismount. The apparatus heading supplies context that a copied line may omit. A somersaulting action on floor, a bars release and the second flight of a vault do not share one universal difficulty value merely because their descriptions contain similar words.

The FIG women’s Code provides a useful example of this organization: apparatus sections contain their own element groups and tables. Read the complete entry, including any stated alternatives. A code number without its apparatus can send a reader to an unrelated skill elsewhere in the document.

A named element can be another route to the same description. A commentator may use an athlete’s surname while the table spells out the movement. Do not assume the surname is a different skill merely because “salto” is absent from the spoken name. Confirm the exact variant before comparing it with another performance.

A basic word lookup also cannot establish whether a skill is allowed in a particular domestic level. The rulebook may limit its difficulty, apparatus use or role in a routine. Vocabulary identifies what the movement is; the program’s requirements determine whether and how it can be used.

For a first reading, it is enough to recover the action, direction, shape and counts. Keep the unresolved detail as a question rather than guessing. That approach makes a routine breakdown useful even before the reader knows every named skill or judging abbreviation.

In Short

Read “salto” as “somersault,” then use the surrounding words to identify the complete movement. Direction, shape, rotation count and apparatus role each add information; none can be reliably guessed from the word salto alone.