International Terminology of Acrobatic Gymnastics

IV. Individual Elements

Individual Elements are those elements that are performed individually on the floor. They are less important than partner elements, give less value and in order to put more focus on the partner elements they have become optional in the senior level, while remaining mandatory in the age groups for reasons of skill development. Since this change in the rules many senior partnerships do not perform any individual elements anymore. Individual elements are divided into four categories: (1) Static/Balance, (2) Flexibility, (3) Agility and (4) Tumbling.

• Statics are individual balance elements like handstands, footstands or levers/supports performed on the floor. They have to be statically fixated for 2 seconds.
• Flexibilities are individual elements performed on the floor that are supposed to demonstrate a specific, standardised degree of flexibility, either statically in form of splits and bridges, or dynamically in movements such as walkovers. They do not have to be held and can just be entered shortly.
• Agilities are individual floor acro elements done from a standing or walking position and landing in a variety of positions, that are supposed to demonstrate agility. Some examples: A backhandspring from standing, landing in a lunge, a headspring with a 180° rotation into a plank, a salto from a standing position into side splits. Agilities differ from tumbling elements primarily through their setup of not running into it, not translating forward momentum into upward momentum (as done in tumbling).
• Tumbling are individual dynamic elements such as handsprings, somersaults and twists which, other than agilities, are performed with a run-up into them in succession by translating forward momentum into upward momentum. A typical example would be a Round-off → Backhandspring → Back Tuck.

Statics or Balance

• Statics are basically Balance Elements but held individually. All the handstands, footstands and support holds can be performed as individual static holds too (see Balance). But there are a few static holds which are only or mostly performed individually and not or rarely on partners, such as Forearmstands, Headstands or Cheststands. Additionally we will also list static holds that are not considered as elements in acrobatic gymnastics, but that are useful in course of the development of said elements and are therefore commonly used (or ought to be used as we think) in the strength and balance development of athletes, such as diverse yoga positions.
• Frogstand, Sanskrit “Bakasana”, …
• Crowstand, Sanskrit “Kakasana”, …
• Tuck Planche, Sanskrit “Lolasana”, …
• Entry refers to a specific way of entering a position on your own, such as a handstand (when entering a position on a partner, it is called a Mount). We are suggesting to distinguish between dynamic entries and strength entries, where an example for a dynamic entry into handstand would be to jump or swing into it, while an example for a strength entry would be a press to handstand.

Flexibilities

• Splits are a flexibility display and a position in which the legs form one line with the hips in the middle; the legs being 180° apart, either by sitting in a split or by actively holding the legs apart; Splits can be performed frontal (one leg forwards - in flexion - and one leg backwards - in extension) or sagittal, with both legs to the side (in abduction), thus being differentiated in Front Split and Side Split. The Side Split is also known as Middle Split, Horizontal Split or Sagittal Split.
  In German the Front Split is also commonly referred to as “Frauenspagat” (Womens Split), while the Side Split is known as “Herrenspagat” or “Männerspagat” (Mens Split) based on antiquated rules in gymnastics according to which girls were not allowed to perform the Side Split as it was considered inappropriate to sit with the legs spread apart sideways; it has not (as is commonly assumed due to these two antiquated terms), any anatomical background; we are therefore suggesting to ommit these two terms, as they are only causing confusion and refer to the splits as “Front” or “Frontal” and “Side” Splits instead. A Split with the legs apart wider than 180° is called an Oversplit (German: Überspagat).
• Bridge
• Backbend
• Pike
• Pancake

Agilities

…

Tumbling

• Tumbling in Acrobatic Gymnastics is a category of individual elements, which… “Tumbling” is also an official gymnastic sport on its own, compared to which Acrobatic Gymnasts only perform very basic tumbling passes. In Acro tumbling is only a small sequence in routines and since individual elements are only obligatory in the Age Groups and not (anymore) for Seniors, senior athletes often do not perform any tumbling at all in their routines, but it is kept in the Age Groups because it is considered essential to develop basic tumbling skills as a preparation of partner dynamics. Other than that, there are a few dynamic partner elements or sequences that are initiated by a tumbling pass, e.g. the famous Round-Off Salto or Twist unto the shoulders of the Base in Men’s Pairs, or the Round-Off Backhandspring into Cannonball, as sometimes shown by Mixed Pairs and Men’s Pairs.

• Round-Off
• Rondat, see Round-Off
• Salto, …
• Tuck, …
• Piked, …
• Straight, …

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