Empty swing

On the swinging apparatus, every swing is supposed to do something. An empty swing is one that doesn’t.

• Women’s uneven bars: the 2025–2028 WAG Code defines an empty swing as a swing forward or backward without a skill from the Code before the swing reverses direction. An intermediate swing is an extra swing — such as a pump swing from front support — that isn’t needed to perform the next skill. Both are execution deductions, and either one between two skills (or after the second) cancels connection value. There’s a specific exception after Shaposhnikova-type elements.
• Men’s apparatus: the MAG Code defines an empty swing as a swing at the end of which no element is performed and no new support, hang position or grip is reached (a medium error), and an intermediate swing as two successive empty swings (a large error). A “layaway” — a back swing that simply reverses direction back down — is also deducted.

That’s why bar routines look so continuous: wasted swings cost both execution and, on women’s bars, difficulty.