Layout

Layout is the most extended of the three salto shapes. The 2025–2028 men’s Code of Points defines a perfect straight position as one in which a line from the shoulders through the hips to the ankles is straight — or, during a moving skill, only very slightly bent. The women’s Code uses the word stretched.

Because there’s no fold at the hips or knees to help the rotation, a layout is generally the hardest of the three shapes to perform with control, and it often carries a higher value — a double layout on women’s floor is an E, against a D for a double tuck or pike. But not always: a single back salto on women’s floor is an A whether tucked, piked or stretched.

Judges expect the shape to be shown distinctly. A “layout” with bent knees is deducted, and in the men’s Code a straight skill performed with the knees bent 90° is treated as having a large error and isn’t recognised if that happens during the element.