Gymnastics Explained
Twist
A rotation around the body's long axis (head to toe), added to a salto or vault and counted in half turns.
A twist turns the body around its long axis — the line from head to toe — while it’s in the air. Twists are added on top of a salto’s own rotation and counted in halves: a half twist (180°), a full (360°), one-and-a-half, a double, and so on. The women’s Code of Points calls them LA turns, for longitudinal axis.
Twists drive a large share of difficulty. On women’s floor in the 2025–2028 Code, a stretched back salto climbs from A with no twist to B with a full twist, C with a double, D with 2½ and E with a triple. On vault, a Yurchenko stretched rises from 3.60 with no twist to 5.40 with 2½ twists (the Amanar).
Twists must be completed before landing. Under-rotation is deducted, and a twist short by 90° or more is credited as a lower-value skill or vault.
Sources
- Women's Artistic Gymnastics — 2025-2028 Code of Points — International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) (accessed 31 August 2026)
- Men's Artistic Gymnastics — 2025-2028 Code of Points — International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) (accessed 31 August 2026)